B2C is not the only segment that can profit from more sales at Christmas time. Find out below which B2B marketing measures are particularly promising at Christmas and why you should be creative.
Boosting sales at Christmas
In nearly all industries within the retail sector, sales get a big boost at Christmas time. According to information from the Handelsverband Deutschland (German), consumer spending in the German retail sector amounted to roughly 119.5 billion euros at the end of 2022. Although Christmas shopping traditionally takes place in brick-and-mortar shops, the share of overall online sales at Christmas is approximately 17.6 per cent today.
In regards to the B2B sector, this classic Christmas business is only prevalent in certain industries. For instance, those selling complex, high-priced machines will not be able to sell them off at the end of the year simply because someone is looking for presents online. However, it is a different story for manufacturers of screws and other metalware, who can also profit, indirectly, from the increase in the sale of furniture as the year ends.
In every case, B2B entrepreneurs should take advantage of the time around Christmas to maintain relations and reinforce their brand(s). The measures below can help to ensure successful Xmas marketing.
A B2B strategy for the run-up to the new year
To push your B2B business one last time in the year, to reinforce relations with customers and to lay the foundation for the upcoming year, you can set up special campaigns, offer discounts and send out personalised emails or presents:
Send Christmas post
Christmas greetings to existing customers are a given for every B2B entrepreneur. To stand out within the mass of Christmas emails, you can go for a better solution and send an elaborately designed and personalised greeting card. For even more awareness, you can give a Christmas package featuring a present which the respective customer can ideally truly use or needs. Vouchers for the individual contact person are usually welcome, as well as sustainable gifts, which are all the trend today. However, entrepreneurs can only write off their presents to business partners up to a certain amount (35 euros in Germany, including non-deductible VAT, per person and year) from their company’s taxes.
Promote deals on the website and online shop
An own website serves as a business card for your company. So use it at Christmas – with a festive re-design and to offer special deals. A kind of Advent calendar, for instance with daily promotions such as discounts, are highly popular in the B2C segment but still quite rare in B2B. Similarly, your online shop can be branded for the season and feature pre-Christmas deals.
Create an email campaign for Christmas
To grab attention within the mass of newsletters which business partners are smothered with at the end of the year, your email campaign should be as individual as possible on the one hand, and score brownie points with attractive benefits on the other hand. Maybe there are seasonal products that are particularly popular in winter and can be offered at a reduced price. Or another idea: bring attention to your Xmas B2B online campaign in an initial email and then inspire interest among the recipients for emails to follow. A discount code for the online shop, for instance, can be built up from hints in all the emails of the campaign.
Offer Christmas competitions or prize draws
In the rather sober B2B environment, you can frequently grab attention by offering a competition or prize draw. The company who is able to get the most employees to dress up as Santa Clause in the office and gets a picture of this wins a prize – or similar activities. Such competitions are perfect for sharing and marketing via social media.
Do something for a good cause
Christmas time is also the time for giving. Whether in the form of a donation for a charity organisation or in the form of your own promotion, for example a certain per cent of the sales in December go to a social institution – your imagination knows no bounds. The main thing is that the donation activity is shared by customers and advertised in several ways. This not only helps to boost sales, but also your company’s image.
