Christmas (Prep) in July: Analyzing Last Year’s Success
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As the holiday season approaches, it’s time to gear up and make the most of this bustling time for sales and customer engagement. While it may be July and Christmas seems far away, preparing early will set you up for success. Our Christmas In July is a little different than most. We’ll use this month to prepare our businesses to ROCK the holiday season!
This week we’re discussing the importance of evaluating last year’s performance. So, let’s dive in and prepare for “Christmas in July”!
Disclosure: some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.
Take a Look at Last Year’s Performance
Evaluating your business’s performance during the previous holiday season is a valuable exercise that provides insights into your strengths, weaknesses, and areas for improvement.
By understanding what worked well and what didn’t, you can develop a strategic plan for this year.
If this is the first time you’ve done this type of analysis, don’t worry. You can’t do this “wrong”! Any time you can look at what your business is doing is time well spent.
Review Sales Data
Start by analyzing your sales data from the previous holiday season. Identify your best-selling products, highest revenue-generating categories, and customer favorites.
This information will help you determine which products to focus on and whether there is a need to expand or develop new products.
Review Your Production Practices and Scheduling
A tip for this coming year – take notes on everything that happens during your busy times, so you can review them when things are quiet.
If you didn’t take notes last year, pour yourself a cup of your favorite beverage and reflect on how the season went.
Try to remember how your production schedule worked. Did you have enough time to make the products you needed? Did you struggle to complete orders?
Did your schedule allow time for breaks? Or were you constantly behind the eight-ball, playing catch-up under stress?
Write down your thoughts and observations for when you start to create this year’s schedule. You can keep what worked well last year and improve on what didn’t.
Assess Customer Feedback
Customer feedback is a goldmine of information. Read through reviews, testimonials, and any direct feedback you received during the last holiday season.
Some feedback may be a one-off circumstance or a particular customer’s feelings. So you want to look for recurring themes, both positive and negative.
This feedback will guide you in enhancing your products, improving customer service, and refining your marketing strategies.
Analyze Your Marketing
With marketing, customers will be able to find your business. So it’s essential to have a strong plan for holiday marketing.
It’s time to see what you did last year and whether it worked for you.
Review your advertising campaigns (if any), social media posts, email marketing, and any other promotional activities.
Identify what channels yielded the best results and which ones fell short. Use this knowledge to optimize your marketing plan for the upcoming holiday season.
What if This Is Your First Holiday Season Coming Up? You can still prep for Christmas in July!
If your business is new, you’ll need to make some assumptions about what to focus on this coming holiday season.
Instead of evaluating past performance, you can use this time to devise a way of tracking all this information.
Ensure you know how to find your best-selling products, customer reviews, and analytics on traffic and sales.
Get familiar with social media metrics, such as Instagram Insights. Take a look at your email service provider’s analytics. You’ll want to see open rates and sales generated from individual emails.
Even though you don’t have previous data to review, doing this prep work now will get you lightyears ahead when things get busy in a few months.
Read more about preparing for the holidays:
How to Organize Your Business for Holiday Success
Christmas in July: Analyzing Last Year’s Success
Information is power! Knowing your business’s performance last year will allow you to make positive changes. Use the coming week to gather the information we discussed today. Over the next few weeks, we’ll use this information to create plans to help your handmade business BLOOM this coming holiday season!
Read the full Christmas in July Series:
Start or Improve Your Online Store
How to Do a Social Media Audit
Self-Care and Hiring Help (goes live on 7/31/23)
If you’re just starting out with an online shop, be sure to download my free guide, Online Selling Must-Haves for Makers. It has EVERYTHING you need to know about selling your crafts online. Download the free guide here!
