Anticipate the New Year Rebound

How do your December metrics look?  If you are like most trainers, consultants, and professional coaches, you experience a holiday slump in the last couple weeks of December.  This slump typically runs across all channels and is directly related to a significant decline in activity as prospects and clients take time off for the holidays. While it’s not advisable to give up on December, it’s important to recognize that dip when you analyze performance at the beginning of the new year.

Reviewing analytics on a monthly basis is a common practice because it’s easy to maintain consistency and ensures regular analysis on a sufficient data set.  Unfortunately, carelessly using the comparison to the previous month to identify trends can become a tendency that leads to false analysis.

A new year often means new digital marketing initiatives that are inaccurately compared to a holiday slump rather than a true benchmark. It’s tempting to see a rebound in January and February and commend ourselves on the genius of our new ideas.  But rather than jumping to conclusions that our revised initiatives or updated plan is responsible, maintain due diligence.  More than any other time of year, it’s important to compare January and February results to the previous year or to the fall before the holidays (if campaigns have changed significantly from the previous year).

Changing nothing at all in January and February often leads to improved month to month performance simply through a new year rebound after the holiday slump.  Take the time to do a multi-faceted review of past performance to make sure your new initiatives are responsible for the improvement rather than simply getting back to speed after decreased holiday activity.