Surviving A Slow Season: Some Strategies For Your Business
A slow sales season should be no hindrance to growing your business or company. To some, a business or company that allows itself to be affected by a slow season should be faulted. Moreover, good and savvy business leaders and employees should plan ahead and enforce strategies to help them throughout the year. Presented below are some ways your growing business can survive the slow season and beyond!
Your Slow Season Survival Strategies
Collaborate.
Team up with fellow small businesses or start-ups whose unique vision, passion, and products can mesh well with what you have to offer. For example, a Milanese cuisine food truck and a homemade wine shop could work together for a “Flavors of Italy” culinary collaboration for the summer. Get your (business) heads in the game!
Concentrate on minimum-cost marketing.
Aside from fewer sales, your budget will also be less during a slow season, so focus and concentrate on ways of marketing that require less from your budget (social media and text or email marketing). Providing useful and creative content for consumers to latch on to via social media and text or email marketing ensures your business will stay on everybody’s radar. Make sure your online content shows what your business is all about and how it can benefit consumers during the off-season. For example, your organic beauty brand’s social media accounts could show photos of your products and the process of their creation, along with captions that enlighten and entice the consumer.
Cultivate your customers.
Customers who are satisfied with the products and services you provide them with are more likely to refer you to other people who might be interested in checking out your business. Offer rewards for successful referrals, such as gift cards or limited-time discount codes. Next, take note of your reviews online. Feel free to ask your customers to review your business online. Make it easier for them by emailing or messaging them with survey links. Afterward, be sure to pay attention to your reviews and address any consumer complaints. Both positive and negative word of mouth will go a long way in telling the “story” of your business. Finally, you can always reach out to loyal customers to offer them special packages, products, and services to get them ready for the next season.
Encourage more shopping with discounts and “specials.”
Keep the cash cycle turning by offering discounts and special sales during the slow season. For instance, if you offer a monthly product subscription service, you could offer a special discount to interested consumers who sign up and pay for it during the summer. And, of course, everyone loves a good clearance sale.
Switch it up.
If your business is usually marketed to the casual consumer, try marketing your business to consumers from the corporate world during a sedate season. As an example, the owner of a handcrafted beauty brand could prepare organic beauty workshops for corporate events or join trade shows where they can set up a booth. Going online with “how-to” tutorials featuring your business’s goods and products is also a good way to switch it up, especially in these times.
Author’s Bio:
Deinah Storm used to work in the corporate world as a marketing affiliate. She quit her job to pursue her passion for writing, but to this day, Deinah is committed to educating consumers about the different marketing scams and how to avoid them.
