Small and large businesses alike feel the pain of a nose dive in sales during and right after the holidays. Unless you have a business that just logged a record year in sales for selling one of the hottest toys or games for the season, we hear you. You are not alone in crunching the numbers to make ends meet as the New Year rolls in and past you. However, it is possible to avoid where many businesses fail during the New Years sales lurch. These 4 post holiday PR and marketing tips you will definitely help you succeed.
Many folks will tell you that this is the time to turn off all advertising, PR and marketing expenses. They will advise you to save your budget and ensure that you have it to spend later in the year. Do not do this. Now is the time to lock in customers looking for answers just like yourself. A smart business owner knows that you have to spend money to make money. It was Bill Gates that said “ “If I was down to my last dollar, I’d spend it on public relations”. With good reason, as he knew that spending that single dollar on an investment like promoting your brand via PR and marketing was much better than spending it on an expense in a time of need. Kick up the gear on your post holiday PR campaign with your publicist. Release that new press release, send out those valentines day promo pitches to the media. For goodness sakes just do not turn it off.
Happy New Year never sounded so sweet as when it is spoken on the telephone. Ring up your old clients, even the ones where things went sour, just to say Happy New Year. Do not ask them to purchase anything. Do not ask them to resign or restart a business relationship. Simply wish them a Happy New Year. Tell them you were thinking of them and let them know that you are willing to lend a helping hand any way possible by connecting them to people they might want to meet off of your LinkedIn, by providing your insight on any projects they are working on free of charge etc. This little gesture will go a long way. It's easier to bring an old client back to life who was once in love with you then it is to land a new one. Restructure and assist them in anything they might need to stay top of mind.
As the CEO of a PR and Marketing firm, I am still always delighted at how when we run a new press release on the newswire announcing a new client we receive 5-10 calls for those within the new clients’ industry. The power of a newswire is one that flies under the radar way too often. You know who uses them the most? Public companies. The reason is they report their earnings and changes often. Bad earnings hit a newswire, good earnings hit a newswire, new employee in a senior position- they push to a newswire all via a press release. It’s because they work and really garner you traction. A really great company to use is ereleases.com if you are doing it yourself. If not ring up your favorite publicist and have them create you a 500-600 word press release and push it to the newswire for you. I’m sure you have some good news to announce for 2019.
When the sales begin to drag bring the mountain to Muhammed! Nows the time to gear up your social media presence. This means take a look at your page aesthetic. Create fun business banners and memes and push them to your Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Google+ pages. Engage with your audience on LinkedIn by commenting on their concerns or accomplishments. Really network within your social media. A few great resources to help you along are:
Just remember businesses only move as fast as what we put into them. If your business is slow this hiccup will pass and if you follow these 4 tips I guarantee you those slow business pauses come next year will be a thing of the past.
