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December can be a dismal revenue month for resume writers.
If you’ve been in the resume writing industry for a while, you’ve experienced this firsthand.
During year-end, job seekers generally don’t give much attention to their resumes, which can mean lower and slower sales conversions for resume writers from around the beginning of November to the end of December.
Professionals have other tasks on their minds. For example, they’re considering holiday shopping, vacation time, work deadlines, a scheduled family dinner, etc.
A job search and all the “fixings” that accompany that is probably the furthest from their minds.
Yet, that’s not ideal for us as business owners.
Because when we’re not writing, we’re not earning. Slow time is wasted if we’re not doing something productive with it.
At this time of year, kicking your marketing efforts into high gear is ideal.
The “lowest hanging fruit” for generating new resume writing business is 3-fold. Your goal during the last 6-8 weeks of the year should be to:
- Pursue former clients* for resume updates
- Reconnect with prospects you quoted but didn’t buy
- Upsell former clients* who purchased a resume but didn’t buy a cover letter, LinkedIn profile, etc.
*Sales experts will tell you that getting more revenue from existing clients is easier than getting new revenue from prospects.
Using email marketing with these 3 audiences is likely the most efficient use of your time. However, you could use a mix of communication methods. For example, maybe phone or Zoom follow-up for former clients and email for prospects.
Mining your current database of prospects and clients will produce the best results quickly.
You might think that an elaborate email is required to stir up additional revenue, but this is untrue.
3 Steps to Securing More Revenue During The Holiday Slow Season
Below, we’ve outlined 4 email templates you can send to prospects and clients in your database. You’ll find that staying in touch with prospects and clients can go a long way with minimal time and effort. So, let’s get started…
Step#1 Email Former Clients To Initiate Resume Updates
Emailing former clients is your first step to generating more revenue in November/December.
In years past, we’ve sent out the below email – with some minor customizations, of course – to former clients and received incredible success. This basic email has secured many resume update projects in December and put many more January projects in the hopper as well.
Feel free to use this content for your broadcast to clients.
Subject: No Better Time to Update
Janice – since writing your resume, I wanted to ask if you’re planning a job search in 20XX?
If yes, now is an excellent time to initiate a resume update with me.
My project load will be light throughout the coming weeks. And, since many industries slow in anticipation of the upcoming holidays, this may be a lighter workload/perfect time for you as well. There are some big benefits to updating your resume now.
First, you’ll get the project out of the way now instead of waiting.
Second, you’ll be ahead of the others at the start of the new year.
Third, you can start researching and applying for job openings instead of waiting until the early-year rush.
Ready to update? If yes, send me a few broad-stroke details about what’s changed with your career since we last worked together (e.g., new job or job target). I can then send you a few details on investment, timeline, etc.
Thanks a bunch, Janice.
We send this email to clients we worked with over a year ago because they’re more apt to need an update.
Step#2 Email to Recent Clients For Upsell Opportunity
You’re not limited to pursuing resume updates only.
We all have clients who, throughout the year, purchase a resume and never return for any other writing services, such as a LinkedIn profile.
This is lost revenue if you don’t pursue it.
Unlike the email from step#1, the below email is best sent to clients you’ve worked with over the past few months or year.
Writing a compelling LinkedIn profile can take 1-2 hours as long as it’s done shortly after the resume gets written. Completing resumes and LinkedIn profiles back-to-back is the most efficient use of your writing time. However, when clients don’t buy a LinkedIn profile right away, you may spend more time writing those profiles because you need to reacquaint yourself with each client’s career.
The email template you can use to pursue LinkedIn profile upsells:
Subject: Your LinkedIn Profile
Janice – it’s been a few months since we finalized your new resume. I hope everything is going well.
You mentioned needing your LinkedIn profile enhanced when we spoke, so I wanted to let you know of my year-end sale.
This offer is being made available now because, as a small business, this time of year is a slow time for me. When business slows, I have nothing to do but sit around, relax, and bake cookies. None of those things interest me. 😉
So, for the next 5 days, I’m running a $X special for LinkedIn profiles for clients I’ve written resumes for. Doing this project now, I can have your LinkedIn profile in tip-top shape well before the start of the new year.
If you’re ready to get started, here’s the direct link to request the service: [put a link to your landing or e-commerce page]. If you’d like to schedule a brief call first, respond to this email, and we’ll schedule something either later today or over the next day or so.
Sound good?
You could further build upon the above by offering the client a discounted offer that upsells them on a LinkedIn profile, cover letter, and coaching package. Or, ala carte options for those prospects you know are price sensitive.
Step#3 Email to Prospects You’ve Quoted But Didn’t Buy
Since we’ve talked about sending two email broadcasts to clients, we should shift to emailing prospects.
Looking back, you may have had initial consultations and/or given sales presentations to dozens or hundreds of prospects over the past few months alone. It can get disheartening when looking at the many people who decided not to buy.
Yet, not is all lost. Have you considered what recovering just 1% of those would mean to your bottom line?
This is why follow-up is so necessary.
Buyer intent and where the prospect was (is) in the buying cycle play a significant role in the success of this email broadcast.
The close rates on this email broadcast may be low because you’re not focused on SELLING but on GETTING REACQUAINTED.
That’s why instead of offering them a discounted product or service, you’re reinitiating the conversation to get prospects warmed up again and thinking about their job search.
SHOWCASE A PIECE OF CONTENT
Subject: Are you still looking for a better job?
Janice – it’s been some time since we last connected about your resume and LinkedIn projects.
I wanted to let you know about an upcoming video series I’m doing to help individuals improve their resumes in a few quick steps. I can email you when the videos are ready. If you’d like me to do that, visit this page and add your name to the waitlist.
How has your job search been going?
With this email, the goal is to reopen a line of communication with the prospect. Once the conversation restarts, you can then shift into sales mode when the time is right.
When you don’t have a relevant piece of content that will interest your audience, you could use this:
Subject: Are you still looking for a better job?
Janice – it’s been some time since we last connected about your resume and LinkedIn projects.
There’s little worse than submitting resume after resume and getting little to no response from employers.
If you’d like to revisit having me improve and expand your resume, respond to this email, and we can go from there. Okay?
Regardless of which email gets responded to, the goal is to get those folks on the phone. One-on-one conversations are optimal for boosting the important “know, like, and trust” component of sales conversations and, subsequently, improving sales conversions.
You’re not limited to sending these emails at a particular time of year. You could use them anytime.
Tools to Send Email Broadcasts
You could manually send the above emails, although leveraging an email service is a much better use of your time.
Some of the more popular SaaS mailing services include:
- Mailchimp
- Constant Contact
- Infusionsoft/Keap (used by colleagues, such as Tom Powner, Lisa Rangel, JT O’Donnell, Joshua Waldman +we use it too!)
- ActiveCampaign
- aWeber
When money’s tight, low-cost (no-cost) email tools work in a pinch.
Gmass (works with Gmail) is somewhat inexpensive and offers great deliverability.
For example, Outlook can be enough in the right situations.
In this post, you’ll learn how to leverage Outlook to boost your follow-up activities with prospects and clients to drive repeat sales further.
It’s a simple system that can be effective and profitable when used correctly.
Tips to Save Time & Attract More Sales to Your Business Using Outlook
