CONTACT YOUR ACTIVE CLIENT LIST TWO WEEKS OUT There’s nothing worse than getting an email right before vacation from a client who didn’t know you were going to be away on vacation the next morning. You end up caught between telling them you can’t work on their project because you’re leaving on vacation or you rush to get their work to them. Neither is a great option and both leave you feeling quite anxious for your business. Once you have your vacation details set, add a reminder to email your active client list at least two weeks out from when you’re going to be leaving. This eliminates worry over last minute projects and the possibility of an active client receiving your out of office notice when you’ve already headed out into the sunset. Setting expectations make for a great customer experience, which in turn helps with your client retention.
SET UP YOUR OUT OF OFFICE Your Out of Office email is the branding oppor - tunity you never knew you had. When you think of branding opportunities, you usually think of the logo or getting signage on the side of a building. Or even what you post about on social media. We don’t usually think about small things like writing an out-of-office reminder as an opportu - nity for brand growth. Taking time away from work to relax and reflect on your business and your life as a whole is a part of building your brand, in the same way as pre- paring your customers for you to be out of touch is. They are experiences that elevate your brand from the competition. If you write a generic email, your customer won’t find it to be a memorable experience. If you haven’t prepared them for your departure at all, it might even be a negative experience for them.
sistent presence while you’re away. If you’re a solo-entrepreneur and don’t have that extra time, just let people know ahead of time that you’re taking some time away from your most time-consuming tasks (i.e. writing blog posts) and focus on scheduling a few of the less time intensive marketing tasks. Some consistency is better than none. And done is better than perfect. Keeping up with your posts as much as possible will go a long way to maintaining that client trust.
PLAN CONTENT AHEAD AND SCHEDULE POSTS WHILE ON VACATION Everywhere you look, brands are trying to develop authenticity within their customer interactions. Maybe it’s something as small as a company culture of using first names, or as large as the CEO reaching out to dissatisfied custom - ers personally. The most common trend we’re seeing is people scheduling less of their content and spending more time engaging one-on-one with their audience. That being said, you’re not alone if you’re using a scheduling app to create consistency with pre-scheduled posts as a part of your marketing distribution. Take the time before you leave to write your blog posts, social media updates, etc. so that you can have them scheduled to go out and create a con-
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FEBRUARY 2021 • SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE
SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE • FEBRUARY 2021
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