Even if you don’t sell weather- or date-driven products or services, your marketing likely experiences seasons: predictable busy and slow times of the year. And odds are, you do your best to prepare for the lean times and try to make the most of the busy times by offering special deals for repeat customers, planning multiple campaigns on a single offer, and promoting your new product or season of services early.
But can you plant your marketing seeds too early?
Most experienced gardeners will tell you that getting your seeds into the ground as early as possible will yield results more rapidly and in more abundance. But “possible” comes with conditions: you have to wait until the soil warms up; you have to wait until after the danger of frost passes. If you don’t, you risk killing the seed and eliminating any yield it may have produced.
That same logic works in marketing, too. If you market a seasonal or forthcoming product or service too early, before you have the right conditions, your offer is likely to die and take your money—expenses and potential sales—with it. You have to wait until your customers are ready to make the transition from one season to the next. And that requires careful observation and patience.
How well do you know your customers’ buying habits? Are they forward thinkers who plan ahead for their needs, or do they wait until their needs are upon them to find solutions? Are your busy times consistent from year to year, or do they vary slightly, depending on certain factors or variables?
The more you study your past marketing efforts, your customers’ ordering habits, and other factors specific to your product or service, the easier it will be to determine your ideal planting conditions. When you have that figured out, you’re ready to plant.
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