How will you make the most of the Christmas selling season in your handmade business?
If your Christmas marketing strategy is basically … make things, get busy, forget to post, remember at 11pm, panic, post something random, repeat … then we need to talk.
I know that you know this approach won’t get you the Christmas sales you’ve been hoping for.
But sometimes it feels like “winging it” is all you can do, in between making all the products, listing them, packing orders, preparing for shows, and shipping wholesale orders. Not to mention all of the personal stuff you’ve got going on too.
So I’ve created a full season Christmas Marketing campaign, designed specifically for makers and handmade business owners, with all of the content you need to sell your products over the Christmas period.
It’s called the Christmas Campaign Map and I created it to save you time, and help you make more sales during the most important time of the year for small creative businesses.
Because have you ever noticed how it’s really hard to figure out what to talk about in your Christmas marketing?
It always feels too early or too late.
In October you’re apologising for using “the C word.” In December you’re struggling to make your one remaining brain cell work.
And how do you even keep talking about buying Christmas gifts for three months straight?
That’s why I’ve broken the season down into four distinct selling phases, each with a specific aim, and prewritten all of the social media and email content you’ll need for each phase.
You can fill in the blanks for your business and products, or completely rewrite it in your own voice, but you’ll know what to say at every point of the season to nurture gift buyers and convert them into sales.
It means that you’ve got one less thing to think about when you’re already rushed off your feet, and it will help you to really make the most of the Christmas season.
What’s Included in the Christmas Campaign Map
A plan for the whole Christmas selling season
The Campaign Calendar & Content Planning System breaks the season into four phases, each with its own focus, so you know what you should be talking about as your customers move from “Can you believe there are mince pies in the shops already?” to “the last posting date is next week??”
You’ll also choose how often you want to show up, from Minimum Visibility to Sustainable Growth, to High-Energy Push, so you can match your marketing to the time and energy you actually have.
The marketing content to put that plan into action
You get 100+ social media caption prompts, 26 reusable caption starters and 15 email templates, covering all four phases of the Christmas selling season.
The content is written specifically for makers, and designed to SELL, with ideas covering things like customer favourites, gift ideas, specific gift recipients, customer proof, FAQs, order deadlines, last-minute options and more.
Fill in the blanks with your own products, dates and details, and you're ready to go.
Tools to make the whole thing easier to manage
You also get Campaign Snapshots to plan each phase, so you can decide what you're promoting, where you're showing up, and what needs preparing.
The Weekly Planner then brings that down to what actually needs doing this week, including space to take account of everything else you've got going on and adjust your level of marketing if necessary.
There are also Sample Weeks so you can see how the different levels of marketing could look in practice, plus a Visual Planning Prep Checklist to help you get the photos and other resources you need ready in advance.
And the Holiday Messaging Guide gives you phrases and language for talking about your products in a more sales-focused way without sounding weird, or changing who you are.
BONUS: The Last Week Push
Those final days before your Christmas cut-off are a particularly important opportunity to make sales, and probably the point when you have the least inclination to write ten emails and fourteen social posts.
So I’ve done those for you too.
The Last Week Push includes:
- An additional 10 plug-and-play email templates specifically for the very last days of the season
- 14 social media feed posts
- 28 Instagram Story ideas using content you already have
- 130+ gift-recipient phrases you can drop into your marketing
And if you’re looking at all of this and thinking, “This is a lot,” don’t worry. You’re not being handed a giant pile of ideas and left to work out what to do with them.
Everything is organised by phase and concept so you can dip in and find the ideas that are useful to you, whenever you need them.
Plus you are guided to select a commitment level that matches your energy and availability, with “doing the bare minimum” options for when you really need them.
The difference this could make to your Christmas selling season
Winging it
With the Christmas Campaign Map
What does it mean for your sales (and your life) when you’re not winging it any more?
Before
- You avoid starting your Christmas marketing because you don’t want to be that person posting Mariah Carey memes in October … and then suddenly Christmas is everywhere and you’re immediately on the back foot.
- Every email or social media post takes forever and then you’re working late into the night to make and ship orders.
