With the holiday season comes tons of fun ways to mix it up in your business, and one of the best opportunities to do this is through maximizing the 12 Days of Christmas. How many television channels have upped their viewership by playing feel-good holiday movies for days on end? If they can do it, we can do it, too.
Now, the 12 Days of Christmas isn’t all about sales, and I’m not going to be mad if you decide a big holiday sale is not in your lane or your budget. You can also use it as an engagement tool or to grow your following. Your 12 Days of Christmas strategy is all about you and your goals, so you can make it whatever you want it to be. Let’s dig into some ideas!
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DEFINE YOUR PURPOSE
If you’ve been hanging out with me for more than a few minutes, you knew I was going to say this first. Decide on what you’re trying to accomplish for your business with a 12 Day of Christmas promotion. The best way to do this? Look at those big goals you set for yourself this year and determine where you may need the most significant boost.
Some ways you can use it to your advantage include:
- Sales – at the end of the day, a lot of our goals as direct sellers are centered around selling products and reaching income goals. There is no shame in trying to bring in some year-end cash flow.
- Education – you may be with a brand that’s relatively new to the market, and you can use this opportunity to share more about your company with those you’ve interacted with and encourage them to share with friends. It’s also a great time to educate your followers on other uses for your products!
- Holiday Fun – Friend, not everything has to be serious money-making. If you love the holidays and want to keep it light and fun all season long, do it!
- Grow Your Followers – As you may know, I grew my direct sales business primarily online. You could use this opportunity to grow your customer group, business page, Instagram followers, or email list.
- An Umbrella Strategy – Maybe you want a little bit of all of the above, and that’s okay, too! Use the 12 Days of Christmas as an umbrella strategy to blow your year-end goals out of the water.
Take a step back and think hard about what you want to accomplish. This is your jumping-off point for success, so take a sec and write it down. You know, like a real goal. Make sure it’s specific and measurable because if you have nothing to measure, how will you know if it was successful? Go ahead. Write it down. I’ll wait here…
DECIDE WHEN & WHERE
After you have your goal nailed down, decide when to run your 12 Days of Christmas promotions and on what platform. There’s no right or wrong way to do it, so choose what works best for your schedule. If you want to run it before the holiday, so you can take the last two weeks of the year off, do it! If you’re going to run it over the holidays so people can use those gift cards to buy up some fun stuff, that works well too.
Side Note – I know the 12 Days of Christmas actually starts on Christmas Day, but let’s be real here. Who wants to work on Christmas? Most companies have holiday shipping deadlines well before Christmas Day, so early is better!
THEMES, THEMES, THEMES!
Y’all know how much I love a good theme. Get into it! Play it up! Change your Facebook page banner, create matching graphics, or grab some of our pre-made 12 Days of Christmas bundles. If you haven’t heard me say this before, I’ll say it again – 80% of what we consume on Facebook is on our personal feed. This is why your graphics need to pop out and stop someone from scrolling to take a peek.
And yes, I know the 12 Days of Christmas is already a theme but decide what type of content you’ll share during those 12 days. Here are some ideas I love:
- 12 days of stocking stuffers
- 12 days of holiday recipes
- 12 days of holiday food prep tips
- 12 days of discounts
- 12 days of live tips, tricks, and how-tos
- 12 days of holiday bundles
- 12 days of prep tasks leading up to the holidays – think cleaning, shopping, cooking, crafting – this could be anything!
- 12 things to do with kids when they’re out of school (Hello! We all need this one!)
- 12 games to play
- 12 Christmas movies
- 12 books to read – kids or adults!
- 12 days of relaxation
- 12 days of self-care
- 12 days of business tips – team leaders! Share business-building tips with your team. Their success is your success. If they’re selling, that is an income-producing activity for you, too!
You can mix some of these up for a bit of variety or come up with your ideas!
A Word of Caution: One caution I’ll throw out there is that if you’re doing a huge promo for Black Friday or Small Business Saturday, you may want to be a little more subtle with your selling during 12 Days of Christmas. You don’t want to make your customer group feel icky if you’re just saying buy this, buy that, discount on this for weeks on end. That’s not adding value, and you risk people tuning out. I love a good deal just like the next person, but make sure you mix up your selling with education, fun, tips, and tricks. That’s called soft-selling, and people will appreciate you changing it up!
PUT IT ALL TOGETHER
If your head is about to explode, I totally get it. It’s a lot to take in! But don’t worry, simply share some value, and you’ll be able to get people to follow you in all the places! Make sense?
I’m curious to hear! How will you work the 12 Days of Christmas into your end-of-the-year marketing?
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Want a proven plan for growing your direct sales business without feeling like you're chasing your tail? The Direct Sellers Business Blueprint explains the 4 key areas you must master to build a simplified, systematic business. It will even tell you which area to tackle first, so you can stop feeling overwhelmed or confused about what to do next. The best part? It's completely FREE!
Mary Haynes is a highly successful direct sales leader turned strategist and coach. Her passion is helping party plan people streamline and scale their businesses using simple, proven strategies. Her goal is to eliminate business overwhelm so direct sellers know exactly what to do and when to do it. Mary is also a homeschooling mama that lives in sunny Florida with her husband, 4 kiddos, 2 dogs, and various other backyard animals.
