Three ways to Prepare Your Business for the Holiday Season: Community, Social and Branding
The holiday season always sneaks up on me and this year is no exception. I spend most of November thinking that it’s still September and after nearly 4 years of business, I keep hoping that I’ve learn my lesson but every year I put off my Holiday to-do list until December…
why is it important to prepare your business for Christmas?
There’s lots of holiday noise around the holiday period. Following these steps will allow you to take time to:
Celebrate with your clients
Communicate your intentions clearly
And make the most of the holiday buzz by creating content that shines a light on not only you and what you offer, but the joy of the season.
In the examples below, we can see an example of Holiday Packaging from the Body Shop, a subtle photography-focused campaign by John Lewis and a fun collection of products from Oliver Bonas.
So if you’re like me and have left your holiday planning to the last minute (yet again!), here are three ways to prepare your business for the holiday season:
Your Community - communicate to your customers and clients
Communicate any changes to your business over the holiday season - Are you operating longer holiday hours or closing for certain days? Make sure to add these to your website or social media to make them as clear to your audience as possible.
Communicate any annual leave - I really love communicating my annual leave as soon as possible so I tend to add a line to my email footer in early December and then be sure to check in with my clients so they know what my holidays will look like and answer any questions they have. This gives me a chance to chat with them about timelines and discuss if anything needs to be picked up in January.
Celebrate and give back to your clients or collaborators - Last year I planted extra trees for my clients as a way to give back during the holiday season and I’ve also been known to send wee gifts to collaborators or other designers that have worked with me or helped me during the year. Consider if you want to take this approach by giving a little gift to your clients, offering a holiday discount or a New Year deal or even donating to charity on their behalf!
Social Media - What can your social media do this holiday season?
Celebration Posts - Take a minute to celebrate the holidays or new year with your clients and wish them well! I also like to add a “holiday style” to my social posts by adding holiday graphics and colours that I don’t use the rest of the year.
Schedule out your social media for the full season - trust me!! - In the past, I used to create Christmas graphics and social posts and think to myself “I’ll just post these manually on Christmas Eve” and to noone’s surprise, by the time Christmas Eve is here I’m on my second bottle of wine and too busy playing scrabble to follow through on my plans. So, do yourself a favor and get a few things scheduled, even if it’s just one post for the full week.
End of year wrap - I really love an end-of-year reflection post, it can be a great time to communicate how thankful you are for the year we’ve just had and outline any future plans for the upcoming year.
Use of ‘Christmas’ vs ‘Holidays’ - Consider if you would like to reframe ‘Christmas’ to ‘the Holidays’ to be more inclusive to clients who may celebrate other holidays. For example, where I live in the Netherlands, Christmas is very beloved but they also celebrate Sinterklass in early December! So adjusting your language can be helpful if you have lots of clients abroad or are looking to be as inclusive as possible.
Consistency is king - When thinking about your branding in a ‘holiday style’ be sure to make sure your graphics, colours and social media posts about the holidays all feel consistent and connected. Consistency helps build brand recognition and show care and thoughtfulness to any brand.
Your Branding (Holiday Version):
Holiday Cards - The end of the year and holiday season can be a lovely time to connect with clients or customers and thank them for working with you by sending them a holiday email, happy new year email or even a handwritten card! You can also outline your wishes and goals for the year ahead. For product-based businesses you could start to add holiday postcards into your orders that wish your customers all the best for the holiday season and use this a way to communicate New Year sales or plans to them.
Holiday-themed branding and marketing - If you are looking to build momentum for the holiday season, a great way to do this is to tweak your branding to a “holiday version” and use this as early as November to keep the Holidays front of your customer’s mind. You can do this by adding holiday-themed graphics to your brand and website, such as snowflakes or presents, or you can tweak your colours to a new ‘holiday’ colour palette. This strategy is really common in larger high-street shops such as Body Shop or Starbucks. They make subtle tweaks to their branding, opt for deeper winter colours or add holiday stickers to their products and websites.
I find that most service-based businesses don’t lean into this trend as much we like to take breaks over the quieter holiday season - however if you are looking to add a bit of holiday cheer into your branding, you could also opt for leaning into seasonal colours as the holidays get closer, creating holiday icons for your social media or adding seasonal messaging to your website.Holiday packaging or products - Similar to above, adjusting packaging to reflect the holiday season and start using it in October or November can be a really helpful way to remind your clients of the upcoming festivities and encourage them to get started on their Christmas shopping early. For holiday packaging, I usually recommend clients start thinking about this as early as May or June, to ensure that everything can be printed ahead of time and ready to go! You can also order for a few years so that you can cut the cost per unit down. Here are some quick ideas that might come in handy for next year!
Your packaging in holiday colours with snowflakes, ribbons or present graphics.
Holiday Ribbons
Holiday Tissue Papper
Advent Calendars or mini-stocking fillers
Holiday themed products, flavours or combinations.
POS and In-store signage to communicate holiday messaging.
Consistency is king part two! - When thinking about your branding in a ‘holiday style’ be sure to make sure your graphics, colours and social media posts about the holidays all feel consistent and connected. Consistency helps build brand recognition and show care and thoughtfulness to any brand.
And there you have it! Remember to take what you need and feel free to leave anything that doesn’t apply to your business or feels like too much at this time. The holidays can be a joyful time of year, but they can also be busy, work heavy and full of stress. So instead of trying to do everything, pick a few things that feel important and do those really well.
If you would like to chat more about holiday branding, your design in general or perhaps getting your packaging ready for next christmas, you can contact me here, look at my packages here or come say hi over on social!
Hey! I’m Amy, and this is Begin Studio.
Here I create unique, thoughtful brands for businesses in the UK and beyond. I work on projects of all sizes, from branding pieces to packaging, websites and even social media. I also run a small blog with resources for new designers and graduates who are just starting out in the freelance world.
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