- You have a good run of sales and then realise that you’ve barely posted for two weeks because you’ve been busy making orders.
- You decide mid way through the season that you’d better do something with the email addresses you collected at your autumn shows but you don’t know what to say in your emails
- There’s a quiet start to the season and you don’t know what to do, other than keep posting with increasing desperation and cross your fingers that people start “feeling Christmassy” this week.
- You reach the end of Christmas exhausted, and frustrated that half the season is waiting for sales to show up, and the other half is whiteknuckling it on 3 hours sleep. And it’s like this every year.
After
- You’ve got your content planned, written and maybe even scheduled, before we get into the busy months, so you can get on with making
- You make more sales over the whole season because you were able to start laying the groundwork for Christmas sales in October, without whipping out the Santa Claus emoji.
- You know exactly what your customers need to hear about in October, November and December so that they’re ready to buy from you, whenever they start their Christmas shopping.
- You have hundreds of ways to talk about your products as gifts, so you’re not racking your brain for the words to use when you’re tired.
- When things are quieter you have plenty of things to say in your posts, without feeling like you’re begging for sales.
- And when Christmas is over you can spend time with your family knowing that you made the most of it and that you’ve given yourself the best chance to get through the upcoming quiet months.
Will the Christmas Campaign Map work for me if…
I sell something completely different from everyone else?
Yes.
The Christmas Campaign Map isn't based on selling a particular type of product. It's based on what your customers need to hear at different points in the Christmas shopping season.
The content is specifically written for products sold as gifts by small creative businesses, rather than being generic marketing prompts that could apply to anything.
And we give you examples of how you can customise it to your own products, customers and way of working, based on what we know about different handmade businesses.
For example,
“I know it’s early, but here’s why I’m sharing now…”
A soap maker might use this caption starter to let customers know that their popular Christmas gift sets tend to sell out and they can’t always make more, so it’s worth ordering early.
An illustrator might use it to explain that they only have a certain number of slots available for Christmas commissions, so customers need to think about ordering well before Christmas.
So we don’t just give you the prompt, we give you options and ideas for customising it too.
I sell made-to-order or personalised products?
Yes. In fact, the four-phase approach to the season works particularly well when customers need to understand that the last chance to order might be much earlier than they expect.
The later phases of the Christmas Campaign Map give you plenty of opportunities to talk about deadlines and availability, and there are also lots of ways to keep selling after your last order date. That way you can still make sales even if customers missed your deadline.
I don't have loads of different products?
That's fine too.
You don't need a huge range to use the Christmas Campaign Map and it’s often a good idea to stick to promoting a few best sellers during a period when attention spans are short.
The Christmas Campaign Map will give you lots of ideas about how to speak about the same products from different angles. Who they're for, why people love them, how they're made, what customers have said about them, when they need to be ordered and so on.
There’s almost no time left in the season?
Yes. Whether you’re starting in October or December, the Christmas Campaign Map makes it very easy to quickly navigate to the part of the content that is best for the current moment so that you can really make the most of the time you have available.
Plus the Last Week Push bonus gives you an extra set of captions and emails, specially designed to drive sales at the end of the season.
If your average order value is £25-£35, two extra orders between now and Christmas can easily cover the cost of the Christmas Campaign Map and next year you’ll be able to reuse it, instead of starting from zero.
Today is .
days until Christmas Day
full weeks left to sell
the phase of the season we are in today
It's Not Too Late
Here is what is already written for the time that is left.
- 0caption prompts and starters
- 0email templates
- 52more emails, feed posts and Story ideas for your final week, in the Last Week Push bonus
Make the most of the time you have left.
Here’s what happened when other makers used the Christmas Campaign Map
Comments on social media
Top fan
I just started working on this today. Sent my first email and had a large order within an hour!
4dLoveReply
The Maker's Business ToolkitAuthor
that is AMAZING! So pleased for you.
3dLikeReply
Top fan
Just woke up this morning to another order
3dLoveReply
The Maker's Business ToolkitAuthor
Brilliant!
