The holidays are upon us. Around this time of year both your business and personal schedules are booked with last minute sales meetings and trips as well as holiday festivities.

To help relieve some of that pressure and organize your interactions with clients and suppliers, we have put together the following communications tips.

1. Arrange Your Meetings for the New Year Now

Get a head start on the New Year. Set up all your important client meetings before the holidays. That way you can hit the ground running when your normal schedule resumes.

2. Keep Marketing

Draft and distribute holiday newsletters, marketing emails and social updates before the holidays. In addition, draft and schedule new marketing collateral to go out seamlessly in early January.

If you are not already leveraging marketing automation software such as Pardot, Mailchimp, or HubSpot, the holidays are the perfect time to put them into action. Not to mention, the holiday downtime is also a good time of year to learn about new software platforms and how they work.

Even though it is the holiday season, try not to let your social media presence lapse. To avoid the need for daily updates, use a social media manager such as Hootsuite, Buffer, or Everypost.

3. Let Your Clients Know When and Where They Can Reach You

Be sure to let your clients know when you’ll be away. Post information to your website in addition to communicating via newsletter, personal email or phone call.

For your most important clients, provide specific hours when you’ll be available for them each day, even if it’s only two or three. Keeping critical communications channels open can go a long way to deliver superior customer service.

4. Don’t Forget the Little Things

Make time to send handwritten notes or cards to you clients and consider gifts for your VIP clients. They won’t forget it.

5. Set Your Out of Office Auto-Response

This is the key to closing the client communications loop. Make sure it includes the dates you are away, when you will return and an emergency contact just in case.

For your VIP clients you can use a tool such as IFTTT. You can set alerts for emails from specific accounts so that an important message or deadline won’t slip past – even if you are at your holiday dinner.

6. Stay Connected with Your Team

In addition to keeping communication and contact with your clients clear and ordered, it is just as important to take care of your team.

Having a documented internal communications strategy is paramount for the holidays. It doesn’t have to be complicated. Keep it simple with the basics: have a shared calendar and contact details.

Your shared calendar should include any important client meetings or calls that the team should be privy to. In addition, a calendar should include any times when team members will not be available. As we all know, emergencies do happen, and it is important to have team members’ contact information in such instances.

7. And Finally, Don’t Forget to ENJOY the Holidays!

You have been busy, and while it is important to keep growing and developing, everyone deserves a well-earned break this holiday.

To discuss any of your communications needs, please don’t hesitate to contact us!