Make a List and Check it Twice: Finding Customers for Christmas

The work of Santa Claus takes place over the course of one magical evening and by the morning, millions of children are smiling all over the world. For a company offering a seasonal product or service, the time when their work is in demand may be in as limited a time-frame as the one Santa enjoys, but the demanding work and effort involved in reaching customers and satisfying an audience at Christmas stretches out for much longer.

At Lapland Mailroom, a Christmas tradition is kept alive and well with the creation of personalised letters to children from Santa. With the certificate of proof that a child has been placed on the Nice List, it’s a gift that delights the recipient, but it is the parents, guardians, relatives and other loved ones that really feel the benefit.

These are the clients and people are often queuing up to find the ideal present that makes Christmas seem more magical but the challenge that Lapland Mailroom has is in finding their audience every year. When no one wants to hear about your product for at least 9 months of the year, it is hard to sustain an impact in the market or stay in touch with past clients.

Each year seems like a new beginning for the company but the evolution of the internet, of social media and of technology; and the way these aspects engage and interact, has helped Lapland Mailroom put a smile on the face of more than 100,000 children and many more adults who love these kids.

In modern business marketing, the importance of having a social media presence is regularly cited as being crucial for companies. However, when you are promoting a personalised letter to Santa, your audience doesn’t want to hear from you at Easter or when the sun is shining for three-quarters of the day. It is only from September time that the company starts to become relevant to their audience, and even then, it is only the people who are well-organised that are getting in touch then.

This doesn’t mean that social media is of no value to Lapland Mailroom though. In fact, developments in social media targeting and the ability to find people of certain demographics means that Lapland Mailroom has an effective way of reaching their audience every year.

Social media demographics and targeting finds new customers

The way people use social media reflects their life and the interests they “like” can mark a person out as being someone who is the ideal candidate for Lapland Mailroom to focus on. Any adult who has interests around children’s TV shows, films, cartoons or anything which suggests that they are staying in touch with a news feed for the benefits of their child as opposed to themselves is a potential customer.

The letter is as much for the parent or guardian, it allows them to make the festive season even more special, but it is the ease of finding and targeting parents through social media advertising that creates the platform for Lapland Mailroom to expand, finding new customers every year.

The saying that “the money is in the list” remains true and retaining contact details of clients from previous years provides a platform but social media targeting allows seasonal firms to find new clients each year.

User-generated content says more than the best adverts

Another way that the firm can use social media to its advantage is with user-generated content. In this digital era, every happy moment is captured by a smartphone, the camera in your pocket that is always present, and shared on social media. When the child receives a letter from Santa, it may not be possible for everyone who wants to share this moment to be in the room.

Social media has changed the way that people share big moments and it is inevitable that with each passing year, there will be countless videos posted on social media of a child’s happiness and tears of joy at receiving a personalised letter from Santa.

This shared video clip acts as the best advertisement that Lapland Mailroom could benefit from, in fact, a run of advertising campaigns and successful slogans would fail to have the hugely positive impact that even a handful of user-generated videos creates for the firm on social media.

With the use of a specialist hashtag, which customers are reminded of and encouraged to tap into, the company has a ready-made ad campaign sitting on social media, drawing people to them and making sure that more children feel the love of a traditional aspect of the festive season.

Christmas comes but once a year but by using modern marketing techniques and channels, Lapland Mailroom keeps the magic of the season alive.