The holiday season provides a huge opportunity for businesses to connect with customers and drive sales.
Did you know that nearly 25% of annual sales occur during November and December?
Well, you do now. You can make the most of the Christmas shopping fever with proper planning and creative marketing ideas.
In this post, we’ll share 10 of the best Christmas marketing ideas you can use to drive sales.
If you can implement even a few of these around the holidays, your sales can be significantly boosted
7 Christmas Marketing Ideas for Businesses
We know you’ve most likely used gift cards in the past. It’s time to take it a notch higher with these Christmas promotion ideas.
1. Interactive Advent Calendar
An interactive Advent Calendar is a fantastic tool for Christmas marketing, offering a playful way to engage audiences throughout the holiday season.
With Adact, you can place different interactive campaigns behind each “door” of the calendar, giving users a new surprise every day.
These campaigns could range from quizzes, mini-games, and polls to unique discounts and holiday giveaways—perfect for building anticipation and excitement among your audience.
This format encourages daily interaction, keeps customers coming back, and creates a fun, memorable brand experience that boosts engagement.
With Adact’s gamification software, brands can customize each campaign to fit their unique look and feel, creating an Advent Calendar that truly resonates with their audience and elevates their holiday marketing strategy.
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2. Holiday themed minigame
Launching a Christmas-themed branded minigame is a fantastic way to capture holiday excitement and increase customer engagement during your Christmas marketing campaign.
These festive games, whether a holiday trivia, themed memory match, or a classic reindeer chase, bring joy to users while subtly promoting your brand.
They encourage users to spend more time interacting with your business, building brand loyalty in a fun, memorable way.
With Adact, creating these custom-branded minigames is quick and easy. Adact’s platform allows you to design and launch games that align perfectly with your brand’s holiday spirit, making it simple to add personalized logos, icons, and messaging.
This enables you to connect with your audience through a unique, interactive experience that boosts engagement and spreads festive cheer.
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3. Limited-edition holiday products
Limited-edition seasonal products help create excitement and a fear of missing out, prompting sales.
You can introduce festive limited-release items. This could be gift sets, gift baskets, packaging, wreaths, Christmas baked goods, ornaments, and more. These should only be available during the holiday season.
Promote these creatively on your website and catalog to draw attention. Let customers know the products are only available for a very limited time.
You can also build hype on social media by giving sneak peeks leading up to the launch date. Limited products give existing shoppers a reason to buy again.
4. Surprise gift scratch-card with every purchase
A small freebie or free gift added to every Christmas purchase can surprise and delight customers. It shows them you care about giving them joy, not just making sales.
The ‘free gift’ helps make customers feel appreciated while allowing you to clear older, less-popular inventory.
For example, you can add a small classic Christmas cookie box to orders over $50. Or a free festive greeting card can accompany jewelry purchases during Christmas week.
Get creative with adding small relevant freebies depending on your products. Just make sure what you give is useful, suits your brand image, and doesn’t significantly eat into margins. You could also offer free shipping.
But instead of just handing out a present we recommend creating a Scratchcard where people can scratch and win their present.
This increases the open rate, click through rate and engagement by over 10x.
5. Holiday email marketing campaigns
Well-designed email campaigns allow you to engage customers and build your email list. You won’t be intruding on their personal space.
Christmas newsletters, fun quizzes, Christmas countdown emails, early access to sales events, and gift recommendation emails are all great options.
Emails should educate and entertain readers on trends and gift ideas rather than always push sales.
For example, as an apparel brand, you can recommend matching Christmas pajamas for the whole family. An electronics retailer can share tech gift ideas at different budgets.
The 12-days of Christmas style email series, where you send useful content for 12 continuous days, works very well too. Just ensure your emails are mobile-responsive, personalized, and relevant to the recipient.
This is a great holiday marketing opportunity at this time of the year.