1mLikeReply
Comment on social media
This is brilliant. I am using it for the first time this year and getting more organised than ever! The emails are great too (I am dyslexic and really struggle to write them).
I am keeping everything organised so that with a few tweaks next year I am ready to go!
Thank you
1dLikeReply
And if you don't know me yet...
I'm Nicola, and I've been helping artists and makers run their businesses for over 10 years.
I created Maker's Business Toolkit because I know how much there is to figure out when you're trying to turn your creative work into a business. Marketing is a big part of that, and it's very easy to spend a lot of time doing things without really knowing whether they're going to help you sell more.
My approach is practical. I want you to understand why you're doing something, what it's supposed to achieve and how to actually put it into practice.
That's the thinking behind the Christmas Campaign Map too. I've taken all of the marketing decisions that need to be made over the Christmas selling season and worked them into a structure you can actually use, with the content and tools to put it into action.
And here's what some of the makers I've worked with have said:
I truly love Nicola's teaching style. She has an incredible gift.
She really "gets" people, what is holding them back, and has a kind way of helping address what really is going on and guides you to the next step without being overwhelming.
Nicola's advice is like an MBA at my fingertips. Apart from the sound business advice, her coaching is excellent.
Sometimes I think she's reading my mind! And then comes the pep talk.
Nicola is so knowledgeable, funny, and engaging. Every single topic she addresses provides so much value and is way beyond the time and money invested.
You can listen over and over and still learn something new.
Not only do I enjoy listening, but I feel like I've gained an amazing business mentor.
A few things you might want to know
When can I start?
Whenever you like.
The Christmas Campaign Map isn't a course that you have to work through from beginning to end. You can start with the part of the season you're in right now and use the relevant content straight away.
So whether you're getting organised in October or you've suddenly realised it's December and you need to get your Christmas marketing moving, you can pick it up and use it today.
Can I use it next year?
Yes. The Christmas Campaign Map is yours to use again and again, so you can reuse the planning structure and content every Christmas.
How much time will I need?
That's up to you. You can either use the Christmas Campaign Map as a complete content system for the Christmas period, or you can just dip in when you need some quick content five minutes before bedtime.
What do I get?
You'll get immediate access to the complete Christmas Campaign Map, including:
- The plan
Campaign Calendar & Content Planning System
A marketing strategy for each of the four phases of the Christmas season - specifically for makers.
- The content
Content Prompts and Templates
100+ pre-written social media captions, 26 caption starters and 15 email templates. Customise them for your handmade business.
- Tool
Campaign Snapshots
Plan out what you'll promote during each phase and choose content to fit.
- Tool
Weekly Planner
A weekly content planning sheet to keep you focused on selling and avoid overextending yourself.
- Tool
Sample Weeks
For people who like to see examples of how to plan out a week of content.
- Tool
Visual Planning Prep Checklist
This will help you to streamline the process of gathering images and video to go with your content.
- Tool
Holiday Messaging Guide
Example phrases and language to help you talk about your product in a more sales-focused way, without the cringe.
- Bonus
The Last Week Push
10 additional email templates, 14 feed posts and 28 Story ideas - specifically designed to maximise your sales in the final week before you close.
And how much is it?
£49
One payment, and you can use the Christmas Campaign Map every Christmas.
- The Campaign Calendar & Content Planning System
- Campaign Snapshots and Weekly Planner
- 100+ social media caption prompts
- 26 reusable caption starters
- 15 email templates
- Sample Weeks
- Visual Planning Prep Checklist
- Holiday Messaging Guide
- The Last Week Push bonus with 10 additional emails, 14 social posts, and 28 Instagram Story ideas, all for the last week of your Christmas season.
DISCLAIMER: This page includes testimonials and real world examples of other people’s experiences with content from Maker’s Business Toolkit. These are for the purpose of illustration only. The testimonials, examples and photos used are of actual customers and the results they personally achieved. They are not intended to represent or guarantee that current or future customers will achieve the same or similar results; rather these testimonials represent what is possible for illustrative purposes only. Nothing on this page should be interpreted as a promise or guarantee that you will achieve any results at all.
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