Off-Season Marketing: It’s for Every Small Business, Not Just Seasonal Ones

Running a small business is not for the faint of heart. Now imagine if your small business depended on half of the number of months to get a similar income as a full-time retailer each year. Welcome to seasonal, small business ownership. It’s not an easy path to be open only part-year and some seasonal businesses make it even harder on themselves when they shut down all of their marketing when they close their doors for the season. I’m here to say that this doesn’t do them any favors and that their marketing should stay active all-year-long.

While I’m sharing off-season marketing tips today for seasonal business, this is advice that can benefit all small businesses whether they are open all year or not.

Common Misconceptions About Off-Season Marketing

Let’s first look at three common perceptions seasonal business owners often have regarding off-season marketing:

• I’m closed so there’s no need to keep marketing my business.
• No one wants to hear from me once we’ve closed for the season.
• I have no idea what to share or post in the off-season. Does it matter anyway? The algorithm keeps my content hidden from potential customers.

Why You Need to Stay Active To Stay Alive

All of these perceptions are false! The number one reason? Out of sight is out of mind. When you cut off all communications and shut down your marketing including your social media and emails, customers will start to forget about you. They won’t see you in their feeds or inboxes and eventually will get attached to other businesses. You could even get marked as spam if you wait too long before your next email blast, because they may forget that they signed up. Remember, with so many messages and ads these days, consumers have enough content to see that they won’t take the time to look for you.

Need another reason? Your competition is out there. While you may take an inactive stance, it’s likely that at least one of your competitors is out there engaging with customers and staying top-of-mind. To keep competitive you need to stay active, even if it’s at a reduced frequency. You worked hard to get your customers to come in time and time again. Why simply let that hard work go by the way side when the season wanes.

And one last reason to stay active all year. If you thought the algorithm was bad now, think about how hard it will be to get it back again, if you have to rebuild your engagement efforts. The algorithm is ever changing. It favors those who share dynamic content that people engage with on a consistent basis. If you’ve gone dormant, it can take time for people to see you and reengage with you. You’ll have to essentially start from scratch to be seen when you come back after a hiatus.

Staying active in the off-season keeps you top of mind with your most desired prospects and customers.

I Don’t Know What To Do in the Off-Season?

Here Are My 3 Top Tips:

Get back to Basics

In your high-season, you’re likely running around just trying to keep up the increased number of sales, restocking inventory and engaging with hundreds of customers each day. Maybe you even felt like you needed to schedule time to breathe. As you enter the off-season you finally have time to pause and take a break, but it’s also a perfect time to reflect on your business and your brand.

Ask yourself: Who Are You (as a business), What Do You Do Best, and Who You Serve/Attract. If you can’t clearly answer what you do for whom, how can you expect people to buy or hire you?

This is the time of year to ensure your brand foundation is strong. This includes:

• Your Mission Statement (A short internal-facing statement that describes what you do, who you do it for and the benefit it provides. It’s your purpose for being.)
• Identifying or refining your Target Audience (The single most important customer to you, who will come back and buy from you time and time again.), and
• Understand your Positioning (A description of your products and services, how they satisfy a customer need, and why (with proof), these are/do it better than your competition.)

Without these foundations in place, your business lacks its purpose, its point of difference and most importantly, knowing who needs and wants your products or services.

Get Out Those E-Newsletter or Build Your Email List

If you don’t have an email list what are you waiting for? Email marketing, an owned channel, performs social media when it comes to reach and helps drive customers to your website to convert into sales. Did you know that a well-crafted email can attain 40-45% open rates, which you could never achieve with social media? (Source: Mail Chimp). Email marketing not only allows you to stay in touch and communicate with your current customers, it also helps you inform and reach new ones.

Not sure what to say off-season? Consider sharing #BTS or behind-the-scenes of buying trips; get feedback on what customers liked this season and what they want to see more of; share sneak peaks or teasers, and even highlight cherished vendors that keep your business running. These are just a few ideas to get you going. And don’t forget! As you get closer to re-opening, include countdowns to opening day and or consider fun facts or things to do when customers visit your town or region. Remember, not all of the information you share should only be about you. Customers love seeing your point of view on other things too. People connect with people, not the physical businesses.

Start Your Email List

If you haven’t assembled an email list, that’s OK, we all have to start somewhere. While having a lead magnet (something of value that you offer in exchange for personal information) is ideal, you can ask your social media followers to sign up without one via posts and stories. You can even ask friends and family to join in the early days. I think you’ll be surprised at how many people will opt-in without a lead magnet. Just remember, anyone that is added to your subscriber list, needs to give their permission. This is a newer legal requirement that you need to follow.

As you grow your list, find something that you can give out for free that ties back to your business. This is your lead magnet. For many retail shops this is a one-time discount of 5-15% off. Consider a small item to share that’s branded, a checklist that has to do with the products you sell, a guide to the area, or even a white paper that relates to your services. My pro-tip: Find something that helps your target audience do something better, more easily or for less money.

Keep Active on Social Media

Don’t go silent on social media when your doors close. As I’ve shared a few times, out of sight, is out of mind. In the off-season it’s perfectly fine to scale back on the frequency of your posts and stories. Consider 1-3 posts/stories per week vs. a 4-6 post schedule. Just be consistent and share something at least once.

Stay engaged with your followers and even prospective customers. Like, comment and share content from other accounts on your stories (just be sure to tag them). Just like your emails, share #BTS on your shopping trips or of you making new products. Share customer stories or testimonials you’ve received. Put yourself out there with a photo of yourself or even better, speak to your customers in a live video to maximize your connection. Again, customers connect with live people, not a physical store.

Use the Down Time to Get Creative

In terms of content types, post single images (don’t forget Instagram has changed to 1080×1350 or 4:5), carousels and reels. Too camera shy? Trending reels today include b-roll videos of owners doing mundane day to day things like packing orders, cleaning up or out on a daily walk. As you have more time, the off-season is a great time to get creative and test out new ideas and approaches.

When to Ramp Up For In-Season Hours

I always tell my seasonal business clients to start ramping up the frequency of their social media and email marketing about two months before they reopen. At this stage, most owners are well into hiring, staging the store and finalizing inventory. You can share what to expect when the store opens with more sneak peeks, featured products and services, testimonials, what’s new this year and of course your opening date.

Staying Active In the Off-Season Will Help You Have your Best Peak Season Yet

As you can see, even putting forth a little effort in your social media and emails in the off-season can keep you top-of-mind and encourage beloved customers to get excited to come back and shop again. It’s also the perfect time, when you’re not running around in high-pressured situations, to finally pause and reflect on your business on what it does best, who it helps most and why. These tactics will help you stay ahead of your competition, but more importantly help you connect and engage with your hard-earned customers and potential clients all-year-long.

If you have a seasonal business, do you shut down all of your marketing efforts for the season or have you continued to promote your business? If you’ve kept your marketing active, what are the tactics or approaches you’ve found most effective? Share your feedback in the comments.

This guest blog post is contributed by Kris Kiehn, a seasonal and small business champion. She is the Founder and Chief Brand Officer at Simply K2 Marketing, located on Martha’s Vineyard. Kris helps CPG, retail and consumer-facing small businesses develop their brand identity and marketing strategies that actively engage and connect with their customers and prospects vs. sharing messages that simply talk at them.

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