← You Can! Inspiring Women In Business
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Sarah Jolly Jarvis
Hello and welcome to episode 23 of the UCAN podcast. I'm your host Sarah Jolly Jarvis and today we're going to be talking around maximizing the opportunity of sales in January. A lot of my customer base are service based businesses who when it becomes closer and closer to Christmas it begins to wind down and get quieter. Christmas is not a make, hey whilst the sun shines kind of opportunity for that. This customer base, what is an opportunity is that time. Well is January, but more specifically that limbo Crimbo limbo as they call it now between Christmas and New Year, that period of time where between Christmas and New Year you're at home, you're more than likely not working. People aren't expecting you to be working, which is really nice. And this is one of, this is one of my favorite things about the Christmas period is that time where you might be doing the, the odd thing with work but it's. There's no expectation for you to be there. The summer holidays, people are taking holiday at different times and so there is still people working and wanting to get things done and deadlines and people chasing you. Whereas actually during that Christmas period everyone has wound down, everyone is busy doing their own thing and so there isn't that expectation of you getting back to people, of you pushing projects, et cetera, forwards. And so it's a really, really nice period in time. What it also is is a great opportunity for online sales. You've got the likes, lots of online retailers, lots of websites that will report major peaks in their hits and their visitors over that period of time. I think one of the biggest days for people going online and looking at houses and buying holidays is Boxing Day because people have ticked the box on Christmas Day and they are then looking and scrolling through their phones looking at things to buy with Christmas money that they've received or you know, they're looking for that entertainment. And that is when not only interrupt marketing, I check with Karen about all day having the agency side of things with interrupt marketing and getting in front of those individuals when they are in that buying mode. This is great not just for B2C with retail opportunities, et cetera, et cetera, but it's an interrupt marketing obviously one that I could talk around in much detail. But it is also a great opportunity for B2B sales. So people who provide businesses with services, with products and the reason for that is that those individuals beginning to look into the new year of things getting going again after Christmas, you know, it is the kind of peak getting active again time after September So I think between January and September, depending on what industry you're in, you have those peaks, one potentially being more than the other, but both great opportunities for pushing your business forwards and getting more customers on board. And so how do you make the most of that? And that is what I'm going to be talking around today. And that Christmas limbo time is the time that you're really talking around. When I'm talking around January and getting ready for January, I am really Talking about the 26th onwards to kind of mid January are great opportunities. Now, not obviously, and not everybody wants to be working and actively working during that period of time. And I am absolutely with you on that one. But there's lots of things you can do to capitalize on that without having to be present for your customer base. But, you know, just to be clear on the opportunity that is available, there was new research done recently which talked around nearly half. It was basically 48% of Brits shop more during the Christmas limbo, the Crimbo limbo time than they do actually Black Friday. So 48% shop more. Then you've got the fact that 92% of Generation Z and millennials spend the same or more than what they did on Black Friday during that Crimbo limbo time. So everyone is push, push, push, focus on the Black Friday offers. You know, Amazon this year is running a Black Friday week, which is actually more like 10 days. There is so much push towards that Black Friday. But actually beyond that, there is an amazing opportunity with that limbo time, particularly for people who are B2B and those individuals are supporting particularly smaller enterprises. Those business owners are online looking for solutions, looking at ways to make 2025 a better year for themselves and their business. So why are you telling me this, Sarah, as we go into December? Well, because now is a great time to maximize those sales, to be in a good position within your business. It's very easy to be like, oh, you know what, everyone's winding down for Christmas. I want wind down too. And absolutely, if that's what you want to do, if you've had a busy time, et cetera, et cetera, then that is absolute up to you. Because end of the day, it is your business and you can do whatever you like. But if you're thinking, you know what, actually it appeals to me to put a bit of effort in so that I'm in a position to make the most of January, or you know what, I need to make the most of January, then listen up, because I have nine ways, nine Ways in which you can act now to maximize those sales come that Crimbo limbo onwards. Okay, the first one is plan and launch a targeted marketing campaign. Okay, so you can actually launch now. You can do pre book January offers, you can do early bird, you can do seasonal positioning with tailored messaging. So for example, New year goals. There is no reason why you can't