It could be that customers flock to your store over the holidays ready to spend money and buy gifts.
However, following the holidays, there is frequently a dip in activity in January, February, and March. Yet despite this, your business doesn’t have to be affected if you use the appropriate winter marketing techniques.
So, how do you advertise your company in the winter? Here are some winter marketing ideas to get you started.
1. Focus On Special Occasions
We already know that winter marketing is not the same as Christmas marketing, or at least, it shouldn’t be if you want to do things right.
However, that doesn’t mean your clients don’t have unique events to celebrate during the winter months. There are still weddings, anniversaries, birthdays, religious events, and so on taking place. The key to good marketing is not to assume that events like Christmas and thanksgiving are all that winter has to offer.
Concentrate any new products on aiding your customers in commemorating these important occasions. In your product listings, use keywords related to these events and make gift ideas to your customers via your blog and social media.
In other words, keep your customers up to date on the items you’re selling and how those items can help them with whatever they need to celebrate. Many companies forget that there is more to winter than Christmas, and if you can show that you are aware that people want to celebrate other things, you’ll rise above your competition.
2. Host A Winter Giveaway
When you think of giveaways in your business, you’ll probably link them to getting rid of any unsold products, showing people that you are launching a new product, or because it is a special occasion or a holiday.
Yet competitions can be for no special reason other than you think it is a good marketing idea. Don’t be put off arranging one just because there doesn’t seem to be a reason to do it.
To get started, choose an appealing prize that links in with the theme of winter to show that you are really engaged. This could be:
- A premium hot chocolate mix.
- A winter gift package.
- Anything else that you feel would please your consumers and persuade them to participate in your competition.
Promote the giveaway on your social media accounts, and make sure you include the contest rules and entry requirements; the clearer you are, the more people will enter. As the giveaway draws to an end, collect the entries, choose a winner, and thank everyone who took part.
Because the contest is all about winter rather than a particular event, you can set up a series of competitions throughout the season to keep your followers interested in your page and your business.
3. Create A Winter Range
Winter is an excellent time for firms to launch a limited-edition, seasonal product line. During the winter months, aim to introduce a selection of items that will provide value to your consumers.
For example, if you sell clothing, winter is the perfect time to introduce a new line of sweaters or custom beanies from anthembranding.com. If you sell ceramics, create a limited-edition design using a seasonal color palette. Maybe you sell skincare. In that case, you can create a winter-specific dry skin treatment.
To top it all off, by only selling this seasonal selection for a limited time, you can instill a feeling of urgency in your business, driving your consumers to buy more than they usually would.
Hashtags are a useful tool that should not be neglected whether you are on Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, Twitter, or any other social media site.
Simply include the hashtags #winter, #cold, #chilly, #cozy, and so on – there are dozens of variations you can use – on your social media posts or videos. When you do this, you’ll get a lot more attention, and when the hashtags you are using are seasonal, it shows you’ve taken the time to
Users looking for that tag will see your images and posts alongside others who have done the same, increasing the visibility of your post.
5. Help Those in Need
Even though the holidays might be over, there are still sure to be those in your community who are in need. Donations to charities typically decline following the holiday season. Your business can help relieve this dip in donations by organizing a drive to assist people in need.
Donate a percentage of your purchases to a charitable organization, buy jackets and winter clothes for children in need, or volunteer at your local soup kitchen.
You could also use the winter months to launch a community service campaign by urging your customers to donate. The more you can do to help your local community, the more your business and brand will be noticed.
Of course, the main reason for helping is that people need your assistance (and that of other people), but if it makes your business more well-known, and if it enhances your reputation, then this can only be a positive thing on top of everything else. If you are able to encourage other people to donate or help out too, that’s even better.
6. Write Winter Blog Posts
Blogging is a great marketing tool, and it is something you should be doing regularly if you want your business to be seen and grow. When it comes to winter, blogging becomes an even more important marketing tool that really shouldn’t be ignored.
One great thing about the winter season is that clients have more time to read your blog. Life slows down, and they spend their time indoors resting. Your blog articles are a great way to kill time. With this in mind, you should plan winter blog articles that highlight the season’s best points.
Make recommendations for winter activities, methods to stay warm, or weekend getaways. In your content, don’t forget to demonstrate how your items will help your consumers enjoy the season.
In addition, winter is an excellent time to share previous blog entries. Encourage clients to read other articles you’ve published by using social media and your email list.
7. Tidy Things Up
Following the Christmas season, a business may be sluggish. Take advantage of the cooler winter months to do a year-end store clean-up.
Have you ever observed that brick-and-mortar establishments close for a day or two towards the end of the year to take inventory? Although you may not need to close the business, it is a good idea to clean it up a little.
Take an inventory of your materials, including craft, shipping, and design equipment. Check to see what has to be reordered before the spring rush. Examine your current products’ sales figures.
Are there any items that just no longer sell? You could choose to sell them at a discount, running a winter sale that will encourage more buyers, especially those who have spent a lot at Christmas and have a smaller budget in the first quarter of the new year.
Do you want to introduce any new items or promote any existing ones? Take the time to update your shop’s product listings. Create a marketing plan for the ones you genuinely want to sell.
This is also an excellent opportunity to arrange your workplace space. Receipts should be collected, essential documents should be filed, and your desk should be cleaned. You’ll feel so much better once business resumes and having a tidy space will help you think more clearly.
8. Delay Raising Your Prices
One of the things that many business owners do at the beginning of each year is to raise their prices. The increases might be only very small ones, but if your suppliers are raising their prices or you know you need to make more profits than last year, this can be an excellent tactic to use.
However, a great promotional tactic is to delay raising your prices for two or three weeks. Keep everything at least year’s prices for a short while, but ensure you inform your customers and social media followers that there is a limited time to get the items for the lower cost.
They can then take advantage of last year’s pricing, and you can put your prices up, later on, knowing that you warned everyone well in advance of you actually doing it.
9. Create An eBook
It is never a quick task to write a book (even a short one). To develop a product that people will want to read, you need time, patience, knowledge, and at least some ability to make the final product enjoyable enough that people will want to read it.
The good news is that if you manage a website with a lot of published content, such as a blog, you may already have a book on your hands. If you’ve published a number of blogs on one topic, for example, you might collect them into a single e-Book separated into chapters to create a one-of-a-kind resource.
You’ll have more time to accomplish this over the winter, and, as previously said, your consumers will have much more time to read what you’ve put together.
Once they know that you’re an expert because they’ve read a lot about what you have to say thanks to your book, customers will be happy to buy from you. They’ll trust you, trust your knowledge, and trust your products and service too.
By writing an eBook during your quiet months, you can boost your sales not only now but, in the future, too.
I am Adeyemi Adetilewa, an SEO Specialist helping online businesses grow through content creation and proven SEO strategies. Proficient in WordPress CMS, Technical Site Audits, Search Engine Optimization, Keyword Research, and Technical Writing (Portfolio).
I help brands share unique and impactful stories through the use of public relations, advertising, and online marketing. My work has been featured in the Huffington Post, Thrive Global, Addicted2Success, Hackernoon, The Good Men Project, and other publications.
