Well folks, here we are: Q4 has arrived.

It kind of feels like what we've been working towards all year, doesn't it?

And with that can come the added pressure of needing to get this busy season "right" in terms of marketing, because it's when it matters the most.

So if I were you, here's are 5 things I would be prepping for Black Friday / Cyber Monday / Giving Tuesday / Christmas Shopping / "Whatever You Want to Call the Busy Sales Season" promotions:

1. Review your marketing plan.

First, I would schedule 10 minutes to review the "who am I and who do I serve" part of my marketing plan:

• Who my audience is and is not
• What their pain points are
• What I offer, how I describe it, and how it helps my audience
• My differentiator and value proposition
• My overall customer journey map

Before things get crazy (or crazier), this is the ideal time to refresh yourself on your marketing plan. That way, when you go to create your marketing, you're starting from that place of clarity and vision, not the mental chaos of "AHHHHH I have to do marketing but what do I even say??"

2. Get back to marketing consistently.

If I took a break for the summer or back to school, I would prioritize getting back into the regular flow of my marketing content, or setting a consistent schedule now if I hadn't been consistent before - once a week for email or three(ish) times per week for social media is a good place to start.

Email and social media are especially important to get back into now, because they are about to become a lot more crowded as the sales season ramps up.

We want to make sure our audiences remember us and rebuild that relationship.

Not sure what to talk about? Think about what you're going to be promoting in November! Now is the time to start educating your audience on why what you offer is important and getting them hyped for your offerings. Start with some relationship-building and offering help/resources, then begin to transition into the "why" behind what you offer.

3. Set realistic goals.

Next, I would set a realistic goal for what I could expect for the season.

I so often see disappointed Catholic small business owners and ministry leaders in December because they didn't hit their goals...and while yes, a lot of numbers are trending down this year across the board, we also sometimes set ourselves up for disappointment.

Because the problem with most goals is that we start with the number we want to reach instead of what's realistic.

For example, maybe you decide you want to make $10,000 in November. Sounds like a great goal! But you typically have 1,000 website visitors per month, and an average order value of $50. Even at a whopping 10% conversion rate (average is 2-5%)...you'd make $5,000.

So instead, figure out a realistic goal based off of your numbers, and maybe add a little bit as a stretch goal for motivation. But try to keep it realistic so you don't just chalk it up to bad marketing.

The numbers will also tell you where you should focus your marketing efforts between now and the end of November - maybe you can try to increase visitors to 2,000 or up the average order value. Or if you have a lower conversion rate, then focus your efforts there.

(Side note: We serve an awesome God. He can do whatever He wants. He can 100% bless you beyond your wildest dreams...but setting a realistic goal is not going to stop Him from doing that. In my opinion, it actually allows for His glory to shine through even more when He does blow our goals out of the water because there is no kidding ourselves that we can take credit for it.)

4. Focus on reach marketing.

In preparation for the busy season, I'd also do a reach marketing campaign in the next week or two with the goal of growing my audience.

That's because the next few weeks are a GREAT time to get some more people in your audience. You’ll meet them right in the midst of searching for solutions to their problem and be able to help solve it really quickly through your BFCM promotions, while still having enough time to build a relationship with them so they know they can trust you.

5. Plan promotions.

Finally, I would start to plan out my promotional schedule. I wouldn't necessarily write out every email or start designing social posts, but at a high level, I'd develop my marketing plan specifically for these campaigns.

(Because yes, you should have an overall marketing plan AND a mini marketing plan for every launch/sale/promotion!)

Here's exactly what I'd do:

1. I'd open up a new document and at the top write out all of the details of the sale - what offer(s) will be included, what the discounts will be, dates for the start and end, etc.
2. Next, I'd figure out which of my sub-audiences or secondary target audiences this would apply to and figure out the specific pain point and transformation this offering would help with. (This will help me in coming up with marketing messaging later.)
3. Then, I'd map out the entire customer journey, figuring out what channels I'd use and making sure I have a minimum of seven touchpoints. Then I would write out:
   • Every touchpoint (think email, podcast episode, social media post, ad, etc.),
   • The day I'd publish it,
   • And the general theme of that touchpoint (i.e. the subject line of the email and a one sentence description of what it would focus on)

That way, once it was "go time," I'd know exactly what to work on next and it would all flow consistently towards a common goal, instead of feeling haphazard and unorganized even if I was creating the marketing itself across several weeks.

Okay I know I said five things, but I have two more pieces of advice:

First, I wouldn't necessarily launch something new for Black Friday/Cyber Monday. It's a super busy, hectic time. You want to have your audience PREPPED and ready to smash the buy button, not still be trying to educate them on what it is and why they need it. (Now is the time to do that educating, by the way.)

And the final thing I'd do?

Schedule MORE time in Adoration.

We're tempted in the busy seasons to skip out on our prayer time so we can do more work, but that's the opposite of what we need to do.

We can't do good work for the Lord if we're too busy working for Him to actually know Him.

Some of the "busiest" saints, like Mother Teresa and Blessed Fulton Sheen, prioritized a daily Holy Hour.

Now, you might not have time for a daily Holy Hour even in the not busy season, but I would challenge you to try to double whatever daily prayer time you currently have over these next few weeks.

I promise you, that time with Him won't be wasted.

For His greater glory,

Emily

P.S. In case you missed the hints throughout this email...the Market Like Jesus course is coming back next week! This is my ultimate course on marketing for Catholic business owners and ministry leaders that teaches you all of the marketing strategies you need to know through the lens of how Jesus and the apostles used them in the Bible.

And there's going to be a brand new element that I think you're going to love...make sure you watch your inbox for October 12 when enrollment reopens!