Many businesses find that this time of year is quite slow when it comes to business. People may be reevaluating their businesses based on the end-of-year numbers, or they may simply be hibernating until the weather warms a bit. Whatever the reason, a slow season can actually be a blessing for your business. It creates the perfect opportunity to reassess your own marketing plan and prepare a new strategy for your busy season.
Be Positive
It is very easy to start this process by dissecting everything that failed in the past year. That negative mentality will only encourage more failure. Rather than looking at your failures, begin by assessing your successes. What worked well? Which campaigns did your client base respond to best? Start with each individual marketing campaign. Then consider your social media interaction and eventually your website. Analyze things which you produced on your own and the time you actually spent on these projects. Consider whether you outsourced or should have outsourced any of these projects because there just were not enough hours in the day. Remember: each of these pieces are part of a larger puzzle, and the puzzle leads to growth. ย
Change Your Focus
Once you have analyzed your past performance, determine the focus for your new marketing campaign. Do not be afraid to change your focus. Find a new niche or redefine your current one and hone in on it. Be concise. Know your audience and cater to that audience without leaving out the possibility of broadening your horizons. Utilize the free and inexpensive options the internet offers to advertise your business both locally and around the globe.
The key is this is your downtime to rebrand and prepare your business for the busy season. It is essential to put plans in place that can be almost self-sufficient when your business picks up. This can be accomplished with a marketing plan that will put you and your marketing team on a schedule. Determine how often you will blog and post on social media. Develop your Google AdWords advertising plan, if you choose to use this tool. You may even wish to create a new template for your newsletters to your current and future client base. The idea is to plan.
The other idea is to build your marketing team. Whether your team includes one or two current employees or working with a third-party provider, now is the time to develop that team and jump into action. Get the team on the same page to develop your message and keep it flowing, even when the workflow demands increase. The more you accomplish and set into action now, the easier the process is when you run out of time to engage in marketing because you are working on providing for your clients.
If you are ready to begin developing your new marketing plan, contact the experts at Skol Marketing at (612) 787-7565. The marketing experts at Skol are excited to help you begin preparing for the busy season today.
