The weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas are very important to annual sales in many industries, including automobile sales. Potential customers are buying in stronger numbers than the rest of the year, giving car dealers a larger audience to market to. Holiday shopping crowds are also in “shopping mode,” ready to buy items not only for friends and family, but for themselves as well. Buyers with extra capital available for the holidays are easier to persuade to treat themselves to a new car than during other times of the year. Whether customers’ new car purchases are a special treat just for them or the perfect gift for the whole family, the holiday shopping season is a great opportunity for car dealers to increase sales.

To capitalize on the holiday shopping season, your car dealership needs to have a solid marketing plan! Thanksgiving and Christmas offer lots of fun and new ways to promote vehicles and special offers, so get creative. The more unique your marketing strategies, the more likely they are to be successful.

These four holiday marketing ideas are great ways to jumpstart your car dealership’s holiday sales season.

1) Get festive! Show your dealership holiday spirit by making your show floor and lot bright, inviting and festive. Nothing catches the eye like sparkly Christmas decorations. Purchase a 20-foot Douglas fir, place it in the center of your outdoor lot, and decorate it with bright white lights, tinsel, and decorations. Hang cool garlands, red bows, and lights from the eaves and lamp posts of buildings. Serve hot chocolate on the show floor. Unless you already have a talented person on staff who is willing and able to completely deck out the rest of the exterior and interior of your dealership, hire a decorator to come in and do it. Show potential customers that your dealership is in the holiday spirit and make your show floor irresistible with holiday cheer.

2) Offer a “12 Days of Christmas” Christmas Sale. Everyone loves a sale, so why not bundle 12 fantastic vehicle deals into a Christmas-themed event? Instead of having an unrelated chain of Christmas sales events, run a 12 Days of Christmas sale, with the easy day offering a different type of sale. Start with smaller incentives and older vehicle models and work your way up to the “twelfth day of Christmas” with bigger offers, and end with a grand finale!

3) Get creative with holiday-themed direct mail. Christmas is not the time to send the same old postcard envelopes. Send your direct mail list into some holiday cheer with authentic-looking Christmas cards or gift-shaped cards, complete with bow. Add some “dealer cash” to send an extra happy message.

4) Make a contest on social networks. Offer a contest with a significant percentage discount or an entry prize (if your pool of applicants is large enough for that). Ask people to connect with you in a specific way: ask them to finish the phrase “all I want for Christmas” in a photo, tweet, or video, then have them post their response on your dealership’s Facebook wall or Tweet it to them using a specific hashtag. Regardless of what your contest entails, be sure to create a dedicated landing page on your website (or Facebook event) that outlines the details of the contest; link to this from your social media accounts.