Seasonal Sales Shouldn’t Be Your Only Focus

Many businesses have peaks and valleys, but few understand the gravity of these swings like those in a seasonal market. For instance, a landscaping company in a cold climate doesn’t have the same type of work lined up in late January than it does in late July. If you’ve been racking your brain for a few ways to increase awareness during your downtime, we’ve got some ideas to help you. Here are three ways for your business to stand out in a seasonal market.

Promote a new offering that differentiates you from competitors

This can be tricky. We never want you to think outside of your core business, but this tip is all about finding related services that can complement your business. As an example, let’s take our landscaping company. When most homeowners think of landscaping, they picture bright, blooming flowers and brilliantly green grass. What they don’t think of is cutting back perennials, pruning dead branches and removing lifeless blossoms. A landscaper’s core business may be designing beautiful scenes that enhance curb appeal, but those scenes don’t exist without grunt work. Some maintenance is actually needed in the winter months. A landscaping company should use that to its advantage by reminding customers about the importance of offseason maintenance. Maybe you’re not a landscaper by trade, but can you think of any other ways to capitalize on an additional service? Is there anything that you’re doing that your competitors are not?

Grow your customer reviews

For any seasonal business, downtime is inevitable. A company that installs holiday lights on houses likely won’t hear the phone ring much in February. There should be plenty of time to build and enhance the company’s online presence in these months. Whether it’s through email, social media, direct mail or even phone calls. Encourage your customers to provide a testimonial about your services on one of the web’s popular review sites. By building your reputation this way, you’ll be a much more attractive option to new and potential customers. When the time is right of course.

Connect with a charitable partner

People want to feel good about the companies they work with. Choosing to align your company with a non-profit or a philanthropic cause is a good idea all the time. Especially when you’re out of season. Not only will this reflect positively on your brand, and being a good community partner, but you’re likely to appear in signage and on marketing collateral produced by the non-profit that you may partner with. There are additional advantages to pursuing this route also. Include things like tax deductions and the fact that it makes you a more desirable employer. But more than anything, it gives you a chance to do good in your own backyard.

Stand out in meaningful ways

Companies that work in a seasonal market must find ways to remain top-of-mind with existing customers and potential new customers. There are plenty of ways to stand out beyond just boring postcards and Facebook posts. Certainly, these three tips can help heat up activity when things are slow. Given the fact that it’s the offseason, you truly have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Interested in learning the specifics? Check out Building a Brand at the Intersection of Word-of-Mouth and Social Media.