The holiday season is huge for business owners and consumers alike, with billions being spent on gifts, parties, and more. Many business owners who want to make the most of the holidays for their company have holiday-themed specials and sales. However, since everyone is trying to do the same thing, marketers need to work smarter in order to stand out and be noticed. As an agent, you are also a business owner. Here are six selling tips you can use to ensure that you have a spectacular holiday sales season.

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1. Start marketing early.

October is the start of a holiday marketing corridor that stretches to the start of the new year. The right time to start marketing will vary by business and holiday, but whatever the campaign, it’s important to start early. Campaigns need time to spread to consumers, and even with the power of the internet, that takes time. People need time to tell their friends, clear their schedules, save up money, and so on. Also, with so many retailers marketing their own sales, specials, and events, the longer marketers wait, the more likely another business owner has already capitalized on the opportunity by reaching their target consumer first. Marketers should aim to advertise sales at least one week in advance, and events should have at least two to three weeks of marketing prior to the event.

2. Use integrated marketing techniques.

The holiday shopping season is so important for businesses that many marketers use every marketing tactic in their arsenal to reach consumers. The best way to maximize the benefit of using all of these techniques is to use integrated marketing. This allows marketers to exponentially increase the range of their marketing by connecting them all together. For example, email marketing messages should include social sharing buttons, so email subscribers can easily tell their friends about specials. Content published on a website should be promoted on social media channels, and paid digital ads can be used to promote events and sales or promote brand awareness. Combining these elements allows them to feed on one another, making each tactic far more effective than if used separately.

3. Use promotions, incentives, and giveaways.

People are going to spend money during the holidays, but that doesn’t mean business owners can just sit back and relax. Marketers should pull out their best promotions, incentives, and giveaways during the holiday season. With so much money being spent, the thought of saving money or getting a prize can get people excited. These don’t have to be expensive. Even something as simple as offering a free gift to customers who visit a business location can make you stand out. Also, remember that during the holidays, everyone is having a sale. While sales of 10% or 15% off may be good at other times, it’s not much of a sale at this time of year.

4. Tie holiday themes into your sales strategy.

Holiday themes, such as songs or iconography, are a great place to start when designing holiday campaigns. For example, a craft store can have a “Deck the Halls Sale,” or a museum can do a “Silent Night, Silent Auction.” Working these holiday elements into a campaign may seem a little cheesy, but it really helps to make an impact on those who see the ad. Holiday themes give marketers another way to connect with consumers and get the ad to stick in their minds.

5. Beef up your customer support.

Since many businesses in the same industry may be competing, one of the only things that distinguishes one from another is the level of service to the client. Poor customer service is one of the things that internet marketing cannot fix, and it can kill any holiday sales initiative. Before starting a holiday marketing campaign, business owners need to ensure their customer support processes are operating efficiently. Business owners can take proactive measures to build customer trust, such as displaying customer reviews on their website, social media, or in email marketing messages. It’s counterproductive if customers have questions about the sale, and they can’t get answers. Worse still, if these customer service issues spread via social media, it can kill the campaign entirely. Business owners may want to consider hiring a few temporary holiday staffers to help you keep things running smoothly.

6. Consistently use graphics to promote sales.

The old saying, “A picture is worth a thousand words,” is especially true for marketers. Each holiday invokes strong imagery that business owners should incorporate in their marketing materials. Besides the individual ads that customers may see, holiday imagery can also be used on a business’s site and social media channels. While there may be some variation between the graphics, there should be some consistent element that lets people know they’re in the right place. This may be the company logo or a particular graphic for the sale that appears in all materials.

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For the long-term care industry, the fourth quarter has always been, by far, the strongest quarter for generating sales. Within the quarter, October looms as a very strong selling month, followed by November’s Long Term Care Awareness Month campaign. But there is something very special about true holiday selling in the month of December. People who set appointments with you are serious about buying a product or creating a plan that is going to solve their problem or fill a gap in their lives. This is why appointments made to take place during the holiday selling season are almost always a sale waiting to happen. For this reason, it is genuinely worth your effort to establish these meetings with your clients during the holidays.