With Christmas almost upon us, here are 8 timely reminders of tasks you need to get done before heading off on your Christmas break.

1. Update holiday hours

Remember to update your holiday operating hours on your Google Business Profile (formerly known as Google My Business), website and social media.

Don’t know how to set holiday hours in your Google Business Profile? Here’s how to do it.

And remember to update everything with your regular hours at the end of the holiday break.

2. Schedule posts in advance

Keep your business online, even if you’re close, by scheduling your social media posts in advance. Suggestions for posts include a Xmas Day message, New Year’s Day post plus 2 or 3 other posts to keep your brand(s) front and centre.

If you are on multiple social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, you may find it easier to schedule posts in advance if you use a social media management tool like Hootsuite or Publer.

3. Reach out to customers through email

Show your customers some Xmas love and send them a Xmas email or text message. This is a great way to send Christmas greetings and let your customers know your holiday hours.

Using an email marketing platform, such as Mailchimp or HubSpot, will make this task easier, as you can send to multiple people, at the same time.

4. Set up remarketing and retargeting ads

Another way to stay in front of your audiences, even if your business is closed for the holidays. Remarketing helps to drive brand awareness and lead nurturing and keeps you present in peoples’ minds. By ‘remarketing’ to people who have visited your website or shown an interest in your products and/or services, you get way more bang for your advertising buck.

If you don’t know what remarketing is, get in touch. We will help you understand what remarketing is and how to set up your remarketing ads or teach you how to do it yourself.

5. Turn on email automation

Especially important if you have an online store, offer a free subscription to your newsletter or are using a lead magnet in your marketing.

• Online stores – Use automated emails to welcome people when they make their first purchase, send abandoned cart emails that give people a gentle nudge to complete their order, update them on delivery of their order or follow up post-purchase to show you appreciate their business.
• Subscriptions – Use an automated email to thank people for subscribing to your newsletter and to confirm their subscription.
• Lead magnet – A lead magnet is a valuable resource, offer or service that you give people for free in exchange for their email address. These include reports, how-to guides, checklists (like this one), free templates, free trials, and giveaways.

Use automated emails to thank people for requesting your lead magnet, send a download link and follow-up to encourage them to download your resource, start the free trial etc.

Mailchimp has a great beginner’s guide to email automation, available here.

6. Update your voicemail and out of office message

Let people know your holiday hours on your voicemail and your ‘out of office’ message. If your business is closed for the holidays, advise when your office reopens and consider including a way of contacting your business, if it is an urgent matter.

7. Plan your calendar for January

Do you come back after a holiday and waste the first few days, trying to remember what you’re supposed to be doing? Organise meetings, key tasks, and projects for January now so you hit the ground running after the holidays.

8. Reflect on what to improve for next year

You’re probably thinking that you’ve already got so much on your plate pre-Xmas, the last thing you need is to add one more thing to your list. However, come January, you want to be ahead of everyone else in your space, so you are ready to help your customers.

Now’s the time to reflect on the highs and lows, the successes, and losses and how you’ll make next year better than this year. Questions to ask include:

• What are the highlights / achievements this year?
• What are the most important lessons you’ve learned this year?
• What went well and should be repeated?
• What went okay but could deliver better results if executed well?
• What didn’t go well and why it didn’t go well?
• Where can you improve? How will you make next year better than this year?
• What will be your top three priorities for the year?
• What do you want to learn or develop?
• What will you stop doing?

If you like this checklist, please share it with your colleagues, so they can nail their pre-Xmas lead up. Finally, have a very Merry Christmas and a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year