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A Holiday Message from Marketing: Three Simple Tips to Help You Close out the Year

Wednesday, December 10th, 2008 | Sarah Schunk

Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” offers many timeless lessons, including one of my favorites: a day in your pajamas can be one of the best and worst days of your life. Many business leaders this year must be feeling caught between two very different Christmas outlooks Dickens wrote about: 1) Ebenezer Scrooge’s ba-humbug philosophy and 2) the down-and-out Cratchit family’s united and cheerful defiance of gloomy realities.

Marketing can be a sentimental business unit—look at me beginning this blog by referencing a classic holiday tearjerker. But sentiment has its place, sometimes in sales, frequently in customer appreciation and retention and often in brand image. With that in mind, we at ClearEdge are going to get caught up in the silver bells, mistletoe and Tiny Tim-like joys of the season and share three simple marketing tips to help you cheerfully close out the year.

Send Glad Tidings
Even if you don’t feel like making merry, take time to wish your customers, prospects, partners, suppliers and employees well this holiday season. In downtimes, business and personal networks are worth their weight in golden jingle bells so make an effort to make contact before the end of the year.

If your budget cannot include a holiday mailing, e-greetings are acceptable and personal calls are even better. It gives you a chance to check in with important resources, underscore the importance of key relationships and, perhaps, gather some valuable market information.

Make a List, Check It Twice
Build and vet your first quarter prospect list now! 2009 is going to be a tremendously competitive year, and you need to have your sales strategy in place long before that apple starts to fall in New York City.

Take several hours this December to work with your sales teams, analyze the existing pipeline and build strong prospect lists you can begin working from at the first of January 2009.

Put a Penny in the Old Man’s Hat
Corporate giving programs have swelled in popularity and generosity in recent years. If your organization has made a commitment to a charitable organization, see if it’s possible to continue or even boost those contributions this holiday season.

Client and employee retention are powerfully influenced by a company’s culture and image. Continuing your good efforts despite difficult times speaks volumes to the values most important to your organization.

We at ClearEdge wish you a safe and joyful holiday season. May your merry days be many and the ba-humbugs be few and far between!

Sarah Schunk
Senior Writer
ClearEdge Marketing

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