As the holiday season approaches, many businesses begin to wind down operations. While your team may be looking forward to a well-deserved break, of course it goes without saying that your business must continue to thrive.
As we head toward the Christmas season, you’ve likely been busy managing your organisation’s holiday marketing campaigns and sending out holiday gifts for clients and employees. However, there’s another crucial task to consider: ensuring your marketing and admin efforts remain effective during periods of reduced staffing or closure.
Keep reading to learn some handy tips you should be doing to prepare your business for the holiday season.
Review Your Marketing Strategy
As we transition into the new year, it’s crucial to maintain momentum and attract new clients, which is why a well-defined marketing strategy will serve as your roadmap to success. Whether you’re starting from scratch or refining an existing plan, take the time to assess your current position and set clear, achievable goals. Consider how seasonal factors, such as holidays and weather events, may influence your business operations and customer behaviour, as well as how adapting your marketing plan accordingly will maximise its effectiveness.
Maintaining an active social media presence is essential, even when your physical office is closed. If you get a lot of engagement on social media and have been posting and interacting with your followers regularly, it might be wise to designate a team member to manage your social media accounts and promptly respond to comments, messages, and enquiries.
To further streamline your efforts, consider utilising social media scheduling tools to automate your content posting, which will help you maintain a consistent online presence and keep your brand top-of-mind (even when you’re not actively monitoring your accounts).
Adapt your plan
A marketing review will help you think about how you need to adapt your overall strategy 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 your own business 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 ability to respond to clients quickly. Decide “who does what and by when” so that you can adapt as you go.
Optimise Your Plan
It’s natural that people tend to close their laptops and unwind as the holiday season approaches. While many may spend their time scrolling through social media or other online content, businesses can actually capitalise on this digital activity to drive growth. By implementing targeted smartphone marketing strategies, you can maintain momentum and even gain a competitive edge during this traditionally slower period.
This is where those automation tools come in handy, and you can engage with your clients from the comfort of your couch. You can also consider running contests or giveaways to increase your social media following, and personalised email campaigns with special promotions can also be effective in driving sales.
If your business is primarily B2B, think about how you can maintain your brand visibility, nurture existing relationships, and acquire new customers. This might simply be email reminders of your services and prices and well as regular posting on your socials.
What about your website?
When your website traffic increases during the festive period, the last thing you want is for it to have glitches that can drive current and prospective clients off and cause you to miss out on a conversion.
Make sure your information is up to date and that your website is easy to use. For example if you are an ecommerce website owner you could ask yourself whether your most popular products are easy to find and if your checkout process is as smooth as it can be.
When in crisis…
Unexpected events can occur at any time, and it’s important to be prepared.
A well-crafted crisis communication plan can help you protect your brand’s reputation and minimise damage.
- Identify key stakeholders: Determine who needs to be informed in case of a crisis, including employees, customers, and media.
- Need Some Help? We’ve got you covered
- We get it, owning a business is no challenge for the weak. If you need a helping hand with your website, marketing strategy, or just some general guidance towards your brand’s online presence, don’t hesitate to reach out to the Eightball team. Let’s get you there, together.
- Keen to get the ball rolling? Give our friendly crew a call now on 07 3122 9888 or enquire here. Establish communication channels: Choose the most effective channels for communicating with different groups, such as email, phone, or social media.
- Practice your response: Conduct crisis communication drills to ensure that your team is prepared to respond effectively.
By implementing these strategies, you can ensure that your business continues to thrive, even during the busiest time of year.
