As much as you don’t want to make mistakes when it comes to your business, it’s almost impossible to say that they’ll never happen.
However, there is one mistake your business should avoid at all costs, and that’s not marketing during the off-season.
Although this may be the last thing on your mind, this is the number one mistake we see business owners make.
Why You Need Off-Season Marketing
Before we dive in, I want you to take a second and imagine this scenario for your business:
You’ve been working on improving your local search presence, getting more reviews and posting consistently on social media for your business. You just finished your busiest season of the year and things are starting to slow down. As you enter the off-season, you decide that your team needs a break and to slow down your marketing efforts.
Seems logical, right? Well, slowing down or stopping your marketing is the worst thing you can do. When you do this, you lose the momentum you gained throughout the year.
Remember, marketing takes time! If you decide that your marketing isn’t important during the off-season, then you must completely restart when you’re getting ready for your next busy season.
Marketing in the off-season can help your business in a variety of ways. During this time of year, you can shift your marketing to focus on brand awareness rather than leads.
Changing your focus allows you to bring new people into the top of the marketing funnel, which then helps bring them down the funnel during your busy season.
So, what can you do to market your business during the off-season? Check out these tips on how to shift your marketing:
1. Create a 12-Month Marketing Plan
Let’s take a step back because this is an important first step. Before you do anything, you’ll want to create a 12-month marketing plan for your business. This will help keep you on track throughout the year.
Making changes to your marketing during the middle of the year is totally fine, but make sure you’re making logical changes that are backed up by data.
Creating a marketing plan allows you to choose what areas you want to focus on during the year. For example, the month leading up to your busy season can be a combination of brand awareness and lead generation. During the rush of the season, you can focus solely on leads, while during the off-season you can shift to brand awareness.
Knowing your focus will help you choose the type of marketing you need to hit your goals.
2. Build Your Audience
Expanding your audience is one of the best things you can do during the off-season, which includes utilizing your social media channels and creating new content.
When you’re expanding your audience, you’re helping build trust. Overall, the goal is to educate the customer before they need your business. Once your busy or peak season returns, then they will know that your business is best for their needs.
Posting consistently on your social media channels is one of the easiest ways to increase brand awareness for your business. And guess what? It’s free!
If you need help figuring out a social media strategy for the off-season, check out our quick-start social media guide for insight and tips you can follow.
During the off-season, you can also create new content to educate your customers. Blogs are extremely helpful and show you are knowledgeable about the topics you blog about.
3. Utilize Email Marketing
Believe it or not, you should be doing email marketing all year round, but it can be beneficial during the off-season. By sending emails, you can target specific groups of people based on how they’ve interacted with your business.
This targeting allows you to customize emails and help push specific products or services that you offer that they may not normally think about during the off-season. Emails can also double as an education tool.
Make sure your emails have content that is valuable. Unlike during your peak time of year, your customers may not click on every email. Including helpful content may even increase your open rates.
Check out this blog if you need help understanding what all should go in your email and learn how you can take advantage of your email list here.
Final Thoughts
Remember, off-season marketing has a lot of advantages and can really help your business prepare for the next year.
Interested in learning more about off-season marketing? We break it down further in our podcast, so be sure to check it out.
If you aren't sure where to begin when it comes to your digital marketing, we'd love to help! Request a demo with one of our local marketing consultants to learn more about how we can handle your digital marketing.