Are you ready for the holidays? I’m not talking about buying a turkey and finishing that gift shopping you normally put off until the last minute. I mean is your business ready for the holidays? It’s not too early to kick off your pre-holiday marketing plan. Here are 4 awesome marketing ideas for the holidays!
#1 Market to drive the right behaviors.
It feels like they’re everywhere during the holidays. “Buy one get one free”, “20% off”, “Sale, Sale, Sale!”. Retail is king during the holidays but service businesses get in the game too. If you run a pet related service business the holidays tend to be a busy, if not the busiest, time of the year. You scramble to accommodate everyone but last-minute bookings create havoc with scheduling.
Do yourself a favor. Use your marketing messages to incentivize your clients to book early. For example, “Get 10% off services if you book before December 1” or “Guarantee your service date by booking by November 1”. This won’t entirely eliminate those last-minute requests but will help spread the load a bit for you.
#2 Don’t focus solely on selling.
You don’t have to be actively selling to people to get noticed. There are always a lot of great pet related charitable organizations looking for donations or volunteers around the holidays. Donate or volunteer your time. Better yet make it a team activity and have your employees get into the giving spirit.
Then tweet, post, Instagram and blog actively about what you’re doing! Post on your social media channels that you and your team spent the afternoon, packing pet gift boxes for a local shelter for example. Take lots of pictures and post them both during and after the event. Have some fun with it!
The idea is to get your name out there so that when people do need your services, you are first in their mind. Furthermore, they’ll appreciate that you didn’t immediately try to sell them something. Rather, they’ll remember you and your company’s generosity and giving spirit!
#3 Send a gift but not just any gift.
Many businesses send small thank you gifts to their client at the end of the year. This is a great practice but make sure you’re being strategic about it. Funds are often limited but that doesn’t mean you can’t do something memorable and meaningful.
Make a list of clients by category; high value clients (those that have generated the most revenue that year), mid-level value clients and new clients. Then pick a gift that is appropriate for each of these levels. That way you can plan your spending to effectively recognize clients based on their value to your company. This seems a bit harsh but the reality is that all clients are not equal and your goal ultimately is to drive revenue growth for your company.
#4 Point out why your business is different.
Perhaps you offer services 365 days per year or you don’t charge a fee for holiday bookings or you offer guaranteed bookings. Now is the time to brag about it! Don’t assume that people know this or that they’ve read about all the wonderful things you offer on your website.
You are one service sending a message in a sea of related messages bombarding people during the holidays. Anything you can say to differentiate yourself during this time will help you get noticed.
Follow these great marketing ideas for the holidays and you’ll have a fantastic holiday!
Other articles you might like:
Getting back to business post pandemic – Marketing
https://thepetbusinesscoach.dog/post-pandemic-marketing/
Eliza is the owner of two successful pet related businesses; Preferred Pet Partners, a pet sitting and dog walking company, and The Pet Business Coach, offering coaching and resources to aspiring or current pet related business entrepreneurs. She maintains two awesome blogs. One for pet parents https://preferredpetpartners.com/blog/ and one for pet business owners https://thepetbusinesscoach.dog/blog-page/. Eliza also supports various animal rescue and shelter organizations. Eliza and her husband have three furry family members. Visit her websites: www.preferredpetpartners.com or www.thepetbusinesscoach.dog.
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