S-T-O-P ! ! ! 

Yes, it is Beginning to Look Like Christmas, and it may well be classified by many as the most Wonderful Time of the Year, but before you Step into Christmas [sorry] a few words of wisdom I learnt from Australian Coach Marketing Expert Taki Moore:

Whilst your competitors maybe going quiet and winding down, you should take this opportunity to cut through the Christmas clutter and focus on your campaigns to get a head start on sales for the new year.

And if you are working between Christmas and New Year (after all, us business owners never really stop), but your customers may not be too demanding of you during this time, the great thing is it gives you time to do some maintenance tasks on your marketing. So put down that mince pie and use one of your 90 minutes to plan in the following:

Fill in your 2016 diary before…January 2016!  You should have a corporate diary with planned events, webinars, campaigns, product launches etc. And it’s just as important to schedule in your own downtime whether it be regular exercise, a hobby, or watching your kids play rugby every Sunday morning.

Update your social profiles: I’m willing to bet you have at least three social profiles, and that you haven’t done much to update them lately. It’s important that you update your own bios on a regular basis, because new contacts and prospects WILL look at them.

Create a welcome campaign: few businesses do this but it’s so simple – just a standard message, or series of messages that go out to new customers or contacts to reassure them they’ve made the right choice, to start building a strong relationship and encourage them to take action.

Content is King: if you are having a well-deserved break between Christmas and New Year, there is no excuse for not publishing content be it blogging, e-shots or eBooks. So plan in now to write and publish over the holiday period and beyond.

One final thought: CRM (no, not that one) Cause Related Marketing. Rather than sending cards or giving your staff gifts, why not look at offering your employees the chance to do some charitable community volunteering in work time such as doing a shift at a local homeless shelter?

Incidentally, did you know that one of the top ten Christmas songs ever, Chris Rea’s “Driving Home for Christmas”, only reached number 53 the UK Single Charts when it was first released in 1988?