One of the big struggles for non-retail businesses over the Holiday period is keeping their head above water. While the retail sector booms, the rest often find themselves floundering and failing to achieve their Q1 objectives. Although the festive season comes around like clockwork, it’s surprising the number of businesses that struggle to prepare for this slump, or to prepare adequately enough to survive it without too much of an impact on the numbers.
The key is in the preparation. We know what happens at this time of year, so what are we doing to counterbalance the trough? First of all, it’s important to define what your “shutdown period” actually is, as this differs from company to company. If you close your doors in late December and don’t open again until the end of January, you can’t expect a full sales pipeline ready and waiting. What does your historic data tell you? Are there any patterns? Let’s start with the dates. When do you need to take your foot off the gas, when you need to put it back on again and how do you cover the period in between?
Below are some pointers to help you gear your Marketing towards the silly season and put you on track for a healthy New Year’s pipeline:
- A great way to circumvent this slump is to prepare a strong campaign to carry you over this period, to give you the best shot at starting the New Year off with bang
- Prepare your Social Media presence. Consider preparing your “Scheduled Post” pipeline on Facebook to maintain consistency online. At the very least you can sign off for the year with a nice message and explain when you will be back
- Promotional giveaways. These can be cost effective and work wonders in reminding your target market that you’re still there
- Check your website is ready to go for upcoming Holiday period, functioning correctly and any updates are made in time for shutdown
- New Year’s Resolutions: Tantalise your audience with new features or releases that they can expect to see in the near future
- Create a higher value prize promotion, with daily tips or email clues
- Double the chance of winning prizes/promotions by encouraging “following” on social media channels
- Send out an infographic to your database of how far you have come since your inception. If you’re a new company, you can cover what you have achieved in the last year
If you have any questions, or, would like to discuss a tailored campaign for your business, feel free to contact the team at Grow Digital Marketing on the details below.
0800 456 029
sales@GrowDigitalMarketing.co.nz
Have a magical and successful Christmas.