I was in the mall today. Christmas is everywhere! It seems like it arrives in retail far to early! Even before Halloween or early October — soon it’ll be late summer when the Christmas tree make their appearance!

In my family, we always waited to mid November before even mentioning the Holidays!

Well, no matter what you feel like, it’s time for you (as a business owner) to think Christmas. If you’re a retailer, it’s already too late. But for most businesses, now is the time to plan for a successful Christmas season.

Here’s what you should be doing right now!

• Start a List. Christmas is a great time of the year to thank your clients/customers. Start considering who should be on that list. It’s always good to have 2 lists: one for the best clients, another for the majority of clients. This can be divided in several ways, but I find that it should be based on profitability.
• Produce a card, decide on a gift. Your card goes to everyone, the gift only to a special amount of people. Consider what your card will look like, what it should say, will it be custom or will it be store-bought. Then decide on a creative gift that will be appreciated by the majority of your “profitable” audience. It should be branded in some way — and the more “multi-use” the better.
• Plan on a good date to send the material. After Thanksgiving is good. If you’re too late in the season, it gives a subtle message that you were late thinking about creating/buying it. Then do a work-back schedule for printing, addressing, postage, mailing, etc. After you know everyone has received it, you can make a personal call to your very best clients to personally wish them the best of the season and say “thank you”.
• Other options for Christmas: Consider a festive theme for your website or sending an appropriate eblast for thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years.

It’s always good to “thank” your clients and this is a perfect time! It’s also a relevant reminder that you want to do work with them (however, refrain from too aggressively mentioning this at Christmas!). And as a final word, have fun! Play up the spirit and enjoy yourself. This is the most wonderful time of the year!

PS. We’d love to help you with any of these steps — it’s always best to make sure your promotional material looks like the rest of your marketing material! Contact me today!