Does your business have a very detectable cycle of business? Many retail businesses have a definite up cycle prior to the December holidays … be it Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or Christmas – retail success hinges on the success of the 4th Quarter sales. However, if you’re paying attention, there may be other cycles in your business that you should recognize. Sure, we should optimize and create the highest possible conversions during the biggest retail selling season of the year, but don’t ignore glaring opportunities to improve sales at other times of the year, too.
If you have data from several years, consider aggregating it to identify dips and spikes in your business. In our e-commerce retail businesses we have several clearly identified seasons and we know we have to do “think ahead” marketing – the same way that big box retailers do. Laying out the seasonality on a calendar can help you plan “into” the seasons of your business.
NOTE: While the guidelines below are not set in stone,
they do help us with our specific plans for seasonality
The catch is with online e-commerce sites, you have to be a little more ahead of the curve. You can’t start a Valentines Day promotion on February 13th.
You have to think ahead for the promotional portion and how it integrates into your total marketing calendar. (Don’t have a marketing calendar ? Tsk, tsk. You’ll need to work on that.)
* For the Search Engines you should be working months ahead on your links and article writing.
* For your Social Media portion you can pre-plan your promo spots and placement.
* The Marketing emails you should be queued up weeks ahead of the release.
* Have your graphics and website promotions ready to go at the launch of the promotion.
You have to plan ahead for the greatest success in the up season.
However, there is another side to this that entrepreneur’s often shrug off as un-fixable: The DOWN cycle. If you can clearly identify your down cycle(s), is there a way you can get some bumps in there? Can you offer complementary (not free…but that complement) services that your clients need in the off season. Are there things you can do in your business to lessen the severity of the down times?
If you’re a lawn service, in the summer business is booming – but could you shovel snow in the winter? On rainy days could you work on your newsletter, email and flyers?
If your business thrives on the latest gadgets, is there an after market or accessories market that could supplement your inventory to prolong the life of the item?
Put your year-over-year data into some charts in Excel or Numbers (if you’re a Mac) and see where your dips, dip and your highs are high, and work to make them both better.
I’d love to continue the conversation with you … please add your comments and thoughts below.