What do most people do in December, are they working hard or hardly working?
This topic was discussed recently by one of my mentors Darren Hardy, Publisher of Success Magazine. I want to share what I learned and implement into my own marketing strategy. Most successful and focused business people don’t fall into the holiday distractions and use that as a reason not to leverage their time at the end of the year. The tip here is that those who use this time toward the end of the year will separate themselves from their competition. By allocating your time and focus now on what offers the most potential it is likely this effort is what will catapult you into January.
3 Steps You Can Do Now
1.) Build relationships in December with clients, partners, suppliers and team members.
2.) Narrow your relationship list to those who are your best advocates.
3.) Invest in the people who will bring you income in January. Investing can mean both time and specially chosen holiday gifts.
Create a Marketing Calendar For The New Year Now!
Creating a marketing calendar now provides you focus when communicating with the people you want to build relationships with. By knowing what you intend to do month by month, you can then speak to that goal more effectively. For example, in November and December I focus my time on booking speaking and training opportunities for January that are related to marketing and lead generation. Why? Because my target market are those people who are focused on getting more leads in January and are looking for new ways to market and engage with prospects.
An easy way to start a calendar is to choose an applicable theme for each month focusing your marketing efforts around one central theme. This makes it simpler to generate content and promote it. You can find themes by using a calendar of holiday and observances such as Brownielocks. Here are some examples for January: Financial Wellness Month – great of you are a financial planner, or Be Kind To Food Servers month – and if I owned a restaurant I would play this one up!
Know what Separates You From Your Competition?
Having clarity around why you are different than your competition and how you will communicate that difference is the key to dominating your niche. When you are building your relationships this month it will be imperative that you are able to share this. According to marketing genius John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing, “Get really, really clear about the single-minded point of difference that some narrowly defined ideal client cannot live without and you’ve got the secret to marketing success.”
Finding a point of differentiation is more than “We give good service” because quite frankly everyone says that, be more specific. Some companies use guarantees as a way to be different which can work if your guarantee is valuable and demonstrates your commitment to be the best. Think about your personal story and how you can incorporate that into your point of differentiation. If you are struggling with this, while you are out building relationships in December, make a point of contacting clients and asking them why they do business with you, what do you do that others don’t and if they have referred – ask them why. These questions will get your closer to articulating why you are different than your competition.
By the way, if you don’t subscribe to Success Magazine, I encourage you to gift it to yourself this holiday! or here’s an idea… gift it to a business client.
Please leave me a comment about what you do in December to leverage your business? I’d love to hear your ideas. – JoAnne
