Just got back from the post office — I was mailing gifts (penguin-shaped chocolates!) to clients. And while a couple of weeks ago it would have been quite “normal” to see someone with a trash bag full of identical boxes waiting in line, I was the only one sending gifts this “late.”

The fact is, I do it this way every year, on purpose.

Here’s how I look at it.  Why spend all that time, effort and money sending gifts to people at precisely the same time as everyone else? When a client gift arrives the week before Christmas — along with a hundred others — yours is just one more in the pile.

When your gift arrives the week after New Years, however — the week when everyone is struggling to get their heads back into work mode and feeling a bit wistful about another holiday season gone by — yours is a special treat.  It’s like finding that overlooked present hiding under the Christmas Tree later in the day… it’s more special than all the others.

Standing out is what marketing is all about.  Sometimes all it takes is a good sense of timing.