We're finally approaching my favourite seasons, autumn and winter! Along with the big scarves and popping out for hot chocolate, these months have the potential to be the best ever for your business.
Here are 6 ways you can have the best final quarter of the year!
Having a great few months might look different to each of us, it could be having a high number of sales in the lead up to Christmas, or it could mean marketing takes less time so you can have an autumn break and recharge your batteries.
Whatever success looks like for you, these 6 ways will help you to gain focus and push forward for the final part of the year.
Improve your mindset
When winter comes it’s really easy to take a step back, get cosy and hibernate for the rest of the year. That’s definitely okay, but if you want to keep some consistency with your marketing you’ll need to get into the mindset of promoting your business all year round.
How will you have the best quarter EVER if you’re not ready to talk about your business?
First things first we need to figure out what stops you from showing up and talking about your business online. Is this getting in your way? What are your fears?
It could be confidence, technology, not knowing what to say or feeling bored by marketing so it’s another chore for your list. When you know what your worries and fears are, you can take steps to overcome them.
We often need to find a way of changing our mindset from - this has to work because we are desperate and need it, to this has to work because we’ve got a great product or service and we truly believe in what we’re doing.
When your mind is saying this quarter is going to be great, your actions will follow and you’ll take the steps to make your business and marketing successful. Mindset work is never done and it always helps to check in with how you are feeling and what you want.
Repeat after me - the next few months are going to be amazing for my business.
2. Ideal client
Now that you’re feeling revved up, to have a great quarter you need to be talking to the right people. Working on your ideal client is not as simple as saying ‘it’s you, you are my ideal client’
You need to create a plan to find them, a way to communicate with them and understand the values they have and the problems that you can solve.
Spend some time on this. It’s really important that you know who you’re talking to so that when you’re writing blogs the right people will find them, when you’re writing content the right people will find it useful, when you’re sending a newsletter your audience will want to open it.
In the lead up to Christmas focus on who you products or services are for and gear your wording to help them solve a problem they might have.
You might not think your products solve a problem, but if you’ve ever been looking for a very specific birthday card that you can’t find, you’re grateful when the description is exactly what you need!
3. Social media
Social media was always going to come up wasn’t it? It’s one of my favourite ways to promote my business and I am now at the stage where I really enjoy using social media.
How do you use social media the most effectively? Would having a plan for the next few months be helpful or would you rather wing it and see what happens?
To have the best quarter ever, I’d really recommend getting out of your comfort zone.
It could mean trying reels that show you unboxing your new products, it could be talking on your stories while you show your office for the next few months or getting your face out there and going live! If you were part of our free challenge last week you might have also spotted a couple of the tips included creating shareable content and collaborating with other businesses.
What can you share on social media that will make someone tag their friend and say YOU NEED THIS! Or forward to their partner as an idea for a Christmas present.
There’s no rule for how often you need to post on social media, but one thing I will say is that I promise you are not annoying your audience. If they don’t like it, they’ll unfollow and that means they weren’t your target audience in the first place (remember we spoke about that earlier!)
Enjoy social media and use it as the selling tool that it can be. Give the people what they want!
4. Blogging
Out of all of the ways to have the best quarter ever, I think that blogging is the most underrated.
It might just be me, but as soon as the nights get darker and it starts getting colder outside, I spend more time on my laptop looking up blogs with winter recipes, Christmas gift guides and searching Pinterest for this year’s Halloween costume.
Use this to your advantage and think ahead. Can you create a blog that is going to be really useful for your audience, answer their questions and maybe promote your products and services at the same time?
On Pinterest people start looking for Christmas in the summer and we always hear about Christmas in July, so start getting your content ready for these seasons. Blogging is brilliant for your SEO, creating longer content for your audience and solving problems.
It’s one of my favourite and isn’t to be missed.
5. Newsletters
If blogging is one of my favourites, then newsletters are my absolute favourite way to promote your business. If there’s one thing you should do this month to have the best quarter ever, please make it starting or sending a newsletter. (If you need some help sign up for my course The 5 Day Newsletter Fix here!)
Newsletters are a brilliant tool for talking to your audience, making connections, providing value and increasing your sales in the lead up to Christmas.
How many times have you bought something from an email you’ve received? Yep, same.
If you’re already a pro at sending emails, focus this time on growing your email list. There are lots of ways you can do this, from creating eBooks to running free challenges. Ask yourself where you can provide the most value for your audience.
6. Consistency
The final thing to remember to have a great end to the year is consistency. This could mean consistency in your marketing, or it could mean consistency in your income.
Lots of businesses will do lots of marketing so that they get busy and then forget to continue the work, it means that if they ever get quiet again they have to start up the marketing again from nothing.
It’s much easier to build momentum when you’re already going, not from a standing start.
It's all very well showing you these tools, but chances are you’ve heard about them before.
The bit that most of us struggle with is keeping it up.
I send my newsletter every single Sunday. Not because I am any better at marketing than someone else, but because consistency is important for me and I want my subscribers to know they are going to get that content on the same day every week.
If you can continue to be consistent, your audience will regularly see and hear from you, they’ll be reminded of what you do and recommend you to others who also need your products and services too.
I hope these tips have been helpful for you! For more tips and advice sign up to receive my weekly email, The Social Sunday here.