As we’re slowly approaching the so loved by all and popular holiday season, we thought it would be useful to help you out a little bit as a business owner and prepare you for what’s to come, or not.
Since you run your own business, you probably know that holiday season is where it’s all at – the business, the craziness, the confusion and lots, lots of work. The holiday season is an important time of the year for businesses, that’s for sure. It can be a huge boost to their revenues or it can also cause them to go under. That is why it is important for businesses to prepare in advance and use the season as a way to increase customer engagement.
In this article, we’ve gathered our top 7 pieces of advice you should familiarize yourself with to get your business ready for the holiday season. Let’s not waste any more time and let’s see if you’re really ready to face this year’s holiday season!
Holiday season – a curse or a blessing?
This is the time of year when everyone is expected to be celebrating. For businesses it means that customers are in a good mood – and this can translate into increased sales. The holiday season is also a great time to promote your products and services if your business falls into the gift-giving industry, or to offer discounts if you are in any other industry that does not necessarily require gift-giving. Businesses should take advantage of the holiday season to maximize on some of the most profitable months.
The holiday season has always been a time for celebration and good cheer. It also happens to be some of the busiest and productive months for businesses all around the world. The reason why this is so is because people are spending more money than usual, they are spending on more products or game deals, and they are shopping at more stores than normal.
There is a lot to do and a lot of opportunities for businesses during this time. However, this doesn’t mean that there isn’t competition for customers’ attention, or that every type of business can thrive during this magical time.
So, today’s question is: ‘How can businesses maximize their chance to be seen?’. Let’s see how to make the holiday season a blessing for your business, rather than a curse.
Take care of marketing and promotions in advance (social media management tool)
Marketing strategy for the holidays can be challenging, but it doesn’t have to be. Your marketing efforts are more likely to pay off if you have a promotion plan that is well thought out in advance. The following are some steps to take when planning your holiday marketing strategy.
Before the holiday season starts, take some time out to plan out your marketing strategy. You should first research what holidays you will be competing with other businesses in your industry during this time of year and make sure that you have a unique message for each one. Add these key dates in a marketing strategy calendar. Next, think about what channels you will use to promote your business during this time of these different holidays and make sure that they are all set up in advance and ready for when the season begins.
After this, it is important to plan out how much money you wish to spend on all the advertising. Keep in mind that your bottom line is important to look out for and don’t allow yourself to spend more than it’s needed.
Having a marketing strategy planned before the holiday season is important for businesses. The way to approach this holiday season would be based on the current situation of your company and its target audience. Think about what message you want to spread, who you want to reach with it, what your main goals are and so on. To succeed, businesses need to focus on their messages and how they convey those messages.
If your business is active on social media, you may also want to take advantage of social media management tools that will let you create and schedule your content for the holiday season today! You can plan everything now, hit that schedule button and just not worry about your social media profiles later when there are other, more important things to take care of.
Consider using the help of seasonal workers
Next thing to consider is whether or not your business tends to get busy during the holiday season. If that’s the case, you may wish to ask for the help of so-called seasonal workers – people, usually students and teenagers (but not always), who look for every opportunity there is to earn some extra cash. Extra pairs of hands will be needed, especially if your regular employees go on a vacation and you want to keep your business running around the clock.
There are many advantages to hiring seasonal employees for a business. One of them being that it helps when there are deadlines or large projects, when the workload becomes too much for full-time employees, which is exactly what can happen around Christmas.
Seasonal workers also help when there are urgent or time-sensitive projects that need to be completed, which might not be possible with full-time employees. Another benefit is that seasonal workers provide more flexibility for employers like you.
However, there are also disadvantages to hiring seasonal workers because they may lack experience in certain areas due to their limited work history in certain fields. Seasonal workers may also be less committed in their work because they know that eventually they will have to leave and find another job.
What you should do is focus on your business and figure out whether you could potentially benefit from hiring seasonal workers. If yes, great news! If not, we have other tips for you that will prepare you for one of the busiest seasons of the year for your business, don’t worry!
Sort out your vacation rules in advance
Along with having to hire some temporary workers, you may wish to get your work policies checked up and see if everything is crystal clear to your employees. Make sure that your employees get familiar with them to avoid half of your staff going on a paid vacation when you need them the most.
Naturally, it’s normal for people to want to go on their vacation when work becomes more challenging to avoid having to deal with it. But on the other hand, you need to remember about the needs and priorities of your business and the fact is that you need your employees to work for you, especially during busy periods of times.
