Joy Gendusa

When you're on a long journey, there are many twists and turns that require critical decisions. Once you've reached the very last few miles, your choices become even more significant.

In business, this means that the end of the year could require you to make some last-minute (but pivotal) moves in order to generate additional revenue and end 2024 strong.

The good news is you do still have time to finish strong.

In my experience taking a business from nothing to over $100 million in annual revenue, the last quarter can get intense. Here are my best words of wisdom for making the last weeks of the year as successful as possible.

Look back at your marketing choices to learn and make positive changes

In 1975, Edward Packard's Choose Your Own Adventure books were published. The series allowed the reader to select from a myriad of paths within a specific storyline. Each choice of the reader would lead to a different ending of the story.

Why did this series become so popular and sell more than 270 million copies worldwide? It's because people love to be in control of their own destiny; to write their own stories. First, ask yourself: What ending do I want to reach this year? Then, ask: What have I already learned so far that will help me get to that ending?

Have you been tracking your marketing results? If so, pull up the data and start investigating. Go beyond which channel generates the most leads. Which tactic creates the most customers? The most referrals? The most revenue? Look beyond the calendar year if you can, and compare trends year over year.

If you're letting intuition guide you, it's high time you started tracking your marketing. Feelings are no substitution for real data.

In 2023, we did our own research and found that direct mail delivers six times more revenue per lead than digital ads. We figured this out by analyzing 114,373 leads and which of those converted to sales that year and found that if we divide the income by the overall number of leads, we made $229.41 for every postcard lead versus $37.09 for every pay-per-click lead.

After this realization, we increased the number of postcards we mail weekly advertising our services by 20,000. It's your responsibility to do this work and discover what needs to change for positive growth.

For example, did Facebook ads not deliver the revenue you expected them to? You can re-invest the money you had planned to spend in December on digital advertising and redirect it to other marketing avenues like direct mailor connected TV ads.

The truth is that there really are no mistakes, just lessons learned. It's up to you to decide if you make changes for a better outcome.

Consolidate your remaining resources and dedicate them to the marketing channel with the highest ROI

Every year, about 3,000 people hike the Appalachian Trail, but only a quarter of hikers actually finish. One main reason hikers don't make it through is they run out of supplies. Similarly, in business, owners can hit challenges along the year that drain their resources.

If you feel like you're struggling in the last quarter of the year, it's time to take what you have left of your budget and any other available credit or set-aside funds and use them to market your business.

Which marketing strategies delivered the highest return on investment? Whatever you have left of your marketing budget should go towards thattactic. If you don't have much of your annual budget left, consider taking money from other sources to invest it back into your marketing to bring in more leads.

It could be something as simple as finding some savings by canceling a monthly membership. Whatever you choose to do, put as much money as possible back into those marketing tacticsthat have consistently delivered results. Then, next year, you'll have more revenue to invest back into your business for 2025 or take home with you.

Take advantage of potential tax savings by pre-paying for next year's marketing

The end of the journey isn't all about finishing strong — it's also about setting yourself up for future success. By allocating some of the profits you made in 2024 to marketing in 2025 before the year ends, you are getting ahead of the game. Not only are you entering the new year prepared, but you are also getting the added benefit of reducing your 2024 tax burden when you reinvest taxable profits back into your business and your marketing.

At my business, PostcardMania, we offer large discounts for ordering in bulk, which many business owners take advantage of prior to the year's end. They simply add up how much marketing they think they'll need for the following year and pre-purchase at a discount.

If you are a B2B business, you can implement a similar offer by encouraging your customers to pre-order what they'll need next year so that they can get the tax write-offs for the current year.

If you'd like to target customers every year with a year-end offer, you can use automated direct mail to target them faster. After setting up the direct mail automation one time, the postcards or letters are mailed automatically each year based on the criteria you set up. This saves you time and increases revenue by ensuring it happens every year without fail.

At the end of the year, it's satisfying to say that you gave it your all; you did the best you could with the resources available. Avoid feeling regret by considering these marketing paths to success, and then you'll be satisfied with the ending you always wanted to write.

Entrepreneur