In South Africa, December is summer holiday time and a quiet business month. So you would reason communications are not really necessary, right? Wrong. The last month of the year is filled with opportunities and possibilities. You could use it to increase your share of voice and get ahead of the competition.

As much as you want to, now is not the time to sit back and relax.

Why you shouldn’t

Many of our clients want to pause their communication efforts in December and continue again in the new year. Others are desperate to know how they can keep audience attention during the period where prospects are often uninterested.

The fact is, December is a time to be proactive with communications. It’s a time to show that your brand is one to remember. Here’s what to do.

Plan your Media Relations

December is an ideal opportunity to concentrate on trends topics or predictions for the next year. This is what executives are pondering about in December, even during their holidays. You can position your brand as a thought leader by addressing these topics during this time.

While the rest of South Africa is working on their holiday plans, you should work on your media articles for January. Get them written and approved before most people go on holiday. When your competitors come back and scramble to get going, you are ready to hit the media with some thought-provoking media articles.

This will earn you lots of brownie points with journalists and you will steal the limelight with great media publicity.

All in all, the last weeks of the year are an opportunity to plan ahead and get content written to hit the new year running.

Post on Social Media

Social Media is like New York. It never sleeps. As much as your prospective customers (and current clients) are not looking to make deals, they are still online.

You can keep it light on social media and still attract attention. Consider posting tips for the new year or insights from the year passed. Social posts like season’s greetings and team congratulations posts are also a good idea.

This will keep your brand top of mind, and humanise it at the same time. A great project for December to communicate your DNA and connect with your customers.

Publish your blogs

To keep your SEO ranking strong, you have to remain consistent with blogs. So, you should continue to publish blog posts. You can, however, slow them down, as people are not as likely to read business blogs in December.

With the time you save in slowing down your blogs, you can start content ideation for next year. Creating a strong content calendar well ahead of time sets you up for success. At the beginning of the year, your copywriters will know exactly what they have to do. And, they’ll have more time to work on it.

Prepare for general communication

Crises can come at any time of the year. It is best that you stay prepared for it.

You should have alerts set up for mentions of your business, so that you can pro-actively react. This responsibility doesn’t fall away in the festive season. Monitoring, even when teams are out of office, to identify if there are any crises or issues is a necessity.

In addition, you can plan any broad or basic notices that you will share in the new year. For example, if you have a new partnership coming up, or if you’ve made a new acquisition and are planning to announce it. December is a great time to plan those announcements.

Conclusion

If you use December to your advantage, you can get ahead of your competitors. While they slowly step out of holiday slumber, you’ll already be prepped and ready to go. And, your customers will remember the work you did over this period too.