Blog: Planning your marketing in the run-up to Christmas

Typically, the New Year can be a busy time for the financial services and legal sectors. With resolutions for the year ahead on their minds, many people resolve to seek advice in order to get their finances on track. The first quarter of the year also sees high demand for advice in the run-up to tax year-end at the beginning of April.

Meanwhile, certain areas of the legal sector see particularly high demand. For example, those working in the field of family law often see a spike in divorce enquiries, with the first working Monday of January – otherwise known as Blue Monday – historically seeing the most couples filing for divorce. Meanwhile, property searches often peak during the festive season as prospective buyers plan a New Year move.

As a result, we find that many of the financial services and law firms we work with seek to ramp up their marketing in the New Year to tap into this demand and attract new business. But starting in January is likely to be too late to achieve the results you’re looking for. Really, if you’re looking to market in January, you need to get started now.

Proactive, not reactive

Planning ahead is key to successful marketing, with campaigns planned and prepared in advance more likely to generate leads (and cost less) than those thought up on the fly. This is the proactive approach to marketing. Planning enables you to properly identify your target market, understand which channels will best reach this audience, assign a realistic budget and ensure all the elements of your marketing campaign are connected (or ‘integrated’) for maximum effect. This means they send the same message and use the same design and branding across all your communications channels.

On the other hand, returning to the office in January and suddenly realising you have no marketing activities planned for one of the most lucrative times of year – i.e., the reactive approach – can lead to panic, poor decision making and a haphazard approach to marketing that is less likely to reap results and more likely to waste your time and money.

Now is the best time

It is true that the run-up to Christmas can also be extremely busy for financial advisers and solicitors as they seek to wrap up their caseload in time for the festive shutdown. You might be thinking that now isn’t a good time either! But remember that making time to plan your marketing activities even while you are busy will mean that you have everything organised, primed and ready to go when you really need it – maximising the chance of your campaign achieving its objectives.

Remember as well that this isn’t something you have to do alone. At TOMD, we have specialist designers, copywriters, marketing strategists and web developers who can swiftly turn your plans into action. We’ve worked with financial and legal firms for over 20 years and understand how to market effectively within these highly regulated sectors. For more information about our services and about how you can effectively plan your New Year marketing strategy in the run-up to Christmas, get in touch on 01279 657 555 or email marketing@tomd.co.uk.