I am in charge of the annual Holiday letter (well, at least doing the first draft.) I take a stab at what my wife and I are going to write. Then she fine-tunes it and sends it out.
When I wrote my book, PerfectTIMING, I told readers to do things by setting ADVANCE DATES (deadlines that are in advance of when you need to have something completed). I want to practice what I preach, so I do our letter mid-October. Then we send it in early November.
Why do we do it this way?
- We (like you) get busy over the holidays, so we like to take time to focus on it.
- The year is ready to wrap up, so most of the material we want in it has already happened.
- By sending it out earlier, it will get noticed. When too many newsletters come in all at once sometimes people don’t read them.
ACTION STEPS FOR THIS WEEK
- Consider this approach for what you do at your organization.
- If you send out holiday cards consider doing them 60 days earlier than the holiday so that recipients get yours first.
- Add a twist to the holiday cards you send out. For instance, instead of December holiday cards, consider a Thanksgiving Day card, which will be noticed and set you apart from everyone else.
- Find other ways that you can make an impact by being the first, doing things differently or thinking outside the box.
