Christmas starts now (sorry)

I know. It's September, the leaves haven't even turned, and I'm saying the C-word. But here's the uncomfortable truth about food and drink: the final quarter, October to December, the “golden quarter”, can account for a third or more of your entire year's sales. Gifting, parties, hampers, the lot. And the brands that win it aren't the ones who scramble in late November. They're the ones planning right now, while everyone else is still in summer mode.

Your Q4 revenue is decided in September, not December.

By the time the festive rush arrives, your inbox real estate is a warzone: every brand your customer ever bought from is shouting at once. The brands that cut through are the ones who warmed their audience up early, mapped their gifting campaigns in advance, and had their automations tested and ready before the traffic hit. Doing that in the calm of September is the difference between riding the wave and being flattened by it.

A good Q4 email plan for a drinks brand usually has three layers: an early gifting guide for the organised shoppers, a sequence of well-timed campaigns through November and December, and last-posting-date urgency emails that genuinely convert because the deadline is real. Layer in the segments and automations from last month, and you've got a festive programme that does a lot of the heavy lifting for you.

This is the work I love most, and with the golden quarter approaching it's also the most time-sensitive thing on your plate. If you'd like a second pair of hands (and more than twenty years of doing exactly this) to map and build your Q4 programme, now is the moment.

This is the last Pour before the busy season. If Q4 matters to your business, reply to any issue and I'll read it personally, or book a 20-minute chat in my diary before the diary fills up.