Christmas Promotion Ideas That Turn Your Sale Into a Party
Most Christmas promotion ideas are basically a few graphics with some Christmas colours slapped on them. Slash a price, post about it, slash another, post again, and keep going until you hit new year. Christmas is the one time of year people are genuinely itching to spend, often quite happily at full price. Which means you may not have to discount at all. You just have to make buying feel like fun. So why run your festive sale like a pound (or dollar) store when you could run it like a party?
That is the whole idea here. Stop thinking marketing campaign. Start thinking celebration. A sale with a bit of theatre added to it, a drip of anticipation, a few surprises along the way, and an exciting finish. So, in the spirit of a party, I thought it would be fun to share some Christmas promotion ideas that you can run like a fun party or event. Plus, I’ll share how to set the whole thing up, using a really cool tool I made, so it does not take up all of December, to make sure you have time to do your own Christmas shopping.
Why a daily surprise works so well
Most holiday promotion ideas skip the best bit, the little thrill of a surprise waiting to be opened. Think back to your childhood advent calendar. I’m showing my age here, because I got the plain card ones with just a picture behind each door. But I still could not wait to open the next one, because I had no idea what the picture would be. That was the whole fun of it.
A sale can work the same way. When there is something new to uncover each day, people come back to look. Not because you nagged them, but because they want to see what is behind today's door. That pull does the work a dozen sales emails cannot.
Your emails and your social posts still matter here. They point people to your Christmas offer and keep it front of mind. The difference is they are inviting people to something fun, not the same discount for the tenth time.
Run a sale, throw an event
Swap one word and everything changes. You are not running a sale. You are throwing an event.
Events give people FOMO. You can hint about things without giving the game away. People have to click through to see what you are hinting at. They encourage people to engage. People want to know what is going to happen next.
Sure, you can run a sale, send an email that says "20% off, ends Sunday".
But ask yourself if people are more likely to click through if you send an email that says, "What’s inside the Christmas Countdown today?"
Especially if there is a mix of discounts, competitions, giveaways and special offers. It’s more interesting. And I don’t know about you, but curiosity always gets the best of me!
What turns a few flash sales into an event
A few things.
Anticipation. Keep deals hidden until their day comes - exactly like an advent calendar. A wrapped deal will bring folk back far harder than a product and price they can already see.
Timed releases. Let deals open gradually on a schedule rather than all at once. It keeps your event fresh.
A countdown clock. Deadlines move people. When a deal visibly closes at a set time, "I'll think about it" turns into "I'll grab it now".
A theme. Festive colours, playful names, a bit of sparkle. It should feel like your shop or brand in a party hat.
Playfulness. The cheeky deal name. The confetti when something opens. The small touches that make buying feel like fun rather than a hard sell.
You don’t need to have all of these together (although you can with this). Just two or three of these lift a sale from being just another discount to something people want to be a part of.
Christmas promotion ideas that work as an event
Here are a few ideas for you to consider. Obviously you have to consider how many products you have to offer and how much energy you fancy giving it. You also have to consider if you just want to sell or if you want to grow your audience or surprise and delight your existing audience as a part of your event.
Oh and most of these will work in some capacity whether you sell physical products or digital products. Some could even work for bloggers or influencers using affiliate links.
A deal a day flash sale. One new deal a day in the run-up to Christmas. It is the advent calendar of sales, and people will genuinely set reminders for it. You could do a 12 days of Christmas event or 24 days just like an advent calendar.
The advent reveal. Similar to the deal a day drop. Every day unwraps a surprise, but not all of them are items you are selling. Some days you offer a free guide or a giveaway. The fun is in not knowing what is behind the door until it opens.
The weekend flash sale. Short, sharp, and brilliant if you are time-poor. Opens Friday evening, closes Sunday night.
The mystery deal. One big offer kept wrapped until the day it drops. This could be great if you are launching something new. Tease it for a week or two by releasing content that encourages engagement, things like quizzes, treasure hunts, cryptic clues. This can all be a part of your event.
The end of year clear-out. Perfect for the quiet week between Christmas and New Year. Shift the last of your stock while everyone is in a fresh-start mood, you can also keep it ticking over into January.
The bundle party. Group your products into limited edition themed bundles and release them every day or every few days. Great if you sell lots of smaller things.
The giveaway or competition. Not every day has to cost your customer a penny. Drop in a free gift, a prize draw, or a quick quiz or competition. These are gold for pulling in new people, because entering is easy and sharing comes naturally or could even be part of the competition. You could do an event that is purely full of fun free things to build good will and grow your email list. Or you could combine it with something like The Advent Launch and do some selling too.
The collab drop. Team up with another business or several businesses for a joint event. You each bring your own audience, you cross-promote to each other's people, and everyone walks away with new followers as well as sales. One of the easiest ways to grow while you sell.
Which one feels fun to you?
Make it feel fun and festive
As a product designer, I’ve always cared about how things look. But I think for an event like this, looks matter. You want your event’s look to match the occasion.
With The Sellebration System you can set your colours for the whole event.
If your brand colours don’t really work for a Christmas or holiday event I would use Pinterest to get started. Find Christmas designs that would work alongside your brand. Create a secret board so you can keep them all together. Then upload to a tool like Canva so you can grab the hex codes of those colours.
Within The Sellebration System you can even set the colours of a burst of confetti when a deal opens.
You also want to give your event name some thought. "The Twelve Treats of Christmas" sounds more compelling than "December Discounts", plus it’s fun to brainstorm name ideas.
Set it up then let the event run
So how do you practically run an event like this?
I recommend you plan out all of your deals and treats in one go. Give each a name, a price (even if it is free), a photo or video if you have one, and the time window it should appear. Then make sure that your checkout is set up for the flash sale. Or make sure you have a page with competition or giveaway information.
Next you need a place to host your event. Where it all comes together. Something that makes your event fun. That’s where The Sellebration System comes in. It’s a tool that has been built specifically to help you to do this.
Plus I’ve provided a Notion database template and Google Sheets template where you can plan your event first.
Then all you need to do is upload your CSV file to the tool, check the details are correct and then set your time zones, styling colours and name your event. You can copy the code to use on your own website or you can download an HTML file and use a free hosting platform like Netlify to host your event.
Each deal stays wrapped until its time comes and closes by itself when it is done. You schedule your emails and social media posts that point to the event page. Then step back and let it run while you go eat a mince pie (is that just a British thing?)
If you want to see the system in action
If you want to see how you set up the Sellebration System, there is a video over here that is taken from the walkthrough videos that go with the system. I’d love to know if you can think of any more fun ways to use this system. Let me know in the comments.
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