While some entrepreneurs are slowing down in December, there’s a few of us that are too excited about the New Year to wait on implementing our ideas!
And this year, I’ve seen a bunch of REALLY exciting winter marketing strategies going around the internet, and wanted to share them with you.
And while it might be too late for you to squeeze these in this year… it’s definitely not too early to go ahead and put them on your 2018 calendar!
So, if you’re ready to dive in, here’s my top winter marketing strategies to try on next year:
#1 – Advent Your Content
Whether you celebrate Christmas or not, doing an advent theme content, marketing or giveaway can be a great way to re-connect with your audience, and give them something to get excited about with you in December.
Especially timely if you’re doing any type of launch in January!
Here’s two of my favorite ways to use the “12 Days of X” to create your own advent-urous content plan for next year. 😉
Example A. 12 Days of Blogs/ FB Lives/ Workouts/ Etc.
If you use the advent calendar to create content, there’s tons of great content-based things you can do with it.
Besides blogs, you can also think outside of the box with your content and do 12 days of recipes, FB lives, quote cards, songs, or even workouts!
Like the Tone It Up girls did here.
Whether you’re #TeamBlogmas (12 days of blogs), or #TeamVlogmas (12 days of video) – they are both going to win over your audience!
Example B. 12 Days of Giveaways
Instead of creating content, you can also give it away! This is a great option for fashion bloggers, product marketers or even major celebs!
But even as a more traditional infopreneur, if you have a bunch of little PDFs, ebooks or pre-recorded workshops, you could totally “give” one away every day to your list, and announce it on social media to get a daily opt in.
Here’s some of my favorite 12 days of giveaways:
NOTE: If you don’t celebrate Christmas, by all means adjust this arbitrary number to 8 crazy nights of Hanukkah, or one awesome week of Kwanzaa. The more authentic version of “you” in the marketing, the better!
#2 – Blow It Out
If you are a product-based business, or you have a library of digital courses or mini-trainings, this could be a great marketing strategy to try in 2018!
If you already have your store set up, simply take a set percentage automatically off of all items, like my client did in her Next Level Health Store…
Or, you can also have ranging percentages off, like the experts at DigitalMarkter, with their End of the Year Super Sale.[/one_half_last]
It even includes a custom song on the sales page linked above… so you should definitely check it out!
And if there is any product or service you no longer want to carry into 2018, this time of year can be a great time to do a close down sale as well.
#3 – Mail It Home
While the other winter marketing strategies listed above take a little time and planning, this one only takes some heart!
I can’t recommend enough sending holiday cards or gifts to your family, friends and clients.
It goes a long way in keeping them as your loyal, raving fan,. And keeps you top of mind for any new referrals in the New Year.
Think to a time you received unexpected cards or flowers, and how it made you feel! Now, pass that joy onto your warmest leads and best clients.
#4 – Only The Best
If you’re reading this and you are move overwhelmed by the ideas so far than excited, this one is for you!
There is a way to “wind down” the year, either by featuring your top posts of the year with a quick round up. Or you can even release 4 week by week in December, but add an update to the content or something that may have shifted since publishing it way-back-when.
Or, you can wrap up the biggest lessons, takeaways or tools you’re leaving behind in 2017, and what you’re carrying forward into the New Year.
Here’s a few great examples:
- The New York Times’ Year in Review
- Smart Passive Income’s 2017 Goals
- My (own!) lessons from 2016
- She’s Got Systems Year in Review
- Social Media Examiner’s Top 10
#5 – Save Some For Yourself
This may be the most important winter marketing strategy of them all!
Take. Time. Off.
Go ahead and put that in your 2018 calendar right now!
I always start the year optimistically expecting to magically have all of December off for the Festivus…
… but then somehow end up working up to the very Christmas hour!
So, do this with me now – and promise to take some time off this next holiday season.
Wishing you love and happy holidays!
These are all great strategies, Jessica! I plan to implement a few in particular (already thinking ahead to this time next year) because I will have a physical + digital products shop up and going — and I’ll be excited to try out some giveaways and holiday discounts to see how well they go over with customers!