The holidays offer great marketing opportunities and an extra chance to promote your services and products in a new way.
Ezine and website publishers will be looking for articles about the holidays that suit their demographic market, so get those articles ready. FamilyContent.com, for instance, has put out a call for holiday articles, and is setting up a special place on their website.
Here’s an article on Thanksgiving that has general appeal www.family-content.com/articles/recent.shtml .
How can you work this angle? If you’re a corporate coach, write about how to give a great Christmas office party. If you’re a therapist, write about how to cope with the holidays. If you’re an accountant, write about getting your papers in order for the end of the year and making necessary contributions to non-profits for tax purposes. If you sell flowers, toys, books or candy, well it’s your big season! Write an article for FamilyContent telling parents what the best toys to buy for their children are, or “what’s hot and what’s not.”
Have you planned your business Christmas card? You can make one using free graphics from the Internet and ivory, felt-textured greeting card paper and envelope pack for inkjet printers from OfficeDepot so you can add your own message.
You can also buy business and corporate cards online from many sources. Jacquie Lawson has just put out her first corporate Christmas card, which you can personalize — do you know Chudleigh? Don’t miss it; it’s at http://jacquielawson.com/corporate.asp .
There’s also the option of sending an email holiday card. Send a special e-mail recipe card (www.mealtime.org/ecards /cardcat.asp )something from www.bluemountain.com or customize your own animated card at www.freewebcards.com and include a poem. Whichever you choose, send your business greeting card (with appropriate mention of your company, services, etc.) to everyone in your rolodex and e-rolodex. It’s another chance to get in touch. (Do it for Thanksgiving too!)
Do remember that your customers and clients probably represent many faiths, and a generic “holiday greeting” may be your best bet.
Don’t forget the rash of charity balls, banquets and events which take place during the holidays. Make up a gift certificate donating your services, or donate a product to the silent auction. Ask that you name appear in the program and the newsletter — don’t be bashful, it’s expected — and prepare an attractive presentation package to sit on the auction table. And stick a brochure and business cards in there too! If you can afford it, sponsor a table. This will usually get your company better billing on the program.
Next you’ll need gift certificates for your services and products, or credit gifts. Here’s a huge site of free Christmas graphics to get you started — http://www.christmas-graphics.com . Be sure and put a sample on your website and in your ezine.
Have you prepared a holiday look for your ezine? Constant Contact has a nice line of holiday templates for you use at www.roving.com . Check them out.
Sending gifts to special clients, vendors, and special referral sources is also good holiday promoting as well as good will. 12DaysofChristmasGifts.com has a wonderful line of attractive gift baskets – fruit, candy, wine, flowers, the whole nine yards which can be yours at the click of a mouse!
You may wish to choose a greeting card that supports your favorite charity. You can get a catalogue from the American Cancer Society by calling (800) 585-7288.
There might even be time for you to get a special Christmas ebook ready – see www.susandunn.cc/ christmas.htm . Assemble some of your favorite quotes, fables, memories, recipes, and or anecdotes — perhaps ones that pertain to your field or products — choose some graphics from the Christmas graphics site above, and there you have it!
But wait, there’s more! If you’ve worked with the press at all, or would like to get to know them, make up holiday baskets or gifts for the reporters or editors who helped, or might. Stick one of your brochures inside, and perhaps a custom-shaped CD in it. What’s this? Well www.mediatechplus.com will make you a CD holiday card that not only contains your holiday greeting to your clients, but a holiday Christmas music classic. You can also use it for a holiday party invitation. It can be in still picture format or include a short movie – a “brief multimedia event,” as they call it.
Spend some time looking around on the Internet for some thematic holidays gifts too, like chocolate. If you’re a coach, members.tripod.com/~Chocolates/sports.html offers a chocolate whistle with “I’M THE COACH” written on it!
The holidays offer many opportunities to reach out and greet your client and customers. Don’t let these opportunities pass you by, and plan ahead because you’re going to be busy!
Susan Dunn, MA, Marketing Coach,
http://www.webstrategies.cc. Marketing consultation,
implementation, website review, SEO optimization, article
writing and submission, help with ebooks and other
strategies. Susan is the author or How to Write an eBook
and Market It on the Internet. Mailto:sdunn@susandunn.cc
for information and free ezine. Specify Checklist.
