It's Q4 Peeps - What's The Word?

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It is Q4. It rolls around EVERY year…

For many of your clients, Q4 is where their annual profit is made and lost.

For many of YOU, Q4 is when profit is made and lost. You are handling the most work you’ve handled all year - for B2C clients you have Halloween, Thanksgiving, BFCM & holiday…and post holiday sales. If you serve B2B folks, there is enormous pressure to get all the possible deals done before the clock strikes 12 on Dec 31…

It is a time for fun and family and usually freakin’ giant amounts of stress… I spent many Black Fridays (and quite a few Gray Thursdays) wrestling with paid search campaigns while my extended family gathered together and did fun stuff…

Let’s not have you do that this year…or any year for that matter.

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Tim’s Top 10 Rules for Q4

This isn’t an exhaustive list of ways to make Q4 easier, but it is a start…

1. Time Off Tracking: Everybody wants time off around the holidays. Everybody OUGHT to get some time off around the holidays. But if you are a small team without a lot of redundancy in skills, someone having time off can really make things hard on everyone else. Before Oct 15, ask everyone on your team about holiday plans. Know well in advance where you might have knowledge gaps (eg, if the only person on your team who knows what a “data layer” is needed to troubleshoot something and they are on vacation…what is your plan?).

2. Create An “I’m On Vacation” Workflow: Before anyone leaves for holidays and someone else if covering their job, their calls, their tasks…whatever, make it a responsibility of the person who is leaving on vacation to make a detailed list of everything that needs to get done in their absence. Also, if they are client facing, make sure that the client knows when they are going to be gone…and has another point of contact for that time. (Pro Tip: Have them leave any passwords, and if they are the 2FA contact for something, make sure that you work out a plan to get whatever code is going to be texted…this will save a huge amount of headaches.)

3. Don’t Take on Clients Who Expect Holiday Magic: Every year, I hear of agencies that take on clients in mid-November and the client is expecting everything to be perfect by Black Friday. That never happens - it is ALWAYS a disaster and pressure makes EVERYTHING worse.

4. Q4 Pricing Changes: Lots of agencies have some pricing changes for Q4 - a holiday campaign surcharge for extra email flows, or additional ad creative, or new holiday landing pages… If you have pricing changes, make sure that you communicate them well in advance and that the client agrees to them in writing.

5. Get Permissions In Advance: It’s Black Friday and you are cranking away on campaigns. Suddenly things aren’t working well, or they are working amazingly well, any you need feedback on budget, or an out of stock situation, and you send your client a Slack message…and then…nothing…because they are off for a long weekend… Pre-plan scenarios and decisions you can make without getting in the moment approval from your client. Believe it or not, this kind of discussion brings you and your client together because they are now part of your plan.

6. Prep Your Clients Realistically: If sales or leads have been struggling for a client, they aren’t going to get magically better in Q4 - even if they raise their budgets. Holidays and the end of the year do generally have increased traffic and performance, but media costs rise, buyer attentions are scattered, so it isn’t terribly unusual for a struggling client to struggle in the test by fire that is Q4. If you are concerned, start talking about it right NOW.

7. Show Your Clients Some Appreciation: It costs nothing to send an email thanking your clients for their support and patronage. It might feel goofy, but go ahead and do it anyway. Have everyone on your team do it. Send goofy memes - I dunno - but show your clients that you appreciate them. It really matters.

8. Show Your Team Some Appreciation: If you have a remote team, it can be hard to celebrate together. When I was leading a remote team, we all went “out to dinner” together by all going out to dinner in our respective cities and sharing pictures to a Slack group. Another time, I had pizza delivered to everyone around the same time (we were in 5 different time zones!). If you are in a position or have a culture of holiday bonuses, try to make it a touch more special than other quarterly bonuses. Send gifts, give everyone a half day off, whatever - show them that they matter.

9. Show Yourself Some Appreciation: It doesn’t matter if things are good or bad this year…you’ve worked hard, you’ve worked long, and you’ve invested yourself into the business. Do something for you. Want to get yourself a new laptop just because…then do it. Want to bug out on Thursday night and put your laptop away until Tuesday? If you’ve taken care of tip #2, do it. Want to fire a client because it will fill your soul with joy? Do it. Make sure that you give yourself something to feel good about.

10. Show The People That Love You Some Appreciation: Unless you are the lone wolf sort, you have partners and friends and family that don’t get a full version of you if you are slammed with work and stress. They deserve some appreciation for that…if you can’t lavish them with gifts, at very least say, “Thanks, I know I’ve been busy - let’s find some time to reconnect.” It is going to matter more than you know.

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Reminder - Looking For Feedback

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