One great way to encourage increased engagement and commitment during difficult periods of the year is by simply rewarding your employees for their hard work. Make sure you always show their appreciation and let them know you’re grateful to have them. You can recognize your employees’ dedication with special commendations or rewards. A little incentive or gift thrown here and there from time to time won’t hurt, too. It can be something as little as an Amazon gift card, some extra money
Take advantage of an online booking platform
If your business fits into the customer service category, for example you offer various appointments and meetings are totally your thing, we have another tip for you. If you’re not convinced by the idea of hiring additional employees, and you know that you may possibly drown in the sea of new appointment bookings around the holiday season, why not have all the booking management handled by … a system?
You read it right. You can have your bookings managed in a completely new, futuristic and effective way – automatically, fully online and wherever you are.
Tools like Calendesk are complete online booking platforms that allow business owners like you to have their meetings booked, managed, paid and analyzed online and automatically thanks to special software.
An online booking platform is a marketing tool that helps businesses get more customers, especially during busy periods of time. It provides an easier way to shop, compare prices and book services in one place. It’s not just about the availability of the service, but also about convenience, since some of the most reliable online booking system providers offer businesses and their customers a mobile app to quickly and efficiently manage their bookings.
The online booking process, compared to traditional appointment booking, is extremely time saving and comfortable, as it can be done pretty much from anywhere in the blink of an eye. Moreover, as a business owner, you can keep track of your reservations on an online booking platform with its user-friendly interface – easily and with no issues.
If this sounds like something your business could potentially need, do consider this suggestion!
Keep your website info up to date
Moving on, let’s not forget about the necessity to keep your website information updated at all times, especially when a time with increased website visits is approaching.
You’re most likely going to have many more people going to your website to check your services and/or products out, so you absolutely must be prepared for that. How can you do that?
A good idea would be to have some holiday-themed banners and graphics prepared in advance so you can schedule to upload them at the right time to let your customers know of any discounts and promotions awaiting them around this time. Another great thing is to have a landing page tailored to the season of the year, along with some valuable incentives to further interest your visitors to transform from leads to actual customers.
However you decide to do it, just make sure that all your necessary information is up to date and relevant. This could include your email addresses, your telephone number, adding your social media pages to your website and updating the prices. Doing this will help you stay organized and on top of your duties.
Order supplies in advance
If your business offers any physical goods for sale, now is probably the best time to shop for extra amounts of your most popular products! If you’ve been doing business for more than a year, you most likely know which products will be of most interest to your current, regular customers, as well as those one time buyers who will come to your business this holiday season.
Having this valuable knowledge will help you better manage your stock and make sure you’re perfectly prepared for the next, surely intensive couple of weeks. Businesses should order their supplies before the holiday season because they will need and should in fact want to stay ahead of the competition. This is also a great way to save time and money by buying all the supplies at once. Every year, during the last week of November or first week of December, retailers are getting very busy with customers looking for gifts.
To avoid running out of products, it is important for businesses to order supplies in advance and enjoy a peaceful atmosphere and, most importantly, no sad faces of frustrated customers because.
Know your audience, know what they want and deliver it!
Last but not least, it’s all about your target audience! Know what they want and try to deliver it. Trust us, they will love you for it.
Prepare to pay extra care to your staff from the customer service department around this time. It’s very likely that they will be getting an increased volume of inquiries from people expecting to receive top notch customer care. It may also be worth considering giving your staff some extra training on how to handle difficult customers easily, as chances are you will most likely come across them during this crazy time.
The ability to listen to your target audience is one of the best ways to prepare your business for this eventful season. Remember that your customers are a huge repository of knowledge and you will be able to get most information from them. All you need to do is learn how to find that information!
Holiday season and businesses – the perfect recipe for guaranteed success!
There you have it! As you can see, preparing for holidays doesn’t necessarily have to be scary! All you need is a bit of planning out in advance and to keep your eyes and ears wide open!
We deeply hope that you enjoyed this article and learned something new. With the holiday season approaching, you may actually need to implement these suggestions into your company to ensure a nice and smooth experience with no issues on the horizon.
Once again, we recommend taking advantage of the tools and strategies available out there to make your work easier. If you would like to learn more about the previously mentioned online booking platform that will change the way you manage your appointments forever, don’t hesitate to head over to our website.
Other than that, we wish you a fruitful and prosperous holiday season and hope to have you back on our blog soon!
