holiday marketing

‘Tis the Season: Holiday Marketing for B2B Startups

While there’s always a lot of buzz around retail and B2C businesses preparing for the holiday sales season, you hear much less of it for B2B. But even if your customers are other businesses, now is the time to take advantage of what can be quite a lucrative selling season. Even if you aren’t selling products that are holiday-centric, many businesses need to wrap up their budgets by December 31, and thus are perfectly aligned with your marketing messages at the end of the year. Strategize how you’ll connect with your customers through holiday marketing tactics, and you can help them empty out their budgets while boosting your bottom line.

Take advantage of holiday themes

Whether it’s conscious or not, people (even when they’re wearing their business hats) are susceptible to holiday-themed marketing. Pull at their heartstrings by using Santa, snowmen, gifts and the ilk in your marketing.

Your email newsletter could have a holiday image overlay on top of your brand logo. You could do the same with your social media profiles. Anywhere you can inject some festivity, do so.


Related: How to Make the Most of Your Holiday Email Marketing

Make your holiday marketing urgent

While, of course, you can sell your product any time of year, creating a sense of urgency at year’s end can help you sell more. Whether you’re “making room for 2018’s new models” or encouraging people to “start the New Year off with a top-of-the-line printer,” you make people feel like they shouldn’t wait to make that purchase.

Any sales or promotions should have deadlines so that people feel compelled to go ahead and make that purchase. If you sell larger-cost items like printers, start your marketing early so that your customers have time to get approval from the powers that be.

Get out in your community

The holidays are filled with community-driven events like Small Business Saturday or festivals. Even if attendees are consumers, realize that these people have day jobs, and you never know who might return on Monday to become a customer.

Hand out candy canes for the little ones and hold a giveaway for a lust-worthy product. Remember: it’s about being seen as part of your community, so find ways to give back.

Make your customers feel appreciated

Don’t neglect your existing customers this time of year. Now is the ideal time to give clients thoughtful gifts or even take them out for an appreciation dinner. Taking the time to thank them for their continued support can go a long way to bolstering those business relationships, encouraging referrals and keeping your clients coming back for your great service.


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Offer free shipping

If you sell products, leverage the free shipping found on so many consumer sites this time of year, and you’ll be guaranteed to see an uptick in sales. You can even participate in Free Shipping Day on December 15, when businesses all across the country offer it for one day. Because it’s a national event, you might attract more business than you otherwise would.

If you’re worried about shipping costs eating up too much of your profit, set a threshold limit that shoppers have to spend before they qualify for the free shipping.

Start your holiday marketing plan now so that you’re ready to take advantage of the increase in sales you’ll experience at year’s end.

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