by Dana | October 26, 2022

Tis, the season for spreading good cheer and many businesses are putting their holiday campaigns into gear. The holidays are also an excellent time to work on building business relationships, not just personal ones. During this time, it pays to forward kind gestures to your existing customers, which can also go a long way in lead generation.

Everything from sending holiday messages to giving discounts or holiday baskets can contribute to cementing your relationship with clients and further developing your B2B relationships. However, a few businesses still struggle to find the right way to connect with their customers during the holidays. Luckily, Zopto’s guide to spreading holiday cheer provides your business with thoughtful, mindful gestures that are effective for strengthening customer loyalty, retaining their business and converting more leads, thus boosting sales.

Send personalized seasonal greetings

Personalized messages show customers that you’ve researched their pain points and done due diligence to understand them better. Add a level of personalization to your message, such as using your client’s name or business name, and reference a significant event for them that year.

You can also include offers or discounts that would specifically benefit that client and address a critical need they have based on your interactions with them. Unique messaging that speaks directly to customers can positively impact their inclinations to keep working with your business. Another way to include personalization is on the website and company social media pages to reflect the season’s theme, and this helps boost engagement.

Appreciate your customers

The holidays are a great time to focus on appreciating your customers. Thank them for their business throughout the year. Also, point out how you want to continue the relationship and keep working together in the coming year. Knowing they’ve impacted your business as much as you have theirs can invoke mutual respect and friendliness. Keeping your messaging short and sweet, and including holiday-themed visuals makes your content more compelling.

Don’t be too salesy in your pitch

Your messaging at this time should focus more on cheer, thankfulness and appreciation instead of making a sale. When your holiday messaging includes a sales pitch, it can be a turn-off for customers. They’ll imagine your business is only concerned with sales and profits instead of building connections and establishing solid relationships. Your messaging should show you care. Therefore, content should focus more on improving customers’ lives, offering gifts and discounts and other pleasant things that inspire customers to keep working with you. These are more in keeping with the season, so they appeal to customers and still result in more sales.

Focus on the value proposition to stay top of mind for businesses

You can subtly reinforce your value proposition as you spread holiday cheer without being pushy about closing deals and making sales. While showing appreciation for past business, reestablish your commitment to continuing business with them and building a continuous long-term relationship. One of the most effective ways to do this is via email marketing, where you share your value proposition and encourage customers to share your message with others in their network. Emails are also an excellent tool for lead generation and connecting with new leads by offering incentives like time-based discounts or sales.

Create shared experiences

Shared experiences are suitable for forming bonds, and businesses can use these to their advantage in building solid relationships with clients. While crafting your messaging, look for mutual experiences, whether positive or negative, that you can use to convey warmth and understanding. It can also be an opportunity to show customers how they contributed to making living through this shared experience better by using the right tone and language to show gratitude. While you may not have any direct shared experiences, relating to world events like the global pandemic or pop culture references (where appropriate) can also serve as a shared experience.

Share discounts and rewards

Rewards, sales, discounts and gifts are known to inspire customer loyalty and retention. Prizes are always appreciated during the holidays, as many people buy more than usual. Keep your rewards interesting by offering combos, bundle offers, late sales and other upselling tactics that gift customers something extra for patronizing you. Gifts and discounts lead to increased sales, meaning more revenue for your business while showing clients care and making them feel special and happy to be doing business with you.

Sending thousands of messages during the holidays can be challenging without help from automation tools. Zopto allows your business easily send holiday greetings and well wishes for the new year to first-degree connections. Contacts us today to learn more about using our services to stay connected with customers.

Dana

Dana Vines works in Sales and Business Development as a full time digital nomad. She helps B2B and B2C companies develop partnerships across the globe. When she's not working on building relationships, you might find her scuba diving, at a live music event, or planning her next destination.