The holiday season is fast approaching and the time for a well-deserved “switch-off” is close! If you are a business owner or marketing leader you know that while you will have a few days off, your business never sleeps.
Lately, you have probably been busy managing your organisation’s Christmas marketing campaign and arranging clients or employee Christmas gifts. But now there is another important task: you need to ensure your marketing is ready for the Christmas closure or operating with reduced staffing levels.
So, where do you start? Here are three effective marketing tips on how to prepare your business for the Christmas holiday.
Review your marketing strategy: the first step when preparing your business for the Christmas holiday
In the new year, you’ll want to keep the momentum going and continue to attract and retain clients. This means making meaningful decisions about your marketing that will help you achieve your business goals. So here is where you should start.
1. Create or review your marketing strategy
Finish this year by creating a marketing strategy or reviewing your existing one, or have a review planned for early in the new year. Your marketing strategy is crucial for integrating your marketing activities so they have the best impact.
If you leave planning the review till January then it will likely be February or March before you start implementing changes. This only gives you a few months to achieve your marketing goals before the end of the financial year. So you need to know now what’s working and what’s not to give yourself the best chance of success.
2. Adapt your plan
A marketing strategy review will help you think about how you need to adapt your marketing over the holidays and summer months. Even without a full strategy review, we recommend that you adapt your marketing plan for what’s happening or likely to happen in the environment.
For example, if you are an insurance broker assess how possible events such as bushfires, or cyclones will affect business workflow during this period – particularly your communications and ability to respond to clients quickly. Decide “who does what and by when” so that you can adapt as you go.
How to use your social media channels during the Christmas season
During the Christmas break your office may be closed but your clients will still be scrolling through their social media news feeds. So you need to ensure that you keep your business communication and marketing going throughout this period.
Ensure someone in your team will manage your social media accounts, checking and responding to posts’ comments and potential clients’ inquiries while your business is closed. If you don’t have this option, create automated customer responses and get back to the client’s queries as soon as you can.
Also consider how you can use a social media planner/scheduler to continue posting throughout this period without having to be at work.
Plan for crisis communications: how to get your business ready
When you prepare your business for the Christmas season ensure you include an action plan to put in place if something goes wrong. Yep, things always happen when you don’t expect them so ensure you are prepared!
For example, would you be ready if in that period a natural disaster, fire, theft or a cyber hack impacts your business? With many of the team on holiday, how will your business respond quickly and appropriately to ensure you minimise any reputation damage? So, designate someone to be “on call” should something happen. Ensure that you have crisis communications in place. This should include:
- Points of contact – both internal and external support resources
- Actions to resolve the problems
- Tools to use, including passwords and access to communication channels
If you need professional help get in touch via hello@wearesavvy.com.au to talk about how we can help you kick off the new year with marketing that has an impact.