GlobalBX

It’s getting close to that time of year again – when everyone starts to talk about the ‘C’ word and looks forward to their two week break. Before you look forward too much to your break though, I want you to stop for a minute and just think about promoting over the Christmas period.  

It’s actually a great time to promote – after all, you were probably planning to send people a Christmas Card anyway, weren’t you? We might as well kill two birds with one stone.  

Let’s have a look at some of the ways you could promote your business over this festive time. 

1.   Send out vouchers
My first suggestion is to send out vouchers with your Christmas Cards – what have you got to lose? If you can make it relevant to a product or service that people have to take advantage of before the New Year, you’ll also get people acting now rather than forgetting about it when January comes. 

2.   Thank your current customers
Christmas is always the time of year when we tell our customers how much we appreciate them, so they’ll be expecting this anyway. Why not think about doing something a bit different for them? Perhaps invite them for a few drinks or visit them in person to say thank you. 

3.   Have a Christmassy offer
People need a reason to act before Christmas – otherwise they’ll just leave things until the New Year. Last year, we produced a CD on marketing that we told people about over December. This worked great because it was a low cost offer (they just had to pay for P&P) and it was something many people wanted to listen to over the Christmas period. What could you do? 

4.   The ‘Money Mountain’
Several radio stations do a ‘Money Mountain’ in early December, which is about raising money to help good causes. You can donate a product or service and in return you will get free publicity on the radio for an hour or so on the day of the auction. How great is that? Get involved – you might be surprised at the result. 

5.   Do you have plans for a January sale?
Everyone likes to feel that they’re getting a bargain when they buy something. Are you planning to have a sale for your customers? It could also be a big incentive for those who’ve been thinking about buying your products or services to do something about it. 

6.   Put in place a marketing plan for next year
While you’ve got a bit of breathing space between Christmas and the New Year, why not put a marketing plan for 2010 in place? A bit of thinking time is often just what’s needed to decide on your goals for next year and how you’re going to accomplish them. 

7.   Remember to be realistic
While you have all the best intentions to get more business over the Christmas period, remember that everyone is going to be starting to wind down between now and the beginning of January so if you run a service business and are expecting loads of customers, think again. Don’t be too discouraged about it though – use the time wisely to give yourself a kick start for the New Year.