As the UK turns colder, now is the time to hunker down, get those warm pyjamas on and curl up in front of the roaring fire…or radiator. But, while we are settling in for the long winter ahead, we mustn’t slip and let our businesses hibernate too.
Wintertime provides us with many opportunities to enter new markets and find new customers.
Here are some hints and tips to focus your marketing and promotions over the cold months ahead. Whether you are marketing online or offline, we are here to help you get creative and find inspiration to turn these long winter months into a season of booming sales.
Take advantage of the feelgood factor
How can your service, or product offer some cosiness or warmth during these long winter months?
As with all great marketing, invoking an emotional response in your audience with word and images is a great start. Accentuate and empathise positive feelings about the cold outside and the warmth inside. Keep some of that nostalgia, but focus on the modern family and home.
Consider temporarily updating your logo with a bit of festive flair, alter your social media profiles and incorporate the warmth of winter within your online presence.
If a particularly cold day is forecast, get ahead of the game…tell your customers to stay at home, what a great excuse to read, Netflix, bake and play board games! How can your business enhance that time spent at home?
Find a unique way to divert old and new customers to your website, create some urgency around your marketing. Consider limited time promotions, customers tend to be more decisive when a short deadline is in place.
Reach your audience
Spread your message far and wide; use the social media platforms available to you and reach out to your customers with a marketing newsletter – include a blog post (which you should be uploading at least twice a month to your website, whatever the season).
Be the voice of the business, ensure the content is relatable to your product or service. By adding interesting content to your website, you will improve your ranking on search engines – and Google does love fresh, relevant, and interesting content that is frequently updated.
Gift cards are your new best friend
This year, with many people facing ecomomic hardship, gift cards are likely to be at the top of many people’s wish lists. If you haven’t sold gift vouchers before, now is the time to start. Ensure your cards or vouchers are available digitally to facilitate a smooth transaction for those wishing to shop online.
Do not use the ‘New Year, New Me’ it’s so passe…
The New Year is traditionally a time to refresh and restart. This is another opportunity to win over potential new clients and customers with a carefully designed New Year campaign. But, as we all know, resolutions never last past the first two weeks. That doesn’t mean you can’t appeal to your customers and client’s healthier selves. A restaurant, for example, can plan a healthy wintertime menu, a bookshop; self-help books, or a clothes shop might choose to highlight their range of exercise clothing.
The next big event? Valentines of course
The New Year sales have finished and it’s time to divert your attention to Valentine’s Day. In terms of marketing, the best advice is to be authentic, do not try to force content or a concept that is not representative of your brand, just to fit the Valentine narrative.
Valentine’s Day has evolved as Millennials and Gen Z think of the day of a celebration of love, whether that is with friends or family…or romantic partners. Marketing campaigns will need to change and evolve to capture this audience and take a step back from traditional styles of marketing.
Your social media platforms provide a great place to get creative with your campaigns. Connect with your customers on Valentine’s Day by sharing anything special you are doing, themed displays, giveaways ad. Do not forget your common day hashtags, and why not ask your customers or clients to share their special Valentine’s Day moment.
And remember, whatever campaign you go with, do update your website and social media as soon as possible. Promotion is the key here – analyse your campaigns so you know what is working for you.