Dear Business Owner, since the last quarter of the year began, days and months have been melding into one another, and in the blink of an eye, the holiday season is around the corner.
The question is, are you ready?
It’s a given that this could very well be the best season for your business, just be sure to remember the 5 P’s – Proper Prior Performance Prevents Poor Performance. We’d like to give you a gentle hand in getting prepared with some of our favorite tips. Grab a pen ready to take notes.
1. Get planning
Find out what your goal is for the season. Are you looking at getting in new clientele? Increase your brand awareness. Have a certain sales target to reach? Knowing what you want to achieve is key. By doing this, you can now figure out what steps you need to take to reach that goal. This could look like designing special marketing material, running a promotion, or planning your social media campaign.
2. Get your staff up to speed
Letting your staff know is one thing, but they also have their own holiday plans to make and their minds may not be in the right place. There are two ways to go about tackling the problem: You could get a friendly in-house competition going with a handy prize for the winner, or you could look at bringing in per diem staff to assist, Fiverr is a great source for short-term staff.
3. Bring people together
Nothing brings in more business like networking. This is where you need your existing clientele to do the marketing for you. You could host an event, happy hour, a virtual event or even get involved in someone else’s event through sponsorship and use your social media to let your clients know. The chances of them mentioning it to other people are high. You can even go as far as running a client-based promotion within the event where encouraging people to sign up and get the same service is an excellent way to build your client base. Converkit is a really good option for marketing and a great way to monetize your audience easily and effectively.
4. Show some appreciation
Everyone loves a freebie and showing your clients some love by giving them a little appreciation gift is the best way to go. By letting them know that their business is appreciated, you’re ensuring that they come to you. It’s the oldest customer service trick in the book and it is still effective. T-shirts & Vinyls are currently running a dope promotion in which every purchase you make to gift your special clients rewards you with free vinyls.
5. Give back to your community
Being philanthropic has its advantages, not only will you show your community and employees that you care, but there’s something fulfilling about giving back, especially during the holidays when people don’t have. It will make you and your employees feel proud to be a part of your company.
6. Set a budget
Now that you know what you want to do and how you want to do it, look at your finances and create a budget. The trick is to have a wish list created where you dream big and then work with your budget and plan, you will end up with a strategy that is soft on the pocket, achieves the goal, and is not lack-luster.
7. Look at your business in-depth
The holiday season isn’t a time to focus on your goals but also a time to prepare for the upcoming year. This is a time when you can upgrade your business by giving your website a new look.
More importantly, go deeper and look at what your business needs to be bigger and better next year. Use NAV to get an idea of what your business credit stands for.
In closing, the trick to being successful during the holiday season is to plan ahead and work hard towards the goal. This could be your most lucrative season and there are a few weeks left so there’s better time to start than now. If you’re not sure about some of your ideas, try having Addy and Mark’s Survey Squad help you out. You can get surveys and focus groups done with honest feedback.
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Disclaimer: This resource is for information purposes only. The company is not directly related to The Dope Million in any way. Always check your resources’ original website for updated information