As a business owner, decision maker or management in a company, after the summer season comes one of the busiest seasons of the year! This is due to several reasons from budgeting, holiday parties and evaluations for the upcoming new year. 

All of these reasons and others are why Q4 is the busiest time of year for most businesses. Have you notice a bit of a scramble here and there? Everyone is starting to get stressed out? Don’t let the rest of Q4 be stressful with these business tips. 

1. Website maintenance 

This is one of the most important factors when it comes to finishing out Q4. ‘Tis the season of spending and consumers will spend. The National Retail Federation states that between November and December consumers spend 4.2 percent more. In 2019 sales are estimated to reach between $727.9 billion to $730.7 billion. Billions of dollars will be spent this year as the holiday sales continue to increase. 

An E-commerce business should optimize their website with SEO strategies, PPC ads, email marketing campaigns and double-check their website MONTHS ago. However, if you are a procrastinator, please get the website up-to-par because a consumer makes a split decision within 1.5 milliseconds! 

2. Stay on top of the holidays 

What holidays should your business be marketing? In November and December, some of the biggest holidays occur that could benefit several businesses 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. Digital marketing strategies 

A business understands that their products are better than Joe’s, but a business needs to get the word out. Promote, promote and promote. It is estimated that holiday shoppers start in August. It is imperative to promote as much as possible. What are the main points to remember? Make it personal, keep it on brand, be yourself and make sure its shareable. 

At Denver Media Group, our digital marketers have a system in place (cannot tell you the system) to remember what holidays are best to promote for each client. This means promotions are being sent out on all platforms periodically throughout the months. This way, consumers get the same message but several different times to remind them. 

4. Forecasting 

This step should be done periodically throughout the year. When a business forecasts this is a judgement based on two different understandings—judgement based and quantitative. 

At the end of the day, in business, judgement and numbers always work with one another. Judgement forecasting uses experiences, understandings of business and intuition. What could be improved upon? Do we need more staff? Is so and so going to work out? 

On the other hand, quantitative 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. 

5. Analyze 

Once the final quarter of 2019 is over, see what worked and what can be approved for next week. Could better internal communication or processes helped? How did marketing campaigns do? This is all important to understand to improve for the next busy season. In business, the busy season is inevitable, and if you need a weekend away, here are the best places in Colorado to relax a bit! 

For more business tips regarding website development and design, social media, email marketing or SEO- contact us today!