Q4 has a way of filling every available minute.

Stock is arriving. Orders need to be packed. Staff need to be rostered. Customers need help. Christmas ranges need organizing. And somewhere in the middle of all of that, you're still supposed to send your weekly email and keep showing up on social media.

The problem isn't that retailers don't know marketing matters. The problem is that when the business gets busy, marketing is often the thing that gets pushed to "later."

And later rarely comes.

In this episode, Salena Knight shares three simple strategies to keep your marketing moving when you're already at capacity.

When Q4 gets busy, it's easy to stop looking at the numbers and simply hope sales come in. Instead, Salena recommends setting your target now and checking in on it every Monday.

Knowing where you are versus where you need to be gives you a much clearer idea of what action needs to happen that week.

Not everything on your to-do list is equally important.

Salena shares the example of a boutique owner who was overwhelmed with everything she needed to do. When they stripped the list back, it came down to two priorities: find staff and make money.

When time is limited, the tasks that directly contribute to revenue need to get a place in the calendar rather than waiting for a gap that may never come.

You don't need to create brand-new content for every channel.

Take the newsletter you've already written and turn it into several social posts. Use the same promotion on your website, in-store signage, text messages, and email.

The content you've already created can work harder for you.

The bigger takeaway is that busy season isn't the time to try to do everything. It's the time to prioritize the marketing that actually moves the business forward.

And if you need help knowing what marketing needs to happen and when, Salena's free 12-week holiday marketing calendar maps out the key marketing activities from October 1 through Christmas.

In this episode, Salena Knight explains why the products you regret buying can be some of the most valuable data in your retail or ecommerce business.

It is easy to focus on best sellers, products that sold out, and suppliers that performed well. But your clearance section, old stock, and products that have been sitting in the warehouse can tell you just as much - and sometimes more - about your buying decisions.

Salena walks through how to look beyond "it didn't sell" and identify what actually went wrong. Was the product itself the problem? Did you buy too much? Was the colour selection wrong? Was the price too high? Did demand only appear after a significant discount?

She also explains why clearing old stock isn't enough. If you don't understand the buying decision that created the excess inventory, you risk making the same decision again with a different product.

You'll learn how to:

• Use old stock as buying data
• Distinguish between a product problem and an overbuying problem
• Look at sales performance alongside discounts and timing
• Identify patterns across seasons and product ranges
• Recognise assumptions that influence your buying decisions
• Turn disappointing inventory into a lesson for future buying
• Ask better questions before repeating a buying decision

The key takeaway: You've already paid for the stock. Make sure you get the lesson from it, too.