If you’re wanting to advance your business, tapping into peak season opportunities can play a role in turbocharging your growth. But, according to experts, the key is to plan for these busy times effectively. We spoke to marketing professionals and entrepreneurs to find out their small business tips for preparing for and taking advantage of high-demand periods, such as Black Friday and Christmas.
Step 1: Start Planning Months Ahead
When it comes to shaping your peak season strategy, Hamish Abraham, founder of digital agency Social Oceans, recommends starting the process at least 90 days before your busy period begins. “[You want to be] warming your leads up as early as possible,” he says. “[For Black Friday, for example] you should be planning and building it out in August and almost ready to launch [your strategy] in September.”
Step 2: Use Data To Drive Your Strategy
For Custom Neon, a small business that creates bespoke signs, analysing past performance and using data-driven strategies for stock and marketing is at the heart of its peak-season preparation. “The analysis is necessary for strategic planning and to identify what worked [last year] and what didn’t,” says Custom Neon’s marketing specialist Amelia Munday. “We then adjust our inventory in light of what we find, to ensure we can meet anticipated demand – without going overboard.”
Hamish asks clients which of their webpages are getting traction and why, and what social posts work for their customers. “Do they react to more educational posts? Do they just want the hot bargains? Measure, measure, measure,” he says. “If you have three years of performance measurements, it makes it easy for you to dictate where to invest in marketing.”
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Step 3: Ensure Your Website Can Handle Traffic Spikes
Research suggests nearly 50 per cent of customers shop using their mobile phone, so ensuring your website is not only up to date but optimised for mobile is essential.
Cafely’s website is the “lifeblood of the business”, says Mimi, whose team works hard to optimise server capacity and regularly uses stress testing tools to check that the website can handle extreme traffic conditions. “We also have robust cybersecurity measures in place – and all of these preparations ensure our site can handle additional traffic volume and safeguard customer data.”
If you’re worried your site won’t handle traffic surges, consider external landing pages for product deals, says Hamish. “Putting specials on sales pages with punchy, short copy keeps traffic away from your main hub during peak times,” he says.
Step 4: Pre-Order Extra Printed Marketing Materials and Packaging
Printed collateral like posters, brochures and flyers can have great cut-through for businesses, and during peak periods, it can be quick and cost effective. Officeworks services like Print + Create and Same Day Printing are easy and inexpensive tools your business can use to customise your marketing materials and help your business stand out during the peak season.
“Things like a QR code on a pull up banner work well,” says Hamish. “If you’re doing something like printed A5 flyers, choose a quality paper. It’s better to do 100 quality prints than 1,000 that’ll just get tossed in the bin. Depending on your business, you might also want to consider a print ad on a bus or motorway billboard. Bus ads cost from $4,000 and might roam around in an area for 30 to 60 days – and with the right messaging can be explosive.”
Ahead of busy periods, Mimi orders printed holiday-themed inserts and informational materials related to coffee brewing, storage and recipes. “These help reinforce our brand recall,” she says. “We also order additional mailroom and packaging materials, labels, inserts and other shipping supplies at least two months prior to peak periods.”
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Step 5: Streamline Production Processes
One mistake Custom Neon made early on in their business journey was not scaling up their production capabilities in time to meet the increase in orders. “As our products are made to order, this had a knock-on effect on lead time, and customers expecting fast turnaround times got frustrated,” says Amelia. “We also initially underestimated the necessary ramp up in customer service support, which led to delayed responses to inquiries and missed sales.”
Cafely experienced similar learning curves. “In our first Black Friday rodeo, we were a very young company and underestimated the volume of orders that our promos would generate. So we had some delays in order processing and dispatch and a few dissatisfied customers; that’s a huge no-no for a company just starting out,” says Mimi. “We’ve since learned how crucial it is to do advanced planning and have a robust operation and logistics process in place, and to hire extra staff for fulfilment and customer service if you need to.”
Step 6: Nail Your Content Strategy and Social Media Promos
Hamish suggests strengthening your social media approach during peak season by collaborating with businesses who have synergy with yours to create memorable content, so you can leverage each other’s reach. “Make [your content and social posts] fun and catchy. People like being teased right now and we’re finding humorous copy has more traction,” he says.
Custom Neon suggests planning content three to four months in advance, and then rolling out digital marketing and social media countdowns six to eight weeks before high-demand periods start. “We gradually increase our posts, peaking at around three to five posts per day across platforms during the week of Black Friday and Cyber Monday,” says Amelia.
Cafely focuses on personalised marketing and storytelling to boost engagement ahead of busy periods. “We leverage customer data to tailor our email, social media and advertising campaigns to the season,” says Mimi. “Also, offering exclusive deals and early access to promos for loyal customers will never go out of style.”
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