It's the holidays, people! Get your message out there, but mind people's piggy banks...

Hello, everyone. I have been guilty of holiday overwhelm. Getting over colds, traveling back and forth from the East Coast three times this fall/winter by the time we get to '09 and keeping business drummed up while trying to write a novel has been, well, busy.

We all know that this year the economy is crazy. I was speaking to someone at Merrill Lynch who said he had never seen anything like this market in 30 years of working in the field. It seems to me that the market and the economy is behaving a bit like a person with a mood disorder: it gets a bit sad in the late afternoon and drops, perks up when Obama announces things that feel like forward movement, and is sometimes just totally irrational. Oi.

So how can we deal with the lack of sales and attention our products and services are facing in this market? I think the answer is simple: be with what is. Here's how:

image: "piggy bank" by jaevus.

In my opinion, the worst thing you can do is market your products and services as if the economy is in a big boom and that everyone is just bursting with money to spare. This simply isn't true. What you need to do is find out how your business is an asset to people in these times.

Example: many people say that coaching is a luxury, but if I told you that developing a focused plan for 2009 and having a support structure in place as a weekly, every-other-weekly, or monthly coaching session would make you much more likely to succeed and make more money in 2009, would you still think it's optional?
 
Take a good look at what you are offering and put on the glasses of someone who is struggling at the moment. What do they want out of gifts this holiday? They want value, something less expensive, and something that people will actually use and love. See if you can pitch your holiday promotional material this way and you will be more likely to get sales and clients.

Remember, we're all in this together, and we need to reach out to those who are struggling in order to move forward. If that means developing a product or service option at a lower price point, then this is the time to do so and launch it.

Let me know how it goes! And in the meantime... here is a great link on how to get your name in Daily Candy or on Thrillist, two great viral marketing gold mines.