When starting your own business, there are a myriad of challenges to overcome. Today we’re looking at maximising a seasonal business cycle, and how you can apply strategies to make the most out of your products all year round – even if they’re peak popularity goes hand in hand with a particular season. We speak to Rebecca Wilson, Marketing Manager at Turtle Mat to get her insights into marketing a seasonal product throughout the year.
- What is the business cycle like for Turtle Mat and what other factors might affect sales and revenue?
The business cycle for Turtle Mat is, as you’d anticipate from a doormat specialist, quite seasonal with the focus on autumn and winter where the doormat comes into its own and there’s an increased need for it in UK homes. We also find rain, especially prolonged periods, at other times of the year leads to an uplift in sales.
- How would you describe your strategy for managing seasonality?
As our peak periods are clearly defined by seasonality, planning of resource and marketing campaigns for autumn/winter are prepared over the summer months. Crucially, we ensure everyone from the warehouse team through to the digital team and customer service are given forecasts of what we can expect over our peak period and specifically when these peaks will be – driven by our marketing campaigns.
- In what ways do you cope with the surge in demand during your peak season?
We plan for it and often the surge is driven by our marketing campaigns, whether on or offline, so we know exactly when to expect increases and increase resource accordingly. We let customers know of delivery dates for Christmas orders quite early in December before the pre-Christmas peak and will communicate this a few