How to prep for the busy season
Business owners know there is a busier time during the year that requires more staff, planning, or other smaller tasks that have been put off. As the peak season business months approach for several companies in a number of industries, here are some tips to help.
1. Website maintenance
During the busy season, and throughout the rest of the year, it is imperative that a company’s website is running smoothly. A company that invests in its website each and every day can find itself ahead of its competitors.
Research shows that a poorly designed website with a negative user experience can find its credibility low and potential customers heading to their competitors’ websites.
Why else does website maintenance matter for any website? How will new and current customers find your website? Through search engines.
With the latest updates to their SERP, Google has emphasized user experience. The maintenance of a website can provide insight into how the website is performing on search engines and its ranking.
2. Stay on top of holiday digital marketing
How is marketing going?
A company may understand that its products are better than a competitor’s, but they need to get the word out. It is estimated that holiday shoppers start in August. What are the main points to remember? Make it personal, keep it on brand, be yourself, and make sure it’s shareable.
What holidays should your business be marketing? In November and December, some of the biggest holidays occur that could benefit several companies from Small Business Saturday to Cyber Monday! Even if you are not in the retail and E-commerce industry, companies and decision-makers are still shopping for services for the upcoming New Year.
A great way to stay on top of the holidays is one of the most simple business tips - create a calendar with all the important holidays with strategies behind each upcoming holiday! Find a way to give back to current consumers with a coupon, donations, and a holiday party.
3. Forecasting
This step should be done periodically throughout the year. When a business forecasts this is a prediction based on two different understandings—judgment based and quantitative.
At the end of the day, in business, judgment and numbers always work with one another. Judgment forecasting uses experiences and understandings of business and intuition. What could be improved upon? Do we need more staff? Is that employee or position going to work out?
On the other hand, quantitative forecasting is analyzing numbers. Is something worth the overall investment? What does the data tell us? This should be done before the quarter starts, but it can be analyzed moving into the new year. Once Q4 is over, analyze how the quarter went.
4. Analyze
Once the final quarter of the year is over, see what worked and what can be improved for next year, month, or week. Does the company need to improve its internal communication? How did marketing campaigns do? This is all-important to understand to improve for the next peak season business months.
For more business tips regarding website development and design, social media, email marketing, or SEO- contact us today!