take people's bookings now for starting in January. And for a lot of people that's actually quite appealing because they've got these things going around in their head. They're thinking, oh my gosh, you know what, next year I need to do better with this or I need to be working on that and they can actually feel like, you know what, I've ticked that off. And that is one of the approaches that I'm going to be doing with people is to help them to feel like, you know what, yep, that is a problem. And I will get it sorted and I'll get that sorted in January. And so I will be doing pre bookings. I'm also going to be helping people prepare for January, dusting off and getting their courses up to scratch. But that's for a different time. You've also got the ability to create holiday content. So make content now that is relevant, that is going to engage people, engage your audience, provide them with the touch points so that they are more confident and more aware of you. And so come that opportunity, that time to buy, they are going to know about you, they're going to remember you and they're going to want to buy from you. Next on my to do list, number two is to optimize your sales funnel. Okay, so refresh those landing pages, ensure that they're optimized for conversions. They've got click call to actions, they've got the testimonials there, they've got value propositions, they're ticking all those boxes and they look good, they are loading well, etc. Okay, so do a little bit of a refresh, a check and audit on there. If you're not confident over it and you want somebody to put, you know, to cast their eye over it, then get somebody to cast their eye over it. You know, it helps to, to have somebody look at something and say, you know, actually this is what I would do differently. It doesn't have to cost an awful lot. I don't charge a crazy amount for it because you're not actually doing the content, you're not actually writing the copy, you're critiquing it. And that is a Different scenario. The other thing is to look at your email sequencing email sequences. So what I mean by that is those nurture campaigns where you can target past clients. So you could set something up now to go live during Crimbo limbo. Okay. If you get your technology right, it can work for you. There is no need to go and touch it. It will just send out those emails as and when you want them to go out. So obviously the focus is going to be on the new year. So if you're talking, if you're, if your audience is motivated by New year changes, then that's what your content, that's what your email sequences are going to be talking around. You've also got the opportunity to run retargeting ads. So you know, use remarketing campaigns to reengage warm leads. Yeah, get in front of people, get in front of website videos. For some people it might be a case of looking at the landing pages and the websites and maybe making sure that you have that Facebook pixel on there so that you can make the most of those things. The next thing on my list is promotions and incentives. So I've got three little elements with this. You've got gift cards so you can sell gift vouchers, okay, as holiday presents. And that is something that you could look to do. So people could look to buy them as Christmas presents. You know, you can very easily say, like for me, I'm thinking straight away, for me, would that work? But the reason I include it is because I don't know, I haven't tried it. And so until you try it, do you actually know maybe somebody somewhere out there? I know somebody recently who was working with me who they got financed towards working with me as a wedding gift because they said, you know what, if I can get this sorted, then we can really set ourselves up in our new lives together. Which was really nice. So I've, I've been gifted or part gifted as a wedding gift. So you literally never know. Not personally, I haven't been gifted. My services were anyway. So you can also pair services with complimentary products or add ons for a limited time. So you can do those bundle offers. You could look at running those now to encourage people to buy now. You could also be putting them together and putting the resources together so they are good to go come the limbo time. The other thing is referrals. So look at your referral partnerships. Have you got referrals in place? Could you get referrals in place? If you're thinking, you know what, I don't know anybody who could refer clients to me. Then make a change. Okay, connect. If you spent the whole of December connecting with even just five people who could potentially recommend people to you in future, then look at the position you'll be in come Christmas Eve. What better way to set up into the new year than with all those new contacts? And whilst we're on about resources, number four for you is leveraging your social proof. So look at collecting those testimonials. When was the last time you asked somebody for a testimonial? Reach out to those past clients. Get fresh reviews, okay. That highlight where you are now and what you have been doing and the impact that you've had on those individuals equally. You could take time in the next month to put case studies together, impactful stories of how you helped individuals go from where your audience is now to where they want to be. Putting those case studies together are a great resource. They can be put out between that limbo time, but they can also be used for future. So you know, getting those in place now is a great use of your time. So are number five, strategic partnerships. So collaboration with people. So a little bit like the referral side