Started too late, no sign-ups or no idea what to do afterwards? Here are the 10 most common online advent calendar mistakes – and how to avoid them without breaking a sweat.
An online advent calendar is one of those ideas where you’re still enthusiastically going, “Yes! I’m so doing this! 💪” in October – and then find yourself swearing like a sailor at your laptop in November. Most of the time, it’s not actually the calendar itself that’s the problem, but a handful of classic pitfalls that are pretty easy to avoid if you think ahead.
The good news first: There’s a simple fix for almost every mistake – and there’s a matching article in my advent calendar series to show you how to do it better.
Table of contents
The most common online advent calendar mistakes
Mistake 1: You start too late
The classic of all classics. A calendar with 24 doors is a proper content project, not something you knock out of the prak in one afternoon. If you only get started at the end of November, you’ll either be creating the final doors in full-on Christmas panic – or not creating them at all.
Create a schedule that allows you to implement your calendar strategically, step by step, while keeping track of the bigger picture. I’ve mapped out what you should ideally do and when in my ultimate advent calendar timeline, week by week (post coming soon).
Mistake 2: You start without a clear goal
“I’ll just give it a go” is a perfectly nice way to start, but it’s a stupid plan. If you don’t know whether your goal is more visibility, stronger customer loyalty, new contacts or actual sales, you won’t be able to tell afterwards whether all that work was worth it.
So, before you get started, think about what you actually want to achieve with your advent calendar. You can read about why an advent calendar is worth the effort in the first place and what goals it can help you achieve in Good reasons to run an online advent calendar.
Mistake 3: Your topic is too broad
Twenty-four random tips can quickly start to feel a bit … random. A clear overarching topic, on the other hand, is what makes the difference between “yeah, kinda nice” and “Ooh hell yes, THIS is what I want to open every morning.”
It gives your calendar a thread running through it – and, just as importantly, gives you the reassurance that you won’t run out of ideas by day seven. I show you how to find the right topic in How to find the topic for your digital advent calendar.
Mistake 4: You cram too much into each door
Good intentions don’t necessarily make for good content. Nobody has an hour to spend working through every single advent calendar door in the run-up to Christmas. If your little bites turn into full blown meals, people will drop out.
Keep things small and easy to consume. One punchy idea a day is much better than an entire online course hiding behind every door 😉
Mistake 5: You don’t include a sign-up
If you simply put your calendar out there for everyone to access, you’re giving away one of the biggest business benefits: New contacts for your own list. Without a sign-up, plenty of people may open your doors, but once 24 December rolls around, you’ve got very little to show for it.
With a proper opt-in, those door-openers become actual contacts you can continue talking to in the new year. I’ll show you how the technical side works in my article about lead generation through your advent calendar (post coming soon).
Mistake 6: You put everything on someone else’s platform
A calendar that lives entirely on social media is tempting, but it comes with a risk. You’re at the mercy of the algorithm, and the contacts you gain don’t actually belong to you – they belong to the platform.
Weigh the pros and cons of your different options and choose the channel that works best for you. By the way *cough* I’d say combining your own website with your newsletter tool gives you the most control 😉 I’ll cover which channel might suit you and the pros and cons of each in How to find the right channel (post coming soon).
Mistake 7: You don’t test the tech
Doors opening too early, dead links, an automation deciding to have a meltdown precisely on 1 December … none of this needs to happen to you live and in public.
A test run with a pretend date lets you check beforehand whether everything is actually working as it should.
I’ll explain which pages you need and how they work together in Which pages do you need (post coming soon). And if you want to set up an automated and time-based advent calendar with dorrs unlocking from scratch, my course will be able to help with that soon, too (waiting list coming soon).
Mistake 8: You produce everything live
Creating the content for each door spontaneously every single day might sound charming, but it also means 24 days of constant pressure – and a very real risk of gaps.
Producing your content in advance is probably the most relaxing part of the whole project. If everything is sitting ready to go in December, you can actually enjoy Advent yourself.
You’ll find the right rhythm for that in my advent calendar timeline, too (post coming soon).
Mistake 9: You promote it too late or not often enough
If you mention your calendar for the first time only shortly before December 1st, you haven’t given yourself much time to collect sign-ups. And one announcement isn’t enough either – it’ll disappear into the December madness in no time.
Plan your promotion early and don’t be afraid to repeat yourself across different channels. I’ll show you how to do that without becoming annoying in my advent calendar promotion tips (post coming soon).
Mistake 10: You have no plan for what happens after the 24th
On 24 December, the calendar is over – but that doesn’t mean your work should stop working for you. If there’s no offer and no next step, those freshly gained contacts can simply disappear into the ether. And if you don’t look at which doors performed particularly well, you’re also missing out on valuable insights for next year.
Once the calendar is over, it’s time to look at the results – and, ideally, follow up with an offer. I’ll show you how to create a smooth transition into the new year in my article about using your advent calendar as a sales tool (post coming soon).
In short: It ain’t the end of the world
Most advent calendars don’t fail because of a lack of creativity. They fail because of these few, very avoidable pitfalls. The nice thing is that every mistake has a clear fix – and you’ll find a dedicated article for each one in my advent calendar series.
The best place to start is right at the beginning: have a look at Good reasons to run an online advent calendar and then work your way through the series at your own pace. That way, you can sidestep the usual mistakes before they even happen – and start planning your advent calendar without the usual last-minute panic.
Have you ever created an advent calendar? And which of these mistakes have you made yourself? Tell me in the comments. I have to make sure I don’t fall into mistake number 4 myself every year 🙈
