Article: Driving Business after the Holidays

Driving Business After the Holidays

By Brianna Paon

Figuring out ways to increase business during a slow season doesn’t have to be a daunting task. With the busy Holiday sales season officially behind us and the increase in downtime that comes with it, now is a great time to test out new marketing tactics to keep your sales momentum moving. In the world of retail, immediately after the busiest season of the year typically follows the slowest, where everyone is exhausted from all of the celebrating and gift giving. Despite this, there are still numerous ways that you can help drive sales during this slower time, as well as use the concept of the New Year to your advantage. Whether it be a free shipping promotion, releasing new products, or a new social media campaign, the New Year opens up many possibilities that can prove fruitful.

The new year is a wonderful excuse to refresh yourself and reevaluate your life goals. It’s the only time of year one can designate New Year’s resolutions for themselves, whether they aim to improve health and wellness or take on new projects. This is a perfect time to have your business jump on the resolution bandwagon and market to the New Year attitude. It doesn’t need to be anything extravagant - a simple “new year, new socks” could be enough to resonate with people in your customer base. Giving your business some personality that is quirky yet relatable can go a long way.

What’s nice about this time of year is that people have just finished dropping loads of cash on gifts for other people - this means that it’s a perfect time to push the idea of getting a gift for yourself. The concept of “treating yourself” and planting the idea that people are deserving of your products can certainly make people more inclined to buy. People like when the focus is on them - it’s human nature! Rather than trying to market the advantages of your products and why they’re awesome, focus on the customer and why they’re awesome. Depending on how you would like people to perceive your business and its message, you could definitely have some fun with this. “The Survival Sock: for awesome people only” is a silly and playful example of how to target market to your audience. It presents exclusivity, which people like, and focuses on the buyer rather than just the sock/product itself.

While marketing to the new year attitude as well as motivating people to gift themselves are both effective, these are only two of the many approaches you can take to drive sales. There are plenty more ways to boost business this winter without the stress. Below is a list of suggestions on tactics that are worth giving a try - please feel free to provide us with any feedback on what has worked for you and your business!

• Don’t “go quiet” after the holidays
• Focus on self-gifting
• Follow up with your holiday shoppers
• Start a sale (i.e. winter clearance, free gift, bulk discounts)
• Product bundling
• Join in resolutions - market to the New Year attitude (promote products that enhance health/offer physical benefits)
• Market using email to existing customer base
• Retargeting / Remarketing

• Leverage Automation
• Use a multi-media approach

• Spread out your advertising budget to include after the holiday sales season!
• Improve your online reviews - Give your customers incentive to positively review your business and products
• Stock up on content - stay relevant and share with your customer base
• Offer coupons/loyalty rewards
• Target abandoned shopping carts
• Track numbers and results