The holiday season can be a dramatically different experience depending on the type of company you are. Most people associate the holidays with the pinnacle of commerce- many retailers do 50% of their business in the month of December. However, for many B2B companies, this is a dark downtime.
As B2C companies such as retailers, hotels, airlines, etc. gear up for their busiest time of the year, most B2B companies go into hibernation until January. In November and December, Bop Design will speak to many companies about their marketing plan for the coming year. There is much talk but little action. Bop Design has the most client meetings in November and December, but most projects are not implemented until the following year.
Companies like to do long-term strategic planning in November and December and determine marketing initiatives for the next year. Bop Design is roped into many of these discussions. Whether it’s implementing a new direct mail lead generation strategy or designing a new website to lure new clients, many of these discussions happen at the end of the year. We think there needs to be more implementation at the end of the year.
If you have the budget and the resources, implementing a new marketing strategy at the end of the year will give you a “leg up”over the competition. Most companies just talk at the end of the year. Instead, you talk and then act. The first week of January comes and you already have the new strategy developed and can move forward. Meanwhile, much of your competition decides to implement in late January and won’t see the plan come to fruition until March.
For a B2B company, January and February can be as frenetic as a B2C company’s December. Before the frenzy hits, a company should have its marketing strategy in place and implement the new lead generation tactics on January 2. For B2B companies, the slow holiday time is an ideal time to perform long-term strategic planning. They plan but delay action and once January hits, they are back to their usual reactive mode of responding to current clients. A company must not only strategize but immediately implement tactics that can develop new opportunities in the coming year.