of things and looking at that referrals and the bonuses, but looking at collaborating with individuals who are influential in your industry, in your, for your market. Okay. Partnering with those that are aligned to you and seeing where that might be able to go. So, you know, basically it's influencers, isn't it? But I think whenever you think influencers, you think of somebody, you know, some tanned person with, you know, crazy white teeth, sat on a beach somewhere touting a product. Whereas actually it can be individuals who are respected within your industry who you could partner with because you know, if you genuinely know that what you can do can make a difference to people, then why wouldn't you reach out and speak to those individuals so that you can spread your message further? You could also look at setting up now cross promotions for the new year. So if you know, co marketing campaigns or whatever you want to call them, but you know, cross promotions where you are that you see them on Instagram in the kind of simplest form where it's, you know, we're going to give away this bundle and it's like this person's page, follow this person and share with tag two people. That is all about audience growth. That's all about cross pollination between one business to another. And it can just be brands that serve the same people. You're not competing in any way. You're just Serving the same individuals, Fairfax and Favor, they used to do great collaborations. There's a lot of these sort of equestrian based businesses that tend to do that. You've also got an opportunity to order and enhance your systems. Look at your customer journey, okay, look at your bookings, how do people check out? How do people access you? How are your bios looking? How are your links looking within those bios? What's useful? What have you missing when you look through that customer journey? When a customer comes to you, what problem do they have? Do you solve that problem? Do you look to address that problem? Discuss that problem, help them understand something better? What is it? What is the first touch point? Could you make it more impactful? Could you make it easier to access those sorts of things that you can be looking at to understand? If you can make it easier for that person to come into your world and then to go on to buy from you? And that's the same with the sort of next thing in those audits and enhancements which is to automate your workflows. So look at tools that do autumn automatic email responders, for example, appointment reminders so that you get people showing up more. So you know, how irritated have you been this year by people not showing up to sales calls, so having something in place which automatically reminds them and an opportunity to do an upsell. Have you got a product that sits at the front end as a paid lead magnet? Is there something that you could put with it which could create an order bump? Is there something that you've been meaning to do to add onto there for the next stage? Because the idea is that that person will come into your world and that first problem will be solved, but then what's the next problem? And is that something that could be solved with something equally as hands off for you, but could be, you know, nice and lucrative. It could help you edge towards ad spend or it could, you know, tilt you into the positive on your return on ad spend. So think about what you can do there. That all this information obviously comes from your numbers. If you don't have numbers. Yeah, if you, if you're not aware of actually this is the number of people in. This is what happens next. This is what happened next. This is what cost me, cost of customer acquisitions, lifetime customer value. If you don't know those numbers, now is a great time to get systems in place to record them going forwards or to take the last couple of months and look at what those numbers look like so that you've got a foundation for next year and this is the thing, right, is these quiet times are an amazing opportunity. They're not the make. Hey, whilst the sunshine, you're not crazy busy chasing leads and opportunities, it is a great opportunity to get those foundations in place in your business. Number eight. Oh, no, sorry. Number seven is content and visibility. So think about your content. Look at how visible you are. How easy are you to find online? Okay, a little bit of a refresh, for example, on your SEO. So update your website, your blog, that will all help you to rank higher for relevant search terms. Have a look at search terms. So have a look through and see what people are searching on the search engines. You can go through that with Google Ads as software that you can use. You can go into YouTube and you can look at some of the videos that other people are accessing and engaging with, which can help you to better understand what people are looking for and how to attract people into your world. Maybe this could be your opportunity to do some of those videos that you've been putting off for forever and a day where you can share some tips, you can create tutorials, you could even do reels, okay. So that you have them there and ready. You could get so far ahead in the next month, you could create all your content for 2025. I know you can because I've got clients who teach people to do it. And so why aren't you making the most? Please make the most of this opportunity. If you take nothing else from this podcast, then take the fact that you have a band of opportunity now. You have time where, yes, it's interjected, particularly like for me, it's interjected with nativity plays and open book