Another holiday season is here, and your small business is doing well… congratulations! The end of the year is the perfect time to take a moment to review all you’ve done over the year for your marketing efforts; what worked, what didn’t, and how you want to adjust your marketing efforts for next year. While it’s tempting to take a break from your marketing efforts as the holidays arrive, resist the temptation! Don’t let the holidays tempt you to take a break from marketing; you’ll end up undermining all the hard work you put in all year long. Here’s why.
Your competitors are likely going to continue their marketing efforts
The problem with going into cruise control with your marketing during the holidays is that there’s a good chance your competitors aren’t slowing down, which means they could easily overtake you in online presence, social media engagement, etc. If you’ve been diligent about consistently blogging, engaging on social media, sending out email marketing messages and more, don’t stop now or you give your competitors an opportunity to shine. Considering many of your potential customers may be hammering out their marketing budgets for next year, you want to stay top of mind with them.
Your prospects are likely not taking a break
Like we alluded to above, if your prospects and clients are other businesses, chances are they are not slowing down as the year wraps up. They may have marketing dollars they need to spend by the end of the year, or they may be finalizing what their small business marketing plan looks like for next year. If their business depends on holiday sales, they most certainly won’t be slowing down, so you want to make sure your marketing message stays in front of them.
Your message has a better chance of being heard this time of year
For a variety of reasons, many companies, big and small, do slow down their marketing messages this time of year. They may close over the holidays, or this time of year is so busy they don’t feel the need to spend extra marketing dollars on content, social media, paid ads or other marketing efforts. This can be good news for you since there are fewer distractions out there vying for your potential clients’ attention. Take advantage of the holiday lull to make sure you’re being heard!
If you must rein in your marketing efforts, don’t let it be content
We all know that small business owners wear a variety of hats to run their business, so sometimes the holidays simply prove too much to keep at the pace you keep at the rest of the year. If you simply must pull back on your marketing efforts during the holidays, don’t let the content be the one that suffers! LinkedIn showed an interesting study that illustrated how readership engagement increased in December. Their research shows that a larger percentage of the members on LinkedIn actually do their research in the evenings, than during working hours; and over 50% of members say they are researching on LinkedIn on weekends. Also, content marketing, in general, is always more effective if you’re consistent with your efforts. When we talk about how much content you should create on a regular basis, we always suggest starting with what is doable for you, because cadence and consistency are more important than the frequency for creating better content and building readership. Stopping or slowing down content efforts in the holiday season can undermine what you’ve built up all year long.
Of course, it’s important to enjoy the holidays, and spend quality time with loved ones. Just be sure you’re not undermining all your good marketing efforts during the year by taking the holidays off. The holidays offer a lot of temptations when it comes to eating and shopping, don’t let the holidays tempt you to take a break from your marketing!
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