Everyone knows the holiday season puts a pinch on our time, our attention, and our budget. Family and friends, seasonal parties and other affairs, shopping for gifts, and holiday traffic and congestion, whether it be cars on the highway or people in malls, all cram our calendars and our schedules to the hilt.
Because of the extra helpings on all of our proverbial plates, it is essential that you, the entrepreneur, carve the promotion and marketing for your SMB this time of year with a keen awareness of, and a savvy sensitivity to, these greater demands on your prospects and customers. Without such a nod, your message will be lost in the shuffle. Work with designers who can enthrall with clever simplicity, hire copywriters who understand the value of brevity in communication, and think “economy” in terms of your content marketing.
By economy I mean not only the space and time your marketing takes to be seen and absorbed by your harried customers this time of year, but also the pricing, special deals, and offers you are presenting their overtaxed pocketbooks for your line of products or services. An eye on savings can definitely be a dealmaker over the holiday period, whether you’re selling high end items or luxuries to the well-to-do, or a more practical line of goods or commodities to those on a fixed income. It doesn’t matter. During the holiday crunch, almost everyone wants to keep more money in their pocket than less!
And getting back to the “space and time” thing, your business’s tangible presence on digital media should be shorter and sweeter than usual. Your website and landing page should pack a punch, but quickly and efficiently like a boxer’s left hook. Remember you’re competing with all that other holiday falderal. To increase traffic and sales, and get optimum bounce, don’t stuff your website like a Thanksgiving turkey, but “decorate” it like a seductive, arresting dining room or mantelpiece that you would love to visit over the holidays. Let your social media campaign get in the spirit with special sales, events, and holiday posts, but don’t overwhelm your customers’ time and patience by overdoing it.
Keep in mind these content marketing “stocking stuffers:”
- Be sensitive to your customers’ time, attention, and budget.
- Work with writers and designers who are great communicators. Brevity. Simplicity. Economy.
- Whatever your market, saving your customer money should be a priority.
- Don’t “overstuff the turkey,” but design your marketing and media presence in an inviting and time-friendly way.
Michael V is a freelance writer available on WriterAccess, a marketplace where clients and expert writers connect for assignments.
