It’s that time of year that every company plans for and is excited about. A good fourth quarter can often put you back in the black even after a poor showing for the rest of the year.

Even without doing much of anything, you’re bound to see a big uptick in revenue and sales during that period between October and the end of December. Not only do you have people shopping like crazy for Christmas, but everybody is in shopping and spending mode in general. 

The kids are back in school, vacations are over and people are focused on getting the things they need and have been putting off.

You need to take advantage of this period by taking some active measures. You can make money anyway, but with the right plan you can make much, much more.

In this article, I will go over several of the ways that you can increase your earnings during the fourth quarter.

1 – Get Your Brand On Point

Branding your business is important at any time of year so it shouldn’t only be focused on during the fourth quarter. However, this is the time of year when it should be paying off. 

The beautiful thing about the 4th quarter is that people are expecting to be advertised and marketed towards. Take advantage of that by sending out direct mail offers that have your branding prominently marked on them. 

Holiday greeting cards are a good way to do this as people love getting cards in the mail. Make sure that your branding is consistent throughout the mailer and is easily identifiable. A person opening the card should immediately understand what your company is about after looking quickly at the card.

2 – Start Early

Start your marketing for the fourth quarter before it begins. Think about it like planting seeds that will mature into plants by the time mid October rolls around. 

If your company works with clients, start asking them what their plans and budgets will look like for the end of year. This way they are going to have you in their plans and you can effectively craft your marketing according to their specific needs.

If you are working with customers for a product or service, then have your mail list working towards the end of year ramp up.  It may be helpful at this point to segment your list according to where the readers in their buyer journey. By the time the fourth quarter rolls around, then they will want to be aware of all the sales coming up.

3 – Give Before You Get

Everybody is ready for the onslaught of marketing that they are going to get. As a result, some can feel like they are just a walking wallet that everybody is vying to get their hands on.

Be different by telling people about how much your company has given to charity this year. Or, that you are making a donation to a certain charity as a way to say thank you to all the customers who made it a successful year. 

4 – Reward Loyal Customers

Piggybacking on the last section is to give something of value to your loyal customers. Hopefully you have your customers emails. And, again, these emails should be segmented so you know which email addresses correspond with those who have actually purchased from you rather than potential customers. 

Send out an email with a freebie for your customers that only they are able to take advantage of. This will increase your revenue quite a bit because these are people that already like what you are offering. This kind of offer puts your business in the forefront of their mind so they are likely to respond with a purchase. 

Although you want to reward them, make sure to have the offer be time sensitive. After all, you want them to act quickly before they get distracted by all the other offers and ads they are being bombarded with.

5 – Make Sure That Your Website Can Handle The Traffic

Traffic surges with visitors during the fourth quarter as people are either shopping or looking for information to make a purchase. Is your website optimized to handle the surge in traffic?

Make sure that you are in contact with your hosting company so you can see if your site is able to stay online during massive traffic. 

Also, check to see that your payment processor can also handle the demand. If people can’t pay then that is an obvious issue.