Christmas is the perfect time to give back to everyone who’s shown love for your small business. Aside from sending festive business gifts to clients, one of the best things you can do is to host a Christmas giveaway. They’re a great way to promote your business, connect with customers and ramp up Christmas shopping.
But what kind of giveaway is the right move for your business this Christmas? Let’s take a look at 6 Christmas giveaway ideas that will help you spread cheer and drive plenty of Christmas sales in the process:
- Give a free gift with every Christmas purchase
- Run a Christmas-themed BOGOF offer
- Run a ‘12 Days of Christmas’ promotion
- Host a giveaway on social media
- Create a Christmas giveaway competition
- Partner with another local business for a Christmas giveaway
1. Give a free gift with every Christmas purchase
During the festive season, shoppers are out searching for the perfect gift for everyone on their list.
But because they’re so focused on getting Christmas gifts, most people aren’t shopping for themselves. So, why not show your customers that they’re on *your* Christmas list? Offer them a gift they can enjoy with their purchase — you’ll be treating your customers during a time when they’re unlikely to treat themselves.
A customer purchase gift is not only a great way to thank your regulars for their support, but it also gives them an incentive to shop with your business. It can be as simple as a Christmas card with a voucher tucked inside. And if they don’t want to keep the gift for themselves, they can use it as a stocking stuffer for someone else!
2. Run a Christmas-themed BOGOF offer
A Christmas-themed buy one, get one free offer (often called ‘BOGOF’) is another great way to spoil customers and encourage them to shop with you. And as an added bonus, an offer like this can be a great way to get rid of excess inventory. Have a product that’s not selling fast enough? Include the item in your BOGOF Christmas giveaway and watch them fly off the shelves.
3. Run a ‘12 Days of Christmas’ promotion
A 12 Days of Christmas giveaway is a win-win for you and your customers. You get to stretch out all the fun and business exposure of a promotion for a full 12 days, while your customers get more chances to cash in on your prize. Instead of one opportunity to receive one Christmas treat, they get 12!
There are plenty of 12 Days of Christmas giveaway ideas you could run with. You could give away a different piece of branded merchandise to shoppers each day of the promotion — a tote bag on Day 1, a hat on Day 2, a water bottle on Day 3, and so on. Or, you could raffle off a larger prize or gift card every few days, with the grand prize up for grabs on Day 12.Another way to build excitement for your giveaway is to keep each day’s promotion a secret. Revealing the details of your 12 Days of Christmas promotion in real-time will create a sense of anticipation with your customers. They’ll be sure to tune into your social media channels, visit your business website or stop by your brick-and-mortar location each day to find out what giveaway or promotion you’re running — and this increased level of engagement can lead to increased sales.
4. Host a giveaway on social media
Social media is a great place to advertise your Christmas giveaways. If you’re strategic about your delivery, a giveaway can also be a great way to build your social media following — and increase your audience before the new year.
Choose a high-value item to feature in your Christmas giveaway — maybe a gift basket of your best-selling products or a shopping spree at your retail location. Then, host the giveaway on your social media platforms and incorporate engagement boosting mechanics into the rules.
For example, let’s say you’re hosting your Christmas giveaway on Instagram. You could let your followers know that, for every person they tag in the comments, they’ll get an entry to win the big prize. This can act as an incentive to tag their friends — and the more friends they tag, the more your social media following can grow.
5. Create a Christmas giveaway competition
As the name implies, you could just give something away for your Christmas giveaway. But you could also make your customers work for it — and turn your Christmas giveaway into a competition.
While many December giveaways choose a winner at random or give a small prize to every customer, a Christmas giveaway competition adds an extra element of fun — both for you and your customers.
The best part? You can get creative with the concept. You could ask customers to caption one of your company’s Christmas photos on Facebook and crown the funniest entry. Or, you could ask your customers to duet your Christmas jingle on TikTok.
You could also go beyond the screen and hold an in-person competition. Does your business serve a lot of families and children? Hold a festive colouring contest for the kids. As long as the competition is interactive and themed around Christmas, it’ll drive engagement with your business throughout the festive season (and, hopefully, drive sales right along with it).
6. Partner with another local business for a Christmas giveaway
Partnering with another local business can add value to your Christmas giveaway and help you get in front of more potential customers. Since both you and your partner business will advertise your giveaway, you each get exposure to the other person’s audience — which can introduce your business to new people.
Look for other businesses in your community that would make sense to partner with for a Christmas giveaway. Do you own a coffee shop? Partner with a local chocolatier to put together a gift basket for Christmas morning, filled with a selection of coffee and chocolate. Or let’s say you own a yoga studio. You might launch a ‘New Year, New You’ giveaway and partner with other local wellness businesses to create a resolution-inspired giveaway package.
If you want to keep things simple, you can also include vouchers or items from your partner as a customer purchase gift – and vice versa.
Now that you know how to hold an effective Christmas giveaway, you can spend more time celebrating (or looking for cool business Christmas gifts for your professional circle). You can even mix and match these giveaway ideas to come up with the perfect fit for your business. At the end of the day, what matters most is making customers feel seen. And with a memorable giveaway, your business can stay top of mind long after the festive season.
