Why Does The World Stop At Christmas?

Within the next week or so, offices across the country will be closing for Christmas and not re-opening their doors until 3rd January 2012. While that’s only a couple of weeks, no-one will really get going again until the second week in January, so it almost feels like there is a month off for everyone.

Why is this and how can you stop it having a major impact on your business?

The reason it always feels as though there is a huge gulf between end of December and beginning of January is our mental perception of this. December is all about anticipation and getting excited about what next year has in store, whereas January is reality time when you have to get your head down and implement what you said you would back in December.

So if you know that this gulf exists there are some messages you can send out to your contacts to get them to buy from you.

In December…

….your messages should be all about anticipation. Show them how taking advantage of your product or service now will help them prepare for next year. You need to give them a reason not to push things back until January and why they need to act now.

Quite frankly this is why the 25% off notices in shops do not work in December. Why? Well think about it. One of the things we associate with January is a January Sale – not a December one. In our minds, we’re expecting retailers to have this sale still continuing in January so where is the reason for us to buy now.

You need to come up with a strong reason why people should act before the end of December. A sale probably isn’t going to cut it, but maybe an offer that ends just before Christmas is (i.e. you can’t get it in January). Other things that are likely to work are your Christmas present to your customers; treat yourself and things that make people go awww.

In January…

…your messages should all be about starting a new year and the excitement that brings combined with the reality of colder days and nights and potentially snow. Think about the time of year – what do you associate with January? Sales? Snow? New Year’s Resolutions? New Start?

Then try to combine these within your messages.

Again give people a reason to act now rather than delay things until later on in the year.

So, yes Christmas and the New Year can be a testing time for businesses when people delay things until the New Year and then delay again until later on in the year, but there are ways and means that this can be overcome.

Try some of these ideas within your business and see what the outcome is.

Exceptional Thinking (http://www.exceptionalthinking.co.uk) provides help and advice to small business owners on their marketing. For 50 free ideas to promote your business, visit our website at http://www.exceptionalthinking.co.uk/50ideas.htm