During the holiday season I get overcommitted, overtired and overwhelmed with all that needs to be done. It's the same feeling you have when your sales are down and you are trying get them up - fast! You feel the urge to make cold calls, take customers to lunch, ask for more referrals, create email campaigns, order promotional products, print more brochures, start a new social media campaign, advertise in the newspaper... and you feel the need do these all at once!
What I've learned from helping people market their businesses for the last 8 years is that to recover from a sales slump or help to avoid one you must choose 1 or 2 marketing initiatives and do them really well, consistently, over a long period of time. Marketing is a marathon not a sprint. Spending your time exhausting every marketing channel will leave you tired and burned out after a few months. Timing and consistency are more important.
However, Christmas shopping for me tends to be a sprint! :)
