Greetings, and Happy Halloween! I trust that your doorstep is ready for friendly ghosts and goblins tomorrow, and, if you’re anything like me, you’ve generously stocked up on full-sized candy bars to keep the demons (aka old teens) at bay. Halloween is a unique and singularly enjoyable holiday, standing apart from the cluster of others. It’s also a gentle nudge for my business, a reminder that the holidays are approaching.
As I witness the stores adorning themselves in holiday finery and my newsfeed awash with early gift ideas, I can’t help but feel the need to take these three weeks before the holidays kick into high gear for some much-needed maintenance.
November is the time for me to put my ducks in a row for the following year. I collaborate with my trusted suppliers to fine-tune my marketing strategy and sales forecasts while giving my business plan a thorough once-over to ensure I’m on track to wrap up the current year and get a glimpse of the first quarter of the next. If you haven’t already, having these plans in a tangible, documented form is crucial rather than just ideas.
Although the business pace may slow for the rest of the year, I anticipate a surge come January 2nd. In 2024, I predict that demand will still be with us, but perhaps the destinations will shuffle a bit—will Europe be strong? So, I seize this lull to dive deep into my email program, scheduling all the non-sales email communications for the year ahead. It’s remarkable how many you can prepare in just a few hours before the keyboard.
Emphasizing non-sales emails is vital because no one enjoys a hard sell, but everyone appreciates being remembered. As the wise Mike Marchev always says, “You need to let them know you exist.”
The ideal days for me to send my clients a simple email to remind them of my presence include:
- Halloween
- Thanksgiving
- The holiday season (I tend to avoid specific holidays, but that’s your choice)
- New Year’s
- Valentine’s Day
- St. Patrick’s Day (an excellent opportunity for a subtle nod to a trip to Ireland)
- The arrival of Spring (all calendars will mark the first day of Spring)
- The beginning of Summer or the start of school break
- Fourth of July
- Labor Day, signaling the arrival of Fall
- Special dates like birthdays and anniversaries
Of course, your results may vary!
If you’re effectively using a CRM, you can likely export a list of birthdays by month and send one broadcast to the appropriate customers each month.
The beauty of doing this now is that most email programs have a copy or duplicate feature, and few will remember the contents of that Halloween email you sent a few years ago. So, the content can remain relatively evergreen with a few tweaks.
Now is the time to rev up your engines and ensure everything is in place to hit the ground running on January 2nd. It’ll be here before you know it!
And, of course, Happy Halloween!
Boo!