sessions and carol services and all those other things. But between those, there is still opportunity to make the most of things being that little bit quieter. Okay, so have a look at some of the things that you have been putting off a little bit like the video marketing, it might be the reels, it might be the creation of content, it might be starting a podcast. Who knows? If it is, then please do get in touch because I have an amazing resource for you which is very accessible and can really help you kickstart that podcast journey. Number eight is to reconnect with your audience. Okay, so that's a little bit like some of the points that I made earlier on with engagement and optimizing and launching now is get that energy behind your brand. It takes time. You know, you don't want to turn up on the 26th of December and be like, yay, I'm going to make hey, what's the sunshine with this whole Crimbo limbo thing? And everyone's like, who are you? I've not heard from you in like eight, nine months. So start now investing and reengaging and reconnecting with your audience. Also take the opportunity. Surveys are not only a really, really good way to re engage people because people like talking about themselves, they like sharing their opinion, but also it's a great way to market research. Am I going to be providing them with what they want? Because and this notice I said want. Okay, so we are so very, very good sometimes when we really know our audience and we really know what their needs are that we supply them with what we know they need. But the problem is is that sometimes what we know they need isn't what they want. Yeah, think dentist. Yeah, nobody wants to go to the dentist, do they? No one's like skipping in there being like fan daddy doozy. But we go because it's a responsible, sensible thing to do. That's if you can find a dentist in the uk Terrible at the moment. And so, you know, think that. So just because you know that this person needs this checkup and they need to be doing things on a regular basis doesn't mean that they're willing and there to pay for it. And so what are they willing to part with their money for and start there? Also sharing sneaky peeks of January offers to your law followings can really, really help. So you know, I've got this thing coming but I'm going to, I'm going to offer to you first. I've got a beta client at the moment. Well, I've got a client at the moment who's looking for beta testers and I put that out to my kind of like little inside client group which I haven't really mentioned ever before. But it's a group that I've, I created and they get, they get access to resources and it's people that I've worked with one way or another or I am currently working with who I really enjoy working with. And so I've created kind of like a little hub area for them to engage and access information and they get offers first. So I had a client today who needed some beta testers so I dropped the opportunity in there first. I'll give them a few hours. I'll probably give them till after I've done the check ins tonight with the alliance guys and then I'll open it up probably to my group if those spaces haven't been taken. But it Just gives them that sneak preview. It just, you know, it's a bonus point of being on the inside and being that bit more connected with you. And it makes them feel special and it's useful. So, you know, providing those previews re engaging with them, making them feel special, making them feel heard, can really, really help. And finally, one very important one is financial preparation number nine. So, you know, looking at your pricing, are your price, is your pricing right? Does it reflect the value and does it remain competitive going into 2025? Or, you know, have you developed, have you got more proof of concept, have you got more of an audience? So can you be charging that a little bit more, Do a bit of work, do a bit of market research, get clear and get your words around how you would sell offers to clients to existing clients or to clients coming in in future for a higher value package, for example. So, you know, you're looking at readdressing your pricing and upping that game. What can you do? What could you add to your current offering to increase that price? Or very last one, I promise, is how to look, you know, look at your business and think about how can you take a step back, how can you rearrange the balance, readjust the balance? What did, what went well this year? What didn't go so well? Obviously you've got the opportunity to do plan for 2025. I am going to be running workshops on that and I can share with you on the podcast some of the things that you want to be thinking around as we head nearer to towards that new year. But you know, having that understanding of this is what went well this year. This is what I'd like to address and how you might go about that. The key thing here, guys, is whatever you do is to make the most of this time, don't regret it because it doesn't come around very, very often. You know, you can lay that groundwork now, you can hit that ground running come January. So, you know, you're in that position where you can really make the most of those opportunities and that ability to serve your audience when they are receptive. So that's it for me this week, guys. I look forward to speaking to you again next week. In the meantime, please, please do like, rate, follow, subscribe, share this podcast far and wide so we can get as many listeners behind us as we can so we can support each other and keep growing together. So that's it for me, guys, this week. I will speak to you again next. Bye for now.