The end of the year is approaching but you shouldn’t take a break from marketing yourself and your business. In fact, there is so much opportunity to stand out as others take time off!

And if you are taking some time off, here are some things you can do with your downtime to continue to develop your marketing and business development efforts.

Even if you have enough clients now, don’t pull back on marketing when things are going well as anything can happen.

Also, marketing can help you stay top of mind with the media, help you build your brand, obtain speaking engagements, board appointments, article writing opportunities – and so much more. Here are some ideas:

1. Create a personal marketing plan with only 3 to 5 to-do’s so you can actually accomplish them (I have a template if you need one)

2. Reconnect with former clients and top referral sources

3. Research industry conferences and sponsorships and better yet, submit to speak at them

4. Write a client alert, a blog post or an article – co-author with a colleague, referral source or a client if it seems too daunting to do it alone

5. Set up Google Alerts for top clients and prospects – info is always power. Make sure to set one up for yourself too.

6. Update your web site bio using keywords for SEO – if you don’t say you do it – people think you don’t.

7. Create a LinkedIn strategic plan, which includes updating your LinkedIn profile with keywords and all of the sections, sending 5 connection requests per week, commenting on VIP connections’ posts, sharing a post and writing a post yourself, learning how the LinkedIn algorithm works and learning how to use hashtags.

8. Research your competitors’ marketing activities – what inspiration can you get from them and what can you do better than them?

9. Update practice area/industry descriptions and matter lists – people are googling your firm every day – if you don’t say you do it, they may not think you do.

10. Look at the analytics of past blogs, emails and client alerts – this helps you create stronger content

11. Clean up and add new contacts to your email list and create a plan for a client-centric email newsletter (look at your competitors for inspiration and gaps in the market)

12. Research volunteer opportunities for an industry or bar association committee, social cause and alumni associations – this is a great way to network.

Remember, it’s great time to focus on your business development and branding efforts especially since many of your competitors and peers may not be – use that to your advantage!

Which of these will you try?