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If you run a small business, you need to get ready for the holidays about six months ahead of time. That’s right – when you’re sweltering in heat, you should be thinking about your poster printing needs for Thanksgiving and Christmas, and when you’re freezing in snow and ice, you need to be writing the brochures celebrating your 4th of July promotion. It can be hard to get into that holiday mindset so far ahead of time, but you’ll get used to it after doing it for a few years. Here are five marketing issues you need to consider well in advance of the holidays: Your staffing needs: You may not think that your staff will have any effect on your holiday marketing effort, but remember that marketing isn’t just brochures and television commercials. The quality of your customer service is part of your marketing campaign – a big part actually. The experience of your customers is all part of your marketing, whether you plan it to be or not. Be sure you have plenty of customer service staff hired and trained so that they can be helpful to rushed customers during the holidays. Get your decorations well in advance: You need to have your decorations on hand well in advance so that you aren’t rushing around during the holidays. Plus, businesses are starting to decorate for the holidays earlier and earlier in the year, and you need to do the same to be competitive. Having to shop for the decorations the week other businesses are putting up their decorations will make you late and not seem as festive. Buy traditional decorations, like a fake Christmas tree, the previous year when they go on clearance. That way you’ll save money and be prepared! Buy modern or new trendy decorations each year if you’d like, but get those traditional ones on clearance. Get your advertising in place: Magazines and other publications plan their holiday issues many months before the holidays – generally at least 3 to 4 months ahead of time. Many of them start to take advertising up to six months ahead of time. To make sure you’re included, call the magazine or publication well ahead of time to ask when they’re advertising deadline is for various holidays. Plan for things to go wrong: No matter how well you plan your marketing strategy for the holidays, something is bound to go wrong. Have a contingency plan ready to go so that you’re not scrambling to fix things when they go wrong. Have a plan if no customers show up and have a plan if too many customers show up. Don’t limit yourself to Christmas: Most businesses think of Christmas as prime time for holiday sales and profits. But don’t try to make your product or business fit into this particular holiday if it doesn’t. Many candy stores target Valentine’s Day as their one big holiday, and fireworks companies target the 4th of July. Evaluate which holidays are most important to your business and plan for those, not the ones everyone else is planning for.
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