We are well within the 80 days before the most anticipated time of the year! Have you started marketing your services and products for the anxious and willing holiday shoppers (numbers in the millions, folks!)?

Let me start off by giving you the answer to the first question.. “When?” …NOW! The earlier the better is the rule of thumb here. Retailers & service providers count on the fact that the last quarter of the year is their revenue stream that makes it all worth while. Youwill soon hear again the terms that drive the season… Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Last-Minute-Shopping, and so-forth. My advise to you – don’t wait until the week before Thanksgiving to step up your marketing efforts – Start NOW!

“Where?” is the next question I want to address. Many of us don’t have storefronts but still sell items in networking and home sales environments. (I love the personal care you get with these retailers!) So what are we to do? Where do we showcase our products? Why not online? Better yet, through your social media channels. Yes! What I phenominal opportunity to reach not only your current customers, but those who are your future customers as well. Whether it’s on your Facebook fan page, through your Etsy virtual storefront or advertising specials via tweets, social media should play a part in your marketing this year. A final thought on this… Social media provides the ability for your “fans” to share your gift ideas with their friends and family online (becoming viral)! Make sure your social media profiles are linked and easy to find!

I answered some of the “How?” in my above paragraph because it made sense to put it there, but to take it one step further, I would recommend that you be sure that all of your social profiles contain complete information – name, address (if applicable), phone number, email address, website, description of your products and/or services, a short bio about you, links to your other social profiles, etc. Just be sure that the information is consistent (you can simply cut & paste). Another good idea is to create (or have a professional, like me , create) a nice looking, branded Facebook fan page. There is so much marketing that is missed by not having a fan page (for many businesses) or by having one that is boring and static. Work it, baby!

One last thought, work-in time in your busy schedule to properly market your products/services and become a true holiday shopping RESOURCE for your virtual audience. When I say, “work in the time” I mean – schedule it into your day planner, appointment book, etc. just as you would a meeting with a customer whether it be an hour a week or 15 mins every other day – DO IT! Your potential next customer will be spending their hard-earned dollars this holiday season with a retailer who delivers them good, useful content, is timely getting back to them with answers to their questions, and makes it easy to do-business-with. Are you their obvious choice?

For more information, feel free to contact me via my website, email or any of my social media profiles.