Everyone talks about Christmas in July, but we like to talk about it in September. For the promotional products industry, trading in our boat shoes for holiday sweaters is pretty common this time of year—and it’s about to get real busy.

Before we know it, classic jingles will ring from TV ads and customers will craft gift lists full of products they need. From the corporate gifts of appreciation to holiday baking kits, and even the perfect mug for Santa’s milk, end buyers are looking for solutions during the holidays.

With a COVID-19 Christmas on the horizon and massive online marketplace to sell to, customers will be flocking to the internet for all of their holiday needs and you can be the next person they come to if you are willing to put in the work today.

Grab your notebook, here’s ZOOMcatalog’s Holiday Selling 101.

A Christmas Story about COVID-19

Before we can jump in and talk promotional products, let’s first make sure we are on the same page. This holiday season could look a little different than previous years. With COVID-19 still looming and businesses staying closed or remote, customers have different needs and ranging budgets. 

Businesses are going to be looking for ways to connect with employees and show appreciation for their work. They’ll want to give some love to clients and ambassadors with holiday bundles and branded merchandise. And don’t forget about those essential businesses that need to keep workers safe during the holiday rush. 

As you can see, the potential for selling is massive if you think creatively about your next holiday marketing campaign. Identify the right products, customize a digital catalog or flyer, and share it with the world–that is the recipe for finding success this holiday season.

Allow us to break it down for you…

Make life easier for your customers.

The goal of any promotional product business should be to make the lives of their customers better—simple enough, right? That’s where many overthink it and try to sell more, push further, and add that one extra product to the cart. This is especially amplified during the holidays.

Instead of pushing customers to your products, shape those products as an answer to their particular needs.

Do they want to make it easier to take a corporate Christmas photo? They could send Christmas-colored polos and branded backdrops to all of the employees in their remote locations.

Do your customers want to start a virtual holiday workout program—be the distributor that supplies all the merchandise. What about an at-home activity with their kids? Hook them up with a cookie and brownie baking gift set.

Maybe they want to give the best gift to warm up on a cold winter day. There you are with a personalized holiday mug or cozy blanket.

The goal with your marketing should be to provide your customers with answers to every need they have throughout the holidays. Sometimes, they don’t even know what they need until they see it right in front of them–that’s where your customized catalogs and flyers come into play.

Play to different markets.

A large bank doesn’t have the same holiday needs as a personal training business. That’s why it’s important to craft your marketing to work in different verticals. There are always going to be customers who want to see everything you can source, but more often than not, they want you to recommend the perfect solution. Do the thinking for them and provide ideas that fit their business.

Don’t limit yourself to a single supplier catalog for every client. Look for multiple target markets to serve up your products and customize the right catalogs and flyers to capture those customers.

Pick the proper presents (products) to promote.

Look back at your annual holiday sales and first identify those products that have sold year over year without fail—those are your base items. From there think about what your target market is craving, the current environment, and what’s trending.

For instance, kits are a hot potential this year with everyone doing more at home. These can be baking kits, holiday decoration kits, home movie night kits, you name it. People are going to be in their homes during the holidays and need things to do—a kit keeps people occupied and active during those long days with family. These kits provide an entire experience, something we wrote about in this blog.

Another major focus for businesses is corporate gifts. Every employee and client deserves to be recognized and appreciated. With businesses operating remotely, employee camaraderie is going to be an even bigger holiday priority for employers who want to keep their people engaged.

Get ahead this holiday season.

We can already hear the sleigh bells in the distance, so what are you waiting for? Get ahead of the game this holiday season and serve up customized catalogs and flyers using the ZOOMcatalog holiday marketing tools. Incorporate them into your marketing initiatives and use them on social media, your website, in email campaigns, on your blog, and so on.

If you’re interested in learning more about how you can leverage digital catalogs to crush it this holiday season, set up a meeting with our team and we would be happy to walk through some strategy with you.