Thanksgiving marks the advent of the holiday season, one of the most stressful times professionally and personally for communications professionals. As organizations try to close out their Q4 from a position of strength, many end-of-year objectives and activities don’t get accomplished or become stalled due to “things slowing down for the holidays.” Comms pros can take a few steps to avoid this and effectively manage the holiday season to optimize client success.
Develop Goals & Objectives Early – If you’ve been in the communications field for a couple of years, you’ll have a good idea of when to pitch seasonal stories, distribute company news, and other key objectives. Therefore, develop a strategic plan that encompasses what you want to achieve over the last two months of the year. The earlier you plan out company news, proactive pitches, social media posts, blog posts, etc., the easier it will be to work backward to meet deadlines.
Automate When You Can – The more work you can get done ahead of the holiday season, the better off you’ll be. Being able to write, review, and complete work for November and December can be a bit demanding in the moment, but doing so acts as a complement to the strategic goals and objectives you developed. Additionally, once content is finalized, utilize the ability to automate processes and schedule that content to go out on specific days and times. Not only will your client see that you’ve successfully delivered on your plan, but you will feel less stressed given all of the other demands of the season. This in turn provides you with more flexibility to address potential issues or last-minute client needs.
Be Overly-Communicative, Internally and Externally – Your client would rather hear more from you than less. Leading up to and during the holiday season, it’s important to be over-communicative with not only your client, but your team. Personal life bleeds into professional life in November and December, so as much as possible try and understand your team and client’s holiday schedule so that you don’t send items when they aren’t in the office or they don’t have the bandwidth to review assets. Often, the review process becomes extended during the holidays, so make sure that you and your team account for that.
While many agencies and communications professionals can try and chalk up November and December as “dead months,” a little planning can go a long way in being able to optimize client success. Being able to deliver quality results during a busy season will certainly impress your client and enable you to hit the ground running in Q1.
At Press Record, we’ve been helping clients see measurable results during the holiday season and can do the same for you. To learn more, visit pressrecord.co, follow us on LinkedIn, sign up for our newsletter, or contact us with any questions.