6. Collaborate with micro-influencers
Micro-influencers are personalities with smaller but highly engaged social followings under 100,000 followers. They often have immense credibility in their tight-knit community.
They can promote your holiday collections or events, which can prove very effective.
Rather than asking them to make direct sales pitch posts, encourage natural-sounding recommendations of your products.
For instance, you can send them a holiday PR package with several complementary products.
Then, they can style and photograph the products in creative ways that suit their channel content style. This native approach avoids sounding overly promotional.
With adact you can launch a game experience and ask your micro influencers to play the game and invite people to participate to challenge the influencer!
7. Christmas Plinko Lottery Game
A personal favourite is a Plinko game over Christmas marketing!
Launching an online Plinko game with Adact is a creative way to spread Christmas cheer and reward your customers with fun, instant prizes!
This classic game of chance brings excitement and anticipation as users drop their Plinko chip to see where it lands, uncovering prizes such as discounts, exclusive products, or holiday-themed gifts.
It’s a simple yet effective way to engage your audience and encourage them to interact with your brand.
With Adact’s platform, setting up a customized Plinko game is quick and easy, allowing you to add your brand’s festive design elements, logo, and holiday messages.
Not only does this create a memorable experience, but it also boosts brand loyalty by making customers feel appreciated and rewarded during the holiday season.
Conclusion
The holiday season is a golden opportunity for businesses to elevate their brand, engage with customers, and drive impressive sales through creative and interactive marketing strategies.
By incorporating gamified elements like Advent Calendars, Christmas-themed minigames, and Plinko lottery games with Adact, brands can offer unique, memorable experiences that resonate with audiences and keep them coming back for more.
Adact’s easy-to-use platform enables businesses to quickly set up custom, branded games that add a festive touch to their marketing.
As customers seek holiday joy and value, interactive games make them feel rewarded and appreciated, leading to increased brand loyalty and, ultimately, a successful holiday sales season.
Sales gamification tools FAQ
1. How does gamification marketing benefit Christmas campaigns?
Gamification marketing, like interactive Advent Calendars and holiday minigames, boosts engagement and retention by offering a fun, memorable experience that captures the festive spirit. Adact enables brands to easily create custom games that connect with audiences and enhance brand loyalty through repeat interactions, ultimately driving more holiday sales.
2. What types of interactive games can I create with Adact for Christmas?
With Adact, you can create a variety of games, from interactive Advent Calendars to holiday-themed minigames like trivia, memory games, or Plinko lottery games. These customizable options let you add your brand’s logo, colors, and festive elements, allowing you to deliver a unique, engaging experience that resonates with your audience.
3. How quickly can I set up a Christmas game using Adact?
Adact’s platform is designed for quick and efficient setup, allowing you to launch a fully branded holiday game in no time. You can select from a range of customizable game templates, make adjustments to fit your brand’s style, and go live with your campaign—all within a few simple steps.
4. Can gamified Christmas marketing help increase customer loyalty?
Absolutely! Gamified Christmas campaigns engage customers with enjoyable experiences, making them feel appreciated and valued. This creates positive associations with your brand, encouraging repeat interactions and building long-term customer loyalty. Adact’s interactive games are a great way to keep customers coming back during the holiday season.
5. Is an interactive Advent Calendar effective for holiday promotions?
Yes, an interactive Advent Calendar is highly effective for holiday promotions, as it provides daily opportunities to surprise and delight your audience. With Adact, you can customize each day’s “door” with a different interactive campaign—quizzes, mini-games, or exclusive discounts—making the calendar a fun and engaging part of your holiday marketing strategy that keeps customers excited and engaged throughout the season.
Let’s get started
What to expect from the 30 minute demo call:
- You will learn how to easily launch gamification marketing campaings
- Find solutions for your specific use cases
- We will cover case studies and success stories similar to your brand
- Discuss flexible pricing options
- If possible, we will create your own designed campaign during the call together
- Make sure you leave with a new found knowledge of gamification marketing innovations