When The Busy Season Ends…

Many Marine Businesses have a high and low season. Charter boats don't go out in the winter, many RYA training centres shut up shop and have a well-earned break in the sun and product sales can slump when the weather turns cold and next summer seems an age away.

Marketing for this type of seasonal variance needs careful planning. As soon as the busy season is over, the time could be used to market for the next busy season.

Many businesses quite literally shut up shop, stop posting on social media sites, quit their advertising campaigns and forget about the customers who have just paid for their flights to their winter paradise... Big mistake!

The negative effects of reducing or stopping marketing campaigns in the offseason are as follows:-

• You risk losing your established customers... when other companies are posting lovely sunny pics on their facebook page, they will soon forget about you.

• You are missing an opportunity to make new relationships and foster potential customers for your next busy season.

• Most people set aside a sum of money for the Christmas season and sometimes (just sometimes) they need ideas for spending it.

• If your social media campaigns slow down (consistency is the key here) your following will drop and you are unlikely to get those same followers back.

Ten Marketing Ideas for the off-season

• Grow your database. Add all this seasons customers and interested parties to your existing list. Make sure you capture every email address you can.

• Encourage people to subscribe to your email list by offering a discount voucher.

• Send your database subscribers regular and short emails re your news and offers.

• Encourage your database subscribers to follow you on your social media sites.

• Offer previous customers a loyalty incentive to either book or buy with you again and recommend a friend bonus.

• Update your website. Take off everything that is irrelevant and out of date and add new material.

• Publish customer reviews.

• Provide great content and write blogs.

• Keep your social media sites posting regularly with interesting content.

• Produce short videos (less than 1 min) of your products and services.

Every business knows its own market, but what is wrong with looking ahead and trying to develop a new market. Social media marketing can help you do this.

SPC Marine Marketing can ensure your business does not get lost behind all the others when you are having a well-earned rest on some sandy shore in the sun. If you would like a free consultation, contact us.