I did a fair amount of reflecting over the festive break.

I thought a lot about the year we’d just had – what went right, what went wrong, what we’d do differently with that time again.

But I thought even more about the year that we’re right on the cusp of - 2022.

This time of the year is an obvious time to think things through and make plans. That’s why so many people make New Year’s resolutions and decide on big goals for the year ahead.

From speaking to several of our KBB clients over the last couple of days, I know that I’m not alone.

The festive season is well and truly upon us, as the repetition of 'Celebrations' boxes in the office attests to, which means it's not long before the big day itself.

And out on the other side, once the turkey's eaten, the Champagne drunk and the batteries recharged?

2022.

We've been asked a lot recently about what we feel next year holds for KBB retailers. With consensus in the office, here are three of our predictions.

I recently spoke about the importance of making the most of the surge in interest that's coming in January.

Each and every year, demand for new kitchens drops off in December and ratchets up in a big way in the New Year.

Many kitchen retailers recognise that January is a pivotal time to generate new leads, fill your pipeline and book work in for the year ahead. But there's another question: how?

In the world of kitchen marketing, things are starting to slow down about now.

It’s not a shock. In fact, it happens every December.

As the days get shorter and the nights get colder, consumers’ attention turns increasingly towards festive logistics – buying presents, organising family get-togethers and whose turn it is to dress as Santa.

Search volume goes down. Website hits drop too. Clicks, impressions - nearly everything that can be gauged – will be on a descending trajectory.

SEO is perceived to be a dark art.

When we speak with independent kitchen retailers, there seems to be a general misunderstanding of SEO - how it works, how it can help their business, and how long it will take to get results.

As a result, many kitchen retailers neglect the SEO of their website.

I don’t need to tell you that the KBB market is in pretty uncharted territory right now.

The pandemic’s created an unprecedented demand for home improvement, and when you add in the fact that there are loads of people sitting on cash they haven’t been able to spend on holidays, it’s fair to say this wave won’t run its course anytime soon.

Many independent kitchen retailers are used to having to work super exceptionally hard for every sale – sweating blood and tears to generate leads and convert them into clients.

Leads aren’t difficult to come by recently, though, which means a different problem for KBB retailers:

It was JFK who popularised the phrase, “The best time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining”

In other words, when things are going well, take the time to prepare for when things aren’t going quite so swimmingly.

These words should ring true for kitchen retailers right now, for the sun certainly seems to be shining.

Last week I mentioned a statistic I’d heard, suggesting that 85% of the kitchens sold in the UK each year are sold by the big brands – Wren, Magnet, B&Q, etc.

And I had some interesting feedback, with several people forthright in their views as to why the independents’ market share is so small.

However, there’s a second part to this story, which is even more interesting.

Well, December hasn’t waited around for anyone, has it?!

Christmas is almost upon us, with Lockdown 2.0 nearly a distant memory and we’ve had the busiest end to any year we can remember, which is great.

We’ve got huge plans for next year, which means that we’ve needed to knuckle down and put a lot of the foundations in place this quarter.

Thankfully for us, one of our newer members of the team has been a vital and integral part of everything we’ve done this year, and we thought we’d take this opportunity to introduce her.

Do you advertise when times are good or only when times are bad?

In this episode of The kbbreview Podcast, Andy Davies and David Barker talk about what marketing you should be doing even when demand is high and there aren’t enough hours in the day.

David Barker, Managing Director at Inspire KBB, explains why, as the green shoots of recovery start to show, now is the time to devote effort and energy into perfecting your marketing strategy in order to thrive once the coronavirus situation is over.