Keep Marketing During the Holidays
Although the holiday season is the busiest time of the year for most retailers, many other businesses find themselves with time on their hands.
Everyone is on vacation, thinking about the holidays, or putting everything off ‘til after the first of the year, so what’s the point of doing any marketing during the holiday season?
First of all, some organizations are still humming along. Newspapers and magazines are still being published, and radio and television shows are still being broadcast. Keep sending press releases (or start sending press releases) to feed the media’s hunger for stories.
Your local television station may have a hard time coming up with stories on holidays. If you have one, you not only generate media coverage for yourself now, you can make a valuable media contact that will help you get more publicity in the future. Magazines typically work on a long lead time, and may be preparing stories that will run six months or more in the future. Do you have a story perfect for next summer, or for back to school? This might be the right time to pitch it to monthly magazines. Do you have a story with a holiday tie-in that would be perfect for your local newspaper? Their lead time is much shorter than magazines, and is usually just a few weeks for feature stories.
Keep making sales calls. Yes, some people are away on vacation. But it may be easier for the ones working to make time to meet with you. When I was still in a corporate job, I looked forward to working around the holidays. There were fewer department meetings and other time wasters, and I had lots of time to get work done and follow up on things that I didn’t have time for during the year.
Make contact with customers and potential customers you haven’t talked with in a while. Jot a note, make a call, reach out and touch someone by telephone. Instead of a pre-printed holiday card, send personal notes to customers to express your appreciation for their business.
Take time to plan for next year. Are there new products you plan to introduce? New markets you are going to pursue? Prepare your approach and any marketing materials you will need. Create a new brochure, write a booklet, update your website . . . whatever you’ve been putting off.
Invest in your business by joining organizations that can help you. I am currently renewing my memberships in several professional organizations that help me to run and grow my business. Although some of these memberships cost less than $100, others are substantially more; however, they all provide benefits in excess of the amount I invest in them. If the organizations to which you belong have meetings or conferences, put next year’s dates on your calendar right now, and plan to attend to get the greatest benefit from membership.
Don’t let the holidays be an excuse to neglect marketing. Keep your marketing activities up year ‘round to make sure there is always business coming your way.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
