6 Smart Ways to Deal With Summer Decrease in Sales

Posted on: August 1, 2016 | Category: Sales

So, summers are usually the slowest time of the year for business. There are so many ways to turn this off peak time into something really productive for your business. Here are 6 ways to deal with a summer sales slump effectively. These major changes in the way you do your business will definitely help once the peak season starts kicking in. You can jump directly to the topics:

Start a Social Media Marketing Plan
Update Your Website and Apply Some SEO on It
Add Relevant Products or Services
Find Other Niche Markets
Start an Email Marketing Campaign
Venture in Other Locations Where Your Peak Season Is

Start a Social Media Marketing Plan

Don’t have a Facebook page or a Twitter account set up yet? Now is the time to set up your Facebook page and even start a Facebook ad campaign. You can easily do A/B testing on social media ads at this time since there’s really not much to lose, is there? 

Optimize your Google + account and set up your business on Google maps. Set up a twitter account and start tweeting about promotions and upcoming events of your business. Set up an account with the Buffer app so that you can start scheduling posts daily on all your social media accounts. 

Write content that you can post on your blog and share on your social media accounts and you will see that your list will grow longer and possibly, you can even drive some unexpected sales while doing this. Social media marketing is about building your list and your audience, so now is the time to do this.

SEO Your Site

Is your website already mobile-friendly? Or is your website still on the old-school desktop-based platform? It’s time to make your website mobile-ready. 

Having a mobile-ready website will help your website be easily found on search engines. You can hire a web developer to redesign your site, or if you have someone doing this in house, you can brainstorm with them and possibly do an overhaul of your website. 

Update it to the most modern website designs and see how your website visitors respond. Announce your new website design on your social media accounts and gain more visitors.

While you’re at it, optimize your website for search engines. Add title tags, meta descriptions, and infuse relevant keywords on the content of your website. Add alt tags to the images of your site to define what those images are. Make sure there are no broken links and that you have 404 error page in case a user goes to page on your website that doesn’t exist. Check your website’s load speed and optimize if necessary. 

These are things that you can do on your site, especially if you run an eCommerce site to help you get ready for next year’s summer slump.

Relevant Products or Services

Let’s say you’re running an ice skates online store in the Midwest. You’re not going to get much sales during summer, but there are definitely ways you can leverage your online store. Why not sell rollerblades, or skateboards? This will serve other seasonal needs of your customers.

If you run a snow-plowing business, why not venture into landscaping so that you can cater to the needs of your clients during summer? This will even make your business a one-stop shop for any outdoor cleaning or overhauls they need for the whole year.

Expand your business by growing your product list. It’s never too late to test the waters and since you have some time on your hands, find the best way to make the most out of that time, and even make some sales out of it.

Find Other Niche Markets

Your business can definitely find other sources of income by serving related niche markets. Say you’re a bakery that sells Christmas cookies, you can leverage your market by selling sugar-free products or gluten-free cookies. This serves another market which is the “people on a diet” market, which is great for achieving that summer body.

There are so many products that you can add to your product list, and if you are lost and don’t know where to start, check your competition. Who is that other store that just keeps selling the whole year. Be as open-minded as you can as there are stores that you might not view as competitors, but they actually are. 

Is that cupcake store at the corner of your street competition? Yes, and you might just be missing out on sales because you haven’t expanded to other niche markets. You are targeting your existing customers and possibly driving new customers to your business, which will also help increase your sales during your peak season.

Start an Email Marketing Campaign

Now is the time to utilize that list of customers and prospects saved in your hard drive. Now that you have added products based on the season and finding other niche markets, you can now let your existing contacts now about it. There are a lot of ways to go about this depending on the size of your list. 

You can use a website called Mailchimp and upload your list there and be guided on how to start your email marketing campaign, or you can hire an agency to do the work for you.

Now is the time to invest some money on internet marketing. Every year, the percentage of people finding businesses and services online is increasing and it is time they find you: on their emails, on search engines, and on their Facebook accounts.

Venture in Other Locations Where Your Peak Season Is

Your business is based in the US and your selling snuggly pajamas. Why not venture in selling your pajamas globally, like in Australia? Go where the season is! Set up an eBay store and start selling your products anywhere in the world where the season is an exact match for your product. Start looking for shipping companies that will ship your products cheap to other countries, or tie up with couriers so that you get better deals. 

There could be some permits required for shipping to other countries, but you have all the time in the world to do your research.  Again, research your competitors. Check if they are shipping globally as well. 

You can use this summer slump as a time to expand your business and gear up for the upcoming peak season. If you learned a thing or two in this article, feel free to post it on Facebook or tweet about it and share your thoughts to others.

References:

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/220398
https://www.ondeck.com/blog/4-ideas-tackle-slow-summer-slump/