peripatetic hetero: Seasonal Business Marketing Year Round

The marketing plan for a seasonal business must compel owners,?who have the understandable tendency to reduce expenses in the off-season, to keep marketing. Doing so will help attract new customers and improve revenue potential.

The key strategy here is consistent execution. Targeting your ideal customer year round is a crucial step to winning new customers and staying ahead of your competition long-term.

Seasonal business marketing should be non-seasonal.?In other words, you shouldn?t allow your public and promotional face to go dormant when you shutter your rental, lock up the resort, or wind down the guided tours. Focus on maintaining customer interest and attracting new clients for the rest of the year, an undertaking which doesn?t need to be unduly expensive. Pursuing social media, content, and email marketing the year through can boost your business for the height of your season.

Remember: Plenty of people make vacation plans months and months in advance.

You want to be engaged enough in marketing to capture their attention and interest regardless of the date.

The ever-expanding world of social media has become an entrenched one for many segments of the population, and any business ? seasonal or otherwise ? would do well to tap into it. Social media marketing gives you the ability to interface with past and potential customers in a dynamic, multifaceted medium.

Tree In Four Seasons

For example, you could easily share through a social media network a slideshow or video compilation that highlights your previous season: special events, representative activities, and the like. Have fun with it! A ski resort might tempt the heat-dazzled mid-summer crowd with images of snowy fun, while, on the opposite side of the year, a coastal rental can provoke a little cabin fever with promises of sunshine and warm, lulling waves.

A regularly updated newsletter or blog sustains customer interest and can draw in new business by following search engine optimization, or SEO, strategies. Again, incorporate material from your peak season including testimonials from satisfied customers as enticement, but also pursue calendar-specific connections. Make it personal. Write about your off-season activities to promote a familial engagement with your clientele.

Email marketing also offers a fine opportunity for customer outreach, without costing much money or time. Attract off-season clients with special deals perhaps widening your net by partnering on packages with associated businesses in your area that operate on similar time frames as your own. A prior customer might love to be reminded of the pleasant times they had with you six months ago and the chance to relive the experience by taking advantage of an emailed discount offer.

Speaking of previous clients, customer surveys are another excellent means of year-round marketing, in addition to being a sound business practice. Keep in touch with those who?ve given you their patronage in the past and take their input to heart and you may well find yourself fostering long-term clientele.

Consider other ways to boost cash flow in the off-season beyond marketing alone. Thinking creatively, you may begin pursuing alternative income sources or even a strategy to expand your primary business season. Of course, implementing such income-expansion and diversification ideas goes hand in hand with smart and focused marketing. Your beach town might quiet down substantially in the winter, but perhaps there?s a birding opportunity that time of year ? with a little outreach, you could develop a small but welcome off-season birdwatchers market.

Whenever your seasonal business sees its peak traffic, stay engaged in the market for the rest of the year. You don?t have to spend heavily to maintain a 365-day online business presence through social-media, email, and content marketing.

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