There’s nothing like a quaint bookstore during the holiday season. It’s almost a scene right out of a Hallmark movie! However, if you want your bookstore’s winter wonderland atmosphere to be seen by more people (and make more sales), you need to do some marketing. Here are four Christmas marketing tips to help you promote your bookstore this holiday season.
Craft an email campaign
Sending an email as a marketing campaign might seem outdated, but just like local bookstores, they’re still the best at what they do! In fact, they have one of the highest returns on investment of any marketing platform with an average $36 return for every $1 spent! And even better, there are plenty of Christmas email templates available to help you design a professional-looking email without needing professional-level skills.
All you need to design a great Christmas email marketing campaign for your bookstore is to find a template that fits your theme, fill in your information, and download the completed file. Then, just fill in the contacts on your favorite email management platform and hit the send button. It’s as easy as that!
Email marketing is all about consistency. One email won’t make your holiday season. Design and schedule several emails to promote different aspects or events of your bookstore all through the month of December. The more you keep your bookstore top of mind for your customers (or top of inbox, rather), the more likely they’ll remember to visit you next time they’re in town.
Harness the power of nostalgia
Nobody can resist a good trip down memory lane, and parents love to buy books for their kids as Christmas presents. Why not use that knowledge to promote popular children’s holiday books from the past?
Nostalgia is a powerful marketing force, especially during the holidays. If you promote some of the older Christmas classics, people will want to buy them just to remember the simpler times. Parents will also likely want to share their favorite books from yesteryear with their kids. Send a few Christmas emails promoting popular holiday classics (especially children’s picture books) or add a few more in-store promotions centered around nostalgic books.
Not only can you make a few more sales by promoting nostalgic books, but you can also help spread some Christmas cheer as parents and children share classic stories and make new family memories. That’s a win for everyone!
Holiday-themed giveaways
Giveaways are a great way to extend your marketing reach and get more people into your bookstore. Just pick a prize that most people would want (tote bag, free book, gift card, etc.), come up with a fun contest, and spread the word.
Most giveaways these days are done online, specifically through social media. Tell your followers that if they comment on a post and like your page (for example), they’ll be entered to win the prize. Once the contest is over, you pick a winner and give them the prize.
Giveaways are a great Christmas marketing tactic in two ways. First, they help you extend your marketing reach online. Not only does it require more people to interact with your social media posts and follow your page, but all your followers will also want to share your post with their friends, extending your reach even farther.
Second, giveaways get more people into your store. When someone wins, they have to come into your store to pick up the prize. More often than not, the winner will likely browse around a bit, talk to you about the store, and enjoy the cozy bookstore atmosphere — especially when it’s decorated for Christmas! There’s a good chance they’ll buy something else. At the very least, they’ll see how cute your store is — and how friendly the shopkeeper is — and make your store their go-to whenever they want to buy books in the future.
Many bookstores like to do a Christmas-themed giveaway during the holidays. For example, the 12 days of gifts. You can give away a different Christmas book for each of the twelve days leading up to Christmas. That’s twelve chances to get more people to share your social media posts and twelve new people to visit your store. It’s a great bookstore marketing tactic for the holidays.
Promote your gift cards
Books make great gifts, but it’s not always easy to pick out a book for someone else. You might not know what they like to read! That’s why the holiday season is a great time to promote your gift cards.
Gift cards make ideal Christmas gifts for anyone. And since they can be ordered online, people from all over can buy them for their friends and family in the area. That opens up your customer base to basically the entire world!
Again, one of the best ways to promote your bookstore to an audience beyond your local town is to use social media and online ads. The wider you can cast your marketing net, the more gift cards you can sell for the holidays. Bonus points for making your gift cards Christmas themed!
Get more customers in your bookstore this holiday season
There’s no place like a local bookstore to spread some holiday cheer this Christmas season. To get more people through the door, don’t forget to use Christmas email templates to send holiday promotional emails, use nostalgia to sell Christmas classics, run a holiday-themed giveaway, and promote your gift cards to people from all over. If you take advantage of these marketing tips, you’ll be able to spread more Christmas cheer with the power of books this holiday season.
