Your Business Guide to Beating Post-Vacation Fatigue

It’s no surprise that people shop more during the holiday season. A report from Adobe Analytics found that consumers spent $80.3 billion — and that was online alone — from November 1 to December 6, 2018.

If you were lucky, your business enjoyed great seasonal success.

But whether you’ve made a big profit or experienced a dip in holiday sales, there are ways to increase sales in January. I am sharing 6 of my favorites:

1. Launch another sale.

While customers may feel post-holiday fatigued after an overwhelming number of Black Friday, Cyber ​​Monday, Christmas, and Boxing Day deals, you can still reach your target audience with a tempting winter discount.

Here’s a good example: Home and clothing retailer Anthropologie is having a winter sale on all sale items. By taking another 40% off items that are already at a reduced price, they are enticing customers and removing old stock to make room for new spring inventory.

Remember that your fans are smart, so be authentic instead of just putting a sale sign on a poorly selling product or calling a small discount “winter clearance.”

2. Bind New Year’s resolutions.

No matter what product or service you’re selling, there’s probably a way to tie in the “New Year, New You” angle.

A 2018 survey by Tangerine found that nearly 70% of Canadians have made resolutions. More than half of those surveyed focused on improving their physical health and almost a third wanted to improve their financial management.

So start by thinking about how your product or service improves:

• Financial, personal or professional success.
• health or wellness
• Confidence or self-esteem
• productivity
• Relations

Then, brainstorm ways you could incorporate New Year’s resolutions and goals into your sales program to avoid a post-holiday sales slump. For example, we created a publication for one of our clients, using personal success in 2020 to drive sales of their book Crash Course in Human Resources for Small Businesses.

3. Create a buying guide or blog.

While we tend to pay most of the attention to Christmas, don’t forget that people want gift ideas all year long.

According to the 2019 Holiday Shopping report, 47% of surveyed gift shoppers didn’t know what to buy. To turn browsers into customers any time of year, guide your visitors. For example, you can create a list of the top 10 popular gifts for teens or moms, or highlight the most popular gifts for Father’s Day.

People will be less overwhelmed and more likely to add an item to their cart with a little guidance, which can really help you boost post-holiday sales.

4. Update your newsletter subscription.

With so much going on in the life of a small business owner, it can be easy to overlook this important marketing tool. Are you offering an ebook that has been active for years with a newsletter signup or promoting an outdated promotion?

Take a look at your e-newsletter subscription page and think about the year ahead. Is there a way to make it more attractive to attract leads and sales?

Maybe you could create new content, like an ebook or video tutorial, or offer a free consultation.

5. Improve your social networks.

If you gave your social media accounts a festive touch, now is the time to take down the decorations, so to speak. Even if you didn’t add any Christmas flair, now is a great opportunity to reflect on the messages you’re posting.

While you shouldn’t update your logo or branding just because it’s a new year, at least do a sweep of your social media to see if you need to change/add:

• Your business hours and location on Facebook and Google My Business.
• Old tweets pinned to your Twitter account.
• Images for Google My Business and Instagram.
• Profile photos for all your social media accounts.

While you might argue that this isn’t a direct way to increase sales after the holidays, you’d be surprised! If you have old assets gathering dust or can’t be bothered to change a Christmas sign on a social media platform, people may wonder how efficient and trustworthy your small business is.

The Right Reasons to Rebrand Your Company Logo

Over time your business will grow and evolve. You can offer new services or products, enter different markets, or target another demographic. If this happens, you may need to consider changing your marketing graphics.

However, you need to be careful not to undo all the hard marketing and branding work you’ve put in and to fully understand how to rebrand for the most effective results. Read more on our website.

6. Get creative with celebrations throughout the year.

There’s a long list of January “holidays” you can check out online to help you get started. As you take note of relevant dates throughout the year, there are sure to be some fun ways to incorporate them into your marketing strategy.

You could offer a discount, a free gift or a promotion related to what you sell. Here’s a delicious example: Italian chain Carrabba’s Italian Grill celebrated National Pasta Day last year with a $10 pasta deal.

One of my favorite examples is what WWF did for World Penguin Day (April 25th coming up!). They shared an informative article “Top 10 Emperor Penguin Facts,” with a call to action to “adopt” one of these lovable waddling birds.

This campaign wowed us so much that we adopted some ourselves! Since the Emperor Penguin is our official mascot, why not?

No, we didn’t get our own penguin, but we did get a plushie, regular updates, stickers, and other cool stuff to support the initiative.

There is no reason why you should wait and accept a drop in sales after the holidays. While we tend to focus a lot of our marketing (and staffing) energy on the festive season, we need to remember that our customers are still out there! They want to hear from us in a meaningful and relevant way.

With a little planning and creativity, you can overcome post-holiday fatigue and set your small business up for a prosperous 2020.