🍽 Weekly PR Recipe: 🎄🎅🏼 Get PR ready for the holiday season

A quick dish to ho ho ho help you hype yourself this week

Hiya 🤶🏻,

Yes, I know.

I am sorry to bring up the (C)hristmas word. Just hear me out.

I know that TIME is one of the biggest barriers when it comes to DIY PR. I’m just planting little toasted 🌱seeds to make sure you are prepped and ready for the holiday season.

This is not about getting into Christmas gift guides (I have a post on that here).

This is about pre-empting any seasonal activity that you should be doing ahead of time so you are not rushed.

Enjoy,

Lucy

P.S. This PR Recipe is my treat! But if you want to keep hyping yourself every week with me, upgrade today.

Dish: Holiday PR made simple

Ingredients:

• 1 Part Holiday Planning – Make sure your business is ready for the holiday season with timely updates and thoughtful gestures.

• 2 Parts Creativity – Infuse the holiday spirit into your communications and business strategies.

• A Sprinkle of Thoughtfulness – Show your clients and community how much you value them.

Instructions:

Step 1: Schedule a Christmas Update
Do you need to inform your audience about holiday hours, special offers, or seasonal services? Now’s the time to plan! Use your Substack or social channels to create and schedule a festive update(s) that reminds people of your offerings and how they can work with you over the holidays.

Why not try a seasonal twist on last week’s “Ways to Work With Me” PR Recipe?

Step 2: Create a Holiday Gift Guide
Consider curating a gift guide that features your products/services or your clients or community. This is a great way to boost visibility and provide value. If you plan to issue a gift guide, start gathering your ideas now to publish in October.

Example: I love this The Being Freelance Gift Guide from

Being Freelance

Step 3: Craft a Seasonal Out-of-Office Message
As the holidays approach, set up an out-of-office email that informs people about your holiday schedule and highlights your services or festive offers.

Step 4: Plan Your Holiday Content
What posts do you need to prep and schedule if you are a childcare juggler like me? If you can take a break, can you start drafting posts for the holiday season to keep your audience engaged? Whether on Substack, social media, or email, popping a few things on the scheduler now will mean you have easily got content ready to go during the busy season.

Step 5: Show Gratitude
Consider sending gifts or handwritten cards to your best clients. If not gifts, think about donating to a charity on their behalf, showing appreciation meaningfully.

Step 6: Engage Your Community
Think about how you can make your community feel special during the holidays. Whether through a holiday-themed event, an exclusive offer, or a personal message, find ways to show them how much they mean to you.

👩🏻‍🍳 Pro Tip:

If you are a service-based provider this is a great opportunity to show what I call a bit of ankle. Why not share your Christmas wishlist? Bring us into your world — connection helps you to stand out from your competitive set.

OR

Have a product that is perfect for a Christmas gift guide. Share it on Notes (regularly). Tell us who it is perfect for or what categories it could fit into. Tag me, and I’ll restack you!

Here is one I made earlier…

🥒 Dietary replacements: Free permission slip

Substack Gift Subscriptions 🎁: Encourage your audience to give the gift of your newsletter by promoting Substack subscriptions as a holiday present. I hereby give you permission to use the gift button like I have below:

Over to you…

I am all about encouraging muscle memory for promotion. Do you have a product or book perfect for Christmas gift guides? Practise below in the comments; give us some categories it could fit into, a one-liner and a link. Go on… Hype Yourself!