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Do you ever feel like your company’s marketing efforts are lacking during the holiday season? Like your holiday offer is bland and irrelevant because of how popular holiday promotions are? With all of the commotion and incentives tied around each and every holiday, it’s hard to think of a creative way to stand out.
As the holiday season approaches, more and more consumers are beginning to see all of the promotions businesses are implementing in an effort to drive customers through their doors. Many companies offer attractive deals to give themselves a competitive edge. How will your company offer a creative and successful holiday incentive that catches your target’s interest, creates excitement and brings value so your efforts aren’t diluted.
A whirlwind of last-minute shopping trips, elaborate celebration preparations, and chaotic family visits is quickly approaching with the holiday season peeking around the corner. In the midst of the excitement, it’s easy to get swept up in the commotion and lose sight of the true significance of the holiday—giving.
During this exciting time of year, it’s heartwarming to see families slow down and recognize the loving role they play in each other’s lives. Meanwhile, it’s important for companies to stop and appreciate their hard working employees. When it comes to giving, we are all capable of making a truly meaningful contribution by taking the time to remember those who are most in need.
Thank You! We can never hear those words enough! It’s just those two small words that make people feel warm and fuzzy inside. ‘Thank You’ tells our employees that they’re appreciated and that they’ve done a great job. It lets our customers know we really value their loyal business. These two small words are impactful, and it’s important to take the time to say them. David Shindler, author of Learning to Leap, reminds us that “employee surveys continue to show that people value a simple ‘thank you’ from managers.”
Imagine sitting in a comedy club watching a comedian bomb. It’s painful. People feel uncomfortable. Most likely, his timing is waaaay-way off.
In the workplace, managers aren’t comedians (generally), but they need to share a critical trait with comedians to keep things rolling in a manner that keeps everyone happy and engaged. They need: Great Timing.
Great Timing is everything. And it’s simple. But first, here’s what Great Timing in the workplace is not: It’s not quarterly, bi-annually, or end-of-year. And it’s not silent.
On the other hand, here’s what it is: Great Timing is recognizing, rewarding and celebrating successes as they occur, even if it’s a verbal “thank you” from the manager to the employee (even better when amplified in front of peers).
We are wired for rewards. Literally. In fact, when people receive a positive recognition or reward, it creates a shot of dopamine, sparked by the neurotransmitters in our brains. According to Kevan Lee in his article on the The Science of Motivation: Your Brain on Dopamine, “The brain can be trained to feed off of bursts of dopamine sparked by rewarding experiences.”
The dopamine shot is felt in many ways, including motivation, memory, behavior and cognition, attention, sleep, mood, and learning…leaving an imprint on our brains reminding us to repeat the behavior that earned the reward.