How do ‘seasonal’ retailers keep busy all year round?

How retailers can boost sales during off-peak times

What do seaside restaurants, ski resorts and lawn cutting services all have in common? They are ostensibly seasonal industries and generate the majority of their income during a relatively short period of time. Yet countless seasonal businesses make the cardinal sin of being content with their small window of opportunity and never look to branch out in a bid to extend their profit-making potential.

If you run that seaside café, do you really want to spend 8-9 months of the year brushing cobwebs from your cash register? In the Internet age, you can be certain your competitors will be conjuring up ways to cope with the off-season so you better follow suit unless you enjoy being left in the dust. Keep reading to discover how to avoid the off-season slump and keep the cash flowing in.

Customer Engagement

This is arguably the most crucial strategy as your goal is to keep your business in the minds of prospects 12 months a year and there are several ways to go about it:

• Grow your database: This is something you need to do during the peak season when your business is still hot stuff. Analyze your website and add several powerful calls-to-action (CTA) if they’re not already visible. Each CTA should strike a chord with the reader and compel them to act. This can be in the form of subscribing to a newsletter or joining your social network page. The larger your database, the easier it will be to stay in contact with customers during the off-season.
• Email Marketing: I touched on this above; email is a great way to stay in touch throughout the year and a company newsletter can keep people informed on new products, discounts and promotions. It is a low-cost marketing strategy and is the ideal opportunity to improve your brand identity. Provide value with every email and soon, customers will see you as an authority in your industry and will help spread the word about your business.
• Social Networking: While doubts remain as to the overall efficacy of social media when it comes to making sales, it is certainly a fantastic way to stay relevant all year round. While prospects may not be dining by the sea in December, they will be online looking at their social media feeds. You should be looking to share content (post links to your blog or website) with videos likely to get the most attention. Remember, people like to plan ahead so be the company they turn to for news updates and information.
• Ask for reviews: As your season draws to a close, ask customers to leave reviews. The latest research shows that the modern consumer trusts the opinion of their fellow customers so the more positive reviews and testimonials you gather, the more likely you are to be trusted by new prospects. If you are having trouble getting reviews, offer an incentive such as a discount.

Stay active - consistent marketing

If you want a 12 month business year or at least an extension to your existing peak period, you need to stay busy. This means consistent marketing and the production of great content is a sure-fire way to remain in focus.

First of all, creating blog posts, press releases, sales pages and articles for SEO purposes will keep you ranking well on the search engines. This means customers will continually see your company listed even when your peak season is long finished.

However, the key is to add some off-season flavour to the content. For example, if you are a fruit seller and your produce is only available during the summer months, you can create a host of fruit-related blog posts in December. Maybe you could write about the world’s toughest fruits that can withstand harsh climates or discuss the best fruits for the Christmas season.

You may have to think outside the box for this but the reward is well worth the endeavour. Although you are unable to offer your wares at a certain point of the year, you can still provide interesting and informative content. As a result, you will build relationships with customers and can look forward to their custom when you are ready for business once again. The alternative is a lot of empty seats!

Develop a sub-niche for your brand

During your off-season, it might pay to focus on a sub-niche as a means of generating profit during traditionally ‘slow’ periods. A sub-niche is a smaller segment of a market. For example, weight loss for new mothers is a relatively obscure sub-niche within the huge weight loss market. Another example would be gluten-free bread within the bakery market.

When you specialize in a sub-niche during your off-season, you have a competitive edge your rivals are unlikely to match.

It means you stand out in at least one aspect of your industry and this alone may be enough of a reason for prospective customers to check you out. You can develop a sub-niche as easily as creating a few well-researched blog posts. Read Sparringmind.com for examples of successful sub-niche blogs.

A clever distribution strategy will not only capitalize on peak seasons, it will also combat off-season slumps to ensure your business enjoys a healthy level of demand for much if not all of the year. If you know the fourth quarter of the year is likely to be bad, shift demand back on the first and second quarters.

A simple way of doing this is to remember that marketing is a global thing now thanks to Internet penetration. Billions of people can now surf the web looking for deals and you can use this to your advantage. For example, it may not be summer in New York but it is in Australia. Perhaps their local suppliers are not up to scratch. You’ll never know unless you try!

Offer discounts

When experiencing a downturn, it is normal for businesses to offer discounts and to have special promotions. Your off-season is a great opportunity to show your appreciation for regular customers or, if you are a regional business, a chance to reward locals.

As well as bringing in people during slow periods, these discounts also help you maintain a good relationship with customers on a permanent basis. However, these discounts should add incremental value as opposed to simply slashing prices for the sake of it.

The days of accepting months of poor custom and low revenue are long gone. In the Internet age, the customer may have the power but entrepreneurs can still use this fact to their advantage. If there is little demand, you can create it and in the rare instances where you can’t, you can stay in vogue for the whole year through consistent and clever marketing.