During the holiday season, as many turn their focus toward spending time with family and friends, a lot of professionals tend to check out and let their marketing efforts wane. Sure, everybody deserves a much needed break from all the hard work they’ve been doing throughout the year; but successful marketers know that this is the perfect opportunity to get a jump start on business for 2012. They take advantage of the fact that many choose to hibernate rather than stay visible and available in the month of December.
Here are some ideas that can help you maintain productivity and stay visible in your local market during the holiday season.
Engage with audiences on community social sites: Even though you’ve got your footie pajamas on and you’re enjoying the warmth of your fireplace from the comfort of your couch, you can still participate in conversations happening online. Blogging, commenting on local news articles, and staying active on social networks will keep you in front of your audience during the holidays.
Volunteer or sponsor local charitable organizations and events: ‘Tis the season for helping others in your community. Doing so will not only give you a warm and fuzzy feeling inside, but reaching out to those in need builds a great foundation for networking and generating more business in 2012. For sponsoring events—like a food, blanket, or gift drive—local charitable organizations may provide some marketing value in kind such as: including your logo on their website and/or on promotional materials relating to an event; allowing you to send a mailer to their donor base; linking to your website via press releases; and so on.
Dial up past clients, helpful colleagues, and new prospects: Think back starting from the beginning of 2011 and make a list of clients, colleagues, mentors, and new connections that have contributed to the success of your business. Set aside a couple of hours to call and personally connect with them. They’ll appreciate your time and you’ll make a positive lasting impression that could lead to referrals and increased business in the new year.
Send holiday greeting cards or postcards to top customers: Uh, this piece of advice is a no-brainer. For tips on making sure your holiday greeting is well received, read the post titled, “5 Elements of a Great Business Greeting Card.”
Educate yourself on the latest marketing technologies, strategies, and trends: Busy, hard-working professionals tend to get so busy and involved in their own marketing efforts during the year, it’s easy for them to miss information that can actually help them streamline campaigns and make them more effective. Let the holiday season be your opportunity to catch up on what others in marketing are doing to grow business.
Discover tools and technologies to streamline business: Keeping up with all the mobile applications, CRM platforms, project management tools, and digital marketing technologies can turn into a full-time job. Many new ones worth checking out are released into the marketplace on a daily basis. The holiday season is a perfect time to identify the top three challenges that hindered business and then focus your research on finding tools and technologies to solve those pains. Do you need to improve speed-to-market of direct mail campaigns? Do you need a better way to identify targeted mailing areas? Would marketing automation help lighten workload?
Update, clean up, and optimize your website and social profiles: Refresh the content on your website and prepare posts for your social sites. Add fresh pictures, customer testimonials, product highlights, etc. that will keep your audience engaged. Optimize your site so that it can be easily found by search engine crawlers and ranked favorably.
What will you do to make the most out of this holiday season?
