Year-End Marketing Strategies – with a Holiday Flavor

Whoa – is the end of this year really around the corner? Maybe, maybe not. As Winston Churchill once said, “Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”

Oh, and I’m sure that explained everything “very well.”

One point I’d draw from that pertinent pithiness: if you’ve gone on a little too long thinking and acting as if you’re a “start-up company,” now’s the time to move into the end of the beginning. You are, after all, rolling into another year. When you face the end of one year and enter another, you’re moving into the cycles of life and business during which all things happen (or don’t).

One thing that happens (or doesn’t) is that you keep the customers you’ve earned. Another thing that happens (or doesn’t) is that when a season changes, you sweep in and grab opportunity by its seasonal hand.

That’s where you are – because it’s where we all are.

As another well-known orator once said – in fact, he’s so well-known, he goes by the moniker Anonymous: 

“And in the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.” For whatever stage of business, we could turn that around to … It’s not the years in your business that count. It’s the customers in your database. And more to the point … It’s not the customers in your database that count. It’s the ones that keep calling you their contractor.

Your Simplest Year-End Strategy

Customer retention marketing is the time-honored tradition of focusing on those customers who matter most – those who buy more, buy more often, give more referrals. And this end-of-year holiday season is the time to reach out to them, once again, to keep them in your fold when the calendar turns pages.

A simple and cost-effective way of keeping the name of your business in the minds of all of those potential repeat customers is sending seasonal “Holiday Cards” or postcards.  These are great because they are quick, to the point and serve as an inexpensive way of keeping your customers from wandering off to your competition.  And there are other things you can do too…

Simple Ways to Spread More Holiday Cheer

1. Change your Voice Greeting. Help maintain the festive seasonal spirit with a friendly greeting, a la: “Happy Holidays from ABC! How may I bring you some cheer?” 

2. Participate in media “giving events.” Make toy or canned good donations in your company’s name during your media charity events. Or, even better, ask a local media outlet to forward names of needy families. Agree to serve a family of your choosing and you’ll be on that media’s news for having stepped up. The good will pays your heart, regardless, but the exposure and recognition will pay your business.

3. Have an Open House to invite customers, friends and the media. Contractors don’t see this a lot – customers coming to you – but you can enjoy some real face time with customers, reinforcing your mission of your service to them, and they can see how you carry out your day-to-day operations with professionalism. Open houses also give you a chance to tell customers and prospects about services they may not know about. And they give customers a chance to say to their friends, “I’m going to my contractor’s open house today.”

Bottom Line: Now is the time! The holidays provide a great opportunity to connect with your customers and cement the relationships that will bring continued sales throughout the coming years.  That means you don’t have to be “selling” to sell your customers on why you deserve their business.  Do a great job of saying “happy holidays” and your customers will thank you with their future sales, referrals and loyalty.