The winter weather may have come and gone, but the lessons it left behind are fresh in our minds! Whether you experience all four seasons or your temperatures remain similar year-round, there are a lot of things marketers (that’s you!) can learn from the weather. Best of all, no matter how large or small your business is you won’t need a big seasonal budget to implement these creative ideas into your marketing.
- Forecast your marketing. Forecasting your marketing plans can help you prepare for whatever lies ahead. By creating an action plan, you can manage any storm that comes along while still looking out for opportunities to promote your products and services at the perfect time. For example draft an email that you can send customers or prospects in preparation for different hours, or create a special offer that can help them weather the storm.
- Adapt to the situation. Sometimes, the best marketing isn’t always part of your original plan. Follow trends as well as local and national events. Be prepared to jump in with a message relevant to the situation and your business should the right opportunity present itself. The Ice Bucket Challenge, where people poured ice cold water over their heads and recorded it to raise awareness for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a great example of how both individuals and companies adapted to a popular movement.
- Prepare for the unknown. Even the best laid plans often go awry. Just like weather, marketing opportunities often present themselves in sneaky or unusual ways. Have strategies in place to take advantage of them. For instance, bring extra flyers to your next conference or have extra t-shirts printed the next time you have an event. While you may think you know how many attendees there will be, you just never know! It’s better to come prepared than to run out of sales and promotional materials.
- Be social. When you’re stuck inside because it’s too hot or too cold, you want to know what’s going on outside. There’s nothing quite like bad weather to engage just about everyone in social media. Start tweeting, posting, sharing, and liking. Join the conversation–it’s free!
- Change your focus. Don’t go stir crazy when it comes to your marketing. When you’re stuck inside due to bad weather, you try to come up with fun and interesting ways to keep yourself busy or distracted. Carry this idea over to your marketing. Instead of producing the same old content, freshen it up with something fun or interesting! Test new ideas. Change the copy, design a new template, or try a new font. By changing your focus and trying things a new way, you may find that something works better than you thought!
What has your business learned from the weather so far this year?
