2017 is almost over - but you still have time to do these 5 marketing tasks.

The end of the year is coming to a close, but let's not freak out (Kevin!). If you’re like me, you may be thinking... "But I still have so much I want to do in 2017!"

In the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, it’s easy to use the busyness as an excuse to do nothing or buy into the “wait til January” approach.

I think you can do better than that.

Regardless of how much you justify the lack of activity, you still have more several days left to make this year count. Use this as a chance to establish some momentum, so that when January does roll around, you’re already in motion (kinetic energy, it’s a beautiful thing).

If you do NOTHING else in the next 3 weeks, believe me….. you can do these 5 things. They’re simple and can be completed in a short amount of time. Or, you could hire someone to help you complete these (yes, that's where we come in at Simple Strat - the marketing agency for companies who are serious about growth).

Ok, here we go!

1. Survey Your Customers.

We’re not talking about a 50-question survey that dives into the history of their buying preferences, their company needs for the next 5-10 years, or even their loyalty (or lack thereof) to your sales team.

A short 5-7 question survey can provide valuable feedback that allows you to measure the level of engagement you have with your customers.

You'll learn what their pain points are, and how you can increase the value of your relationships. Plus – services like SurveyMonkey.com make it super simple!

Below I’ve pasted a list of sample questions you could consider including in your end of year survey:

• How long have you been a customer of Company XYZ?
• Why do you continue to work with us at Company XYZ?
• Are you facing any particular challenges in your business? (describe)
• What keeps you up at night?
• What tools or resources might make your job easier?
• If you could snap your fingers and make something instantly happen to grow your business, what would it be?
• How could we knock your socks off with outstanding customer service?
• What is your favorite holiday?
• What ideas have you tossed around in marketing your business, but just haven’t had the time to implement?
• On a scale of 1 to 10, how likely are you to refer our company to your friends and family?
• On a scale of 1 to 10, how great of a holiday cookie baker are you?

Sprinkling a few fun questions in there provide opportunities to capitalize on non-traditional promotions.

For example – what if their favorite holiday was St. Patrick’s Day? You could certainly make a big deal out of that. Plus, it reminds them that you’re human.

If your brand isn’t very casual or personable (which has me asking, why wouldn’t it be?) in its marketing, you could just leave those out!

2. Schedule 10 social media posts for the rest of the year.

Use a tool like hootsuite or buffer app to write and schedule 10 posts that can be shared with your audience on a variety of networks from now until the end of the year.

With the holiday hustle and bustle and fiscal year closing, you probably won’t be thinking about social media as much as you could be. So, take it off your plate by batching this all together and scheduling it all at once.

If you’re struggling with WHAT to post, check out our list of social media story ideas on the Simple Strat blog. Or we made a handy graphic to help you out:

Or, like many companies do when they’re in a pinch – highlight the top three themes you want to drive home, and then hire an agency or intern to research good content, write, and schedule the posts.

It's well worth the money to appear relevant, consistent, and timely in the social space.

Oh, and don't forget to pair this with your paid ad strategy as organic Facebook is very difficult to get a return these days!

3. Shoot one (introductory quality) video.

With each person having a mobile phone with a great camera right in their pocket, you don't have an excuse for not having at least one video on a company youtube channel!

Set up your camera and simply talk for 30 to 60 seconds about something that your customer would find valuable.

Since we're a marketing agency, in our case this might be sharing a 60 second tip for how to develop great content, or how to write a marketing plan. If you're a manufacturing company, you may showcase a product, or create a "meet the team" member video.

Here's an example of a video our team put together quickly that educates and promotes value to our audience.

And this was shot on an iPhone!

To get started, sketch out and idea, and then start shooting. Make sure you have a good microphone setup though - nothing ruins a video faster than poor audio. Poor lighting is a close second, so make sure you pay attention to that too.

If you're looking for recommendations regarding equipment, check out this article >> Our Favorite Equipment for Cheap Video Production.

4. Thank your clients/customers.

With the holidays this time of year, it’s easy to say that we have a mind of thankfulness and gratitude. But the truth is, we have so many things clammering for our attention that we often make this a short, and uneventful conversation.

I’m thankful for you.....have a great weekend!

But clients, vendors, strategic partners, influencers, referral sources, and others should know that you:

1. Genuinely care for them
2. Appreciate everything they do to make your life a success
3. Want to help them do the same

It could be a handwritten note or even a short video file – you be the judge of the delivery. Know that you could audio record all of your thank you notes as you’re driving to a meeting that’s 2 hours away...then have an intern or other employee write out the notes by hand!

Helpscout has a great blog post on their site about 25 ways to thank your customers. Definitely worth checking out. It includes things like the cookie tin below. Yum!

5. Clean your email list. (puh-lease do this one!)

A company’s email marketing list can easily morph into mess of data and statistics. You have a lot of things there, but you don’t know if you have the right things.

Sort of like a closet packed with clothes that don’t fit.

You need to know who is opening your email, who is interacting with it (clicking within in, responding to it), and who could care less.

Marketing is a two way conversation, so why continue to produce content for people who never see it anyway?

Send a short email that asks individuals re-opt in to the news letter list in order to continue to receive content. Those that don’t opt in will be removed from the list.

A 60% engagement rate with 200 people is far better than a 20% engagement rate with 400 people. Plus, when people are engaged, they are likely to share your content with others who have similar interests and goals. Bonus!

Now it’s Your Turn. What will you do?

What else can you do in the next 3 weeks to market your business and set yourself up for success in 2018?

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Ali Schwanke is the CEO and Founder of Simple Strat, the marketing agency for companies who are serious about growth. Learn more at simplestrat.com. She's also the co-host of the popular small business podcast, Bar Napkin Business.

If this article was helpful to you or you have any questions, feel free to send a note at [email protected] or tag @alischwanke on Twitter.