Promoting Your Business during the Quieter Winter Months
It’s relatively easy to market a business during the holiday season. Everyone is looking for a great deal on the perfect gift. But once December is gone and January rolls around, things tend to get really, really quiet. With a little bit of creativity, you can still promote your business. You just need to find a unique angle.
Tis the Season to Keep Warm
For most of the country, January is one of the coldest and harshest winter months. Promotions that focus on warmth and the weather will keep your business in the minds of your loyal customers. Fleece jackets, long-sleeve shirts, and even ice and snow scrapers can be fantastic promotional items. A fleece jacket with your business logo might make a great raffle prize at a trade show while an ice scraper or mug would be a handy give-away item for visitors, prospects, and newer customers.
Tweak Your Product Line
Let’s say, for example, you run a restaurant. You enjoy using fresh, local foods. Tweak your menu to incorporate winter selections. Focus not only on in-season vegetables and selections but items that invoke feelings of warmth – warm sandwiches, hearty stews and soups, and fulfilling dinner entrees. You might even consider revamping your printed menu to give it a more “wintery” feel. Embrace the season.
Adjust Your Marketing Materials
Color makes a huge difference in all aspects of branding and marketing. While you won’t want to change your logo, you may want to create a holiday version or change the colors and fonts on you regular marketing materials. Warmer, soothing colors will be more appealing. Put your spring, summer, and fall leftovers away for next year. Take it one season at a time. Even changing the background colors on your website can make a difference.
Don’t Forget the Holidays
Yes, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the New Year are huge, but what comes next? The Super Bowl happens in January. You also have Presidents’ Day (huge for sales), Valentine’s Day, Chinese New Year, and even St. Patrick’s Day to consider. Each of these days presents your business with an opportunity to reach out to the community.
Look Towards Spring
Even if you can’t find a way to leverage the coldest parts of the winter, you should be using your time wisely. People will very soon be looking for Spring clothing lines, vacation packages, and deals on all sorts of items. Map out your new spring marketing and promotional materials far in advance so that you can hit the ground running as soon as people start to complain about Spring taking too long to get here.
Running a business is tough and we understand that a lot of your time and effort goes into marketing. Take advantage of each season as you would any other holiday and you’re bound to keep customers walking through your doors throughout the year.