Thanksgiving meals and deals on Black Friday. Celebrating the holidays with friends and family. Elevating your organization’s marketing game. Toasting a new year. As we enter the last two months of 2019, one of the above themes may not be on our minds. However, it is good business practice to take count of your current marketing tactics and make sure the right strategy—and budget—is in place for 2020.
An acquaintance recently asked to pick my brain about ideas to get more clients in the door. The first question I asked was about her current marketing strategy, which involves a website and social media channels. The next question I posed: “What are you doing within those channels?” It soon became clear that a good next step would be focusing on concise brand messaging of the business’ unique value proposition.
As detailed in last month’s article, a clear value proposition is invaluable for showcasing what your organization does better than anybody else. And now is the perfect time to make sure that your brand message is clear for your target audience. How you can bring immeasurable value to your client is the best gift that you can give this holiday season.
In the spirit of giving, here are the top three strategic areas to focus on to end the year on a strong note:
Strategic marketing planning: What are your marketing objectives? If your marketing strategy and execution are a well-oiled machine, this could be reviewing the current mix, budget, and messaging. Tweaks could be made to make sure that the current initiatives are bringing the desired outcomes.
If you’re like a lot of business owners, your focus is on the daily operation of your organization. Your priorities are providing amazing solutions to your clients and growing your business. Yet communicating your value proposition must also play a role. With this in mind, I recommend:
Brand identification and management: Does your perceived brand match the value proposition to your audience? It is crucial for an organization to streamline the “5 Ws”—Who, What, When, Where, and Why—into a compelling brand with an ongoing strategy of how to best communicate it. And it’s also important to share this compelling brand story and value proposition in the right mix of both traditional and digital channels. As we turn the page to a new calendar year, why not take some time to make sure your brand message is the right one? It’s an exercise that will take you into 2020 with a fresh story.
Expressions of gratitude: I once read a statistic that it takes someone eight times to truly feel thanked. Not only did this blow my mind, but it served as inspiration to make sure my clients know how much I appreciate their business in multiple ways throughout the year.
The holiday season is the perfect time to show gratitude to clients, partners, vendors, mentors, and employees. And there are multiple options for doing so: Thanksgiving-themed appreciation, the traditional holiday gift, or even a New Year’s touchpoint to kick off a new year right. An organization doesn’t have to have a huge budget to show appreciation and thanks—a sincere message goes a long way.
Cheers to making the most of November and December and beginning 2020 with a bang!
This post was originally written by Shan Bates-Bundick for The Las Vegas Metro Chamber of Commerce’s November-December 2019 Business Voice magazine. Click here to view the original article.