Black Friday typically signifies the day when retailers move their annual sales from the red into the black, a scary thought by itself when you realize that it takes them 11 months of negative trading before they can start to breathe! Cyber Monday signifies the day when we all free ourselves of our family and friend commitments and get back in front of the computer, buying spirit still in evidence. In truth, December is a key month to focus on developing sales and after a very difficult year, goodness knows we all need a boost!
If you haven’t done so already, jump into your social media world. You should have a company page and a fan page within Facebook, as well as a Twitter account in your business name. With a concerted effort to attract followers, you will be able to “tweet” your special holiday deals.
Use your company blog to draw attention to your holiday spirit and while you’re at it, encourage visitors and readers to follow you on Twitter and become a fan of your page on Facebook.
Consider invoking the very spirit of the holiday season and “give away” all your stuff! You must do this sensibly, of course. Ideally you have a product or service structure that allows you to integrate a loss leader and create a real deal that prospects perceive to be worthy. If you don’t already have a tiered structure, you might want to consider creating this approach, as it has been proven to work time and again.
Wake up your e-mail lists with a special holiday message. Be creative and don’t just blast out another one of those ho-hum e-mails. Tie an offering, or a specific product or service to the holidays in one way or another and your prospects will hopefully also get into that cheerful, buying mode.
While on the subject of mailing lists, offer some kind of exclusive deal to people to get them to sign up for your list. While some retailers choose to give a percentage discount, others feel that a certificate of some kind in relation to an additional, existing product or service is a much better approach. Remember that people are definitely looking for deals during this season and your mailing list should be able to get a nice boost.
Key in your affiliates to some of that holiday spirit. Establish a bonus structure to run through the end of the year and give them added incentive to push your wares. This is a good time to think about rewarding your best affiliates with a nice gift, as well.
The holidays always creep up on us and catch us unawares and while many may be thinking about what they can do to make 2010 a banner year, don’t miss out on the opportunity to get a nice share of that massive retail holiday spend.
Any holiday projects in mind?
Matthew Toren
