Don’t Let Your Clients Forget You During the Holidays!
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This can be a tough time of year for many professional organizers. Although some clients will ask for your help decluttering before hosting holiday get-togethers, others may be preoccupied with other activities. In this post, William Reynolds describes the actions you can take right now to ensure that you stay in their minds until they’re ready to think about getting organized.
Does getting your clients’ attention during the holiday season feel like herding cats? No matter how brilliant a job you’ve done at helping them stay organized all year long, the holidays invariably prove the exception to the rule as numerous stresses and distractions send people running in all directions at once. But don’t write the season off as a loss just yet — here are some tactics you can employ to remind your clients of your existence and even boost their warm and fuzzy feelings about you:
Personal interaction
As a professional organizer you spend a fair amount of time on site — not to hob-nob, but to evaluate hardcopy storage, paper flow, filing techniques and other issues. Imagine your clients’ surprise, then, when you come to their door just to say hello and extend holidays wishes! At the very least, make some phone calls to convey your holiday wishes. It will help create the feeling of a genuine personal bond, and the mere sound of your voice might jog some clients into some last-minute requests before they become engulfed in seasonal activities.
Don’t forget about your social and professional networks, either. ‘Tis the season for holiday parties, industry mixers and other public events that can help you snag new relationships while reinforcing old ones.
Letters
In this age of junk mail and form letters, a personalized message says a lot about your appreciation of each individual client. Don’t you feel flattered to receive a handwritten note thanking you for your loyalty as a customer over the past year and wishing you the best for the New Year? Take the time and effort to pick up a pen and craft these notes to your V.I.P. customers, partners and vendors. If you simply can’t subject your carpal tunnel to that kind of work, Send Out Cards and other services provide the next best thing — thank-you notes printed in a convincing “handwritten” font and sent out automatically to your list.
Gifts
Everybody loves to receive a thoughtful gift at this time of year, including your organizing clients. Make gifts as personalized as possible, taking into consideration your client’s interests, line of work, cultural heritage and personal history with your company. If you can’t think of a clever item, go with tried-and-true foods and beverages. Remember to include handsome gift wrapping and a personal note for maximum impact.
Newsletters
If your clients pay more attention to their mailboxes than the Internet during the holidays, make sure they find your newsletter in there among the other goodies. A mix of pertinent information, helpful tips for holiday organizing, and of course, a “Note from the Owner” conveying your heartfelt thanks for a great year can all make an impression that helps you stay at the top of their minds. You can craft your own newsletter from scratch, or you can outsource most of the job by sending a customizable industry-standard newsletter to your online and/or offline mailing lists.
Press releases, blog articles, etc.
Just because offline outreach works particularly well at holiday time, that doesn’t mean you should neglect your online marketing activities. For example, you can make an effort to involve or mention your clients in press releases, online interviews or blog articles, thus ensuring your clients’ attention and appreciation when these items hit cyberspace. This approach can work all year round; Cecilia Ibru, for example, mentions many notable individuals and organizations by name in her blog, which focuses on the financial services sector.
Which of these methods will yield the best results for your professional organizing enterprise? Don’t pick just one; try them all! Your clients will love you — and remember you — for it.
Make Time for What Matters Most This Holiday Season
The holidays are a perfect opportunity to connect with clients and loved ones, but these meaningful activities take time. With my Website Care Plan, you can free up hours in your schedule by letting me handle the technical tasks like daily backups and weekly updates. Focus on creating lasting impressions this holiday season—I’ve got your website covered!
Image courtesy of Grant Cochrane at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
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Christmas is imminent but the activities of online marketing can not be ignored. The advices found in this article will allow me to organize myself better and not to overlook anything.
Good luck with your marketing – and merry Christmas!
Thank you for the excellent ideas, not to falter during the holidays, as the web marketing is never on vacation 🙂
I got into the habit a number of years ago of sending cards of “Thanks” to all my clients from the year before thanksgiving. Then I also wish them a very happy holiday season and new year.
This helped me avoid the issue of which particular greeting to send, and it also helps me get those out before the craziness of December hits. I agree that snail mail makes a bigger impression. I’ve been happy to see my cards displayed in multiple homes since I sent them. 🙂
That’s a really good idea, Seana. December always seems to be crazy, even though I do much less than I used to, so anything we can do to simplify things while still showing appreciation for our clients is very helpful.