Plan your Christmas promotions, and take advantage of what is a busy time for tradies. It would be complacent to think that your competitors won’t be frantically promoting their business to lure your customers.
Here are 8 promotional tips to help your trade business, gain, convert and retain your customers:
1. X% off
It’s a promotional tactic as old as they come. There is no doubt consumers are lured by discounts. If you decide to use a discount promotion, be smart about it – don’t offer the same discounts as your competitors. Make sure you reward your A-grade customers.
2. Gift cards
Gift cards or certificates are another way of sparking interest among your customers. Consider limiting the gift cards to a particular range of stock, or limited to particular services. These could go in the form of an email or mailed newsletter to existing customers.
3. 12 days of Christmas
Why not tie an overtly Christmas theme into your promotions? For example, launch a ‘12 days of Christmas’ drive. Offer a different discounted service on each of the 12 days in the lead up to Christmas. This will allow you to expose a broad range of your service to customers and push loyal customers towards new services. Just make sure you carefully plan ahead for this.
If a customer calls about a promotion they saw within these 12 days, do them a ‘favour’ and give them the discount even if they haven’t booked in on that particular day. Not only will you win their loyalty but you’ll also be seen as a ‘good’ person/business.
4. Chance To win
When providing a receipt to your customers, why not use the opportunity for an innovative promotional offer? For example, you could ask big-spending customers to put their receipts in a draw to win some kind of Christmas gift (Christmas hamper, movie tickets, or other!) or additional service.
5. Target your best customers
Send reliable customers a more personal offer in the lead-up to Christmas. Making customers feel special is an ideal way of getting them to spend that little extra during the busy and expensive festive season.
6. Hold a special event
Another way to make your VIP customers feel valued, is to hold an invite-only event. You can create a Christmas feel to the event while driving sales with well-targeted discounts on your services and products.
7. Hampers
The good old hamper, a traditional favourite, customer hampers can be tailored to suit individual customers. They also provide an opportunity to market your business and any offers you want to promote.
8. Team up with another business
Christmas is the ideal time for packaged offers. Identify another business to team up with in order to provide a joint service or experience that is offered to customers at a discount. You should also consider contributing to the work of a charity. Both of these activities will boost the image of your brand while extending the reach of your offer.
Whilst these promotions are technically Christmas promotions, they can also be used to boost what could be a slow start to the New Year! Some tradies often find the start to the year is slow due to customers having no money left after Christmas. Your Christmas promotion although gifted at Christmas time, could be valid from January 1st or valid to January 31st.
Don’t be a scrooge. Time to start thinking about what your trade business is going to offer up this Christmas to make your customers (and your businesses) a merry one. Interested in learning about marketing ideas without breaking the budget?
What’s next?
- Join our Kick-Ass Tradies Facebook Group, for access to trade business specific conversations, tips and resources, plus a like-minded community of tradies.
- Book a 15-minute Game Plan Call with Andy, owner of Dr. DRiP plumbing and co-founder of Lifestyle Tradie, to clarify your priorities and get clear action steps.
