Many businesses slow down or pause marketing during November and December thinking that they’re unlikely to make a sale – However, your target market and audience are AVAILABLE TO MARKET to, as a prime time of increased accessibility. 

Ramp up your marketing during the holidays and who are they going to turn to when they’re ready to make a purchasing decision in Q1?
 

So, you have two options:

Option 1 – Rest on your laurels, do nothing in December and scramble in January to try and pull something together. This option usually means you’re not truly ready to drive leads until February at the earliest, at which point you’ve probably missed the boat. 

Option 2 – Put together a comprehensive marketing strategy in November/early December that will run over the holidays (most of which is automated, don’t worry!). This allows you to hit the ground running in January and come out on top.  

Which will you do? 

The likelihood is that you won’t have time to conduct a full marketing overhaul, however there is time to create a highly targeted, fully custom campaign that can run in the background over the holidays, gently warming up leads for you ready for a strong launch to Q1 and the new year. 

Primary activities we recommend:  

• Creating informative, engaging content and schedule across your social channels 
• Integrate the holidays and other marketing hooks (think national days and events upcoming) to build reach 
• Using automated email workflows (email sequencing) to help drive traffic to this content 
• Creating social ads for cold audience attraction (drip-feeding your proposition)  
• Creating re-marketing ads for those who read your content  
• Optimising the SEO on your website, create new blog content and consider video marketing 

The best part about this marketing strategy? Once the content is produced, you can automate a huge chunk of it, meaning that you can enjoy your sherry and mince pies without needing to worry about managing your marketing campaign!

The result is a list of the most engaged contacts from the period – the people who clicked your links, read your content and engaged with your marketing.  These are the people you want to be contacting as soon as January comes round, as they’ll be ready and raring to go with their New Years’ resolutions, and you’ll be perfectly positioned to assist them.
 

Brighter Directions are a curated team of no-nonsense marketing specialists, we become an extension of your marketing team, delivering tangible results over vanity metrics. No jargon, just results and a great partnership, get in touch today to see how we can assist your festive and Q1 marketing campaigns, click HERE. 

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Do people spend more during the holidays?

It’s no secret that consumers tend to spend a little more during the holiday season. According to the CFA, consumers plan to spend more than they did last year. In fact, eight out of twelve people state that they plan on spending more money this year than they have in the past. So as a small business, it’s just a smart move to take advantage of the spending fever. No matter your industry consumers are planning to spend more.

Turn your service into the perfect gift

With people spending more during this time, it is important for businesses to take advantage of that by productising their services into the perfect gift. For example, letting people buy a one-hour consultation, a 10-hour or three-day trial of your software, or any other small chunk of what you offer as a gift.

How can you take advantage of Christmas

Add a Christmas touch to your branding – a simple and easy way is to update your business’ branding with some festive flair.

Run a Christmas promotion – offer rewards that are worthwhile to your customers, such as free shipping or a discount code.

Send an e-Christmas card to your customers – send a Christmas themed thank you note or email to your loyal customers to express your appreciation for their support

Organise a Christmas contest – brainstorm unique contest ideas that require your customers to do more than spend a certain amount of money.

Film a holiday video – showcase the human side of your brand with a festive video.

Do you need help marketing your business?

Perhaps you need specialist help with content strategy?

Brighter Directions can help you!

Visit our website for more information.

www.brighterdirections.co.uk

The post How to take advantage of the Christmas holidays as an SME appeared first on Brighter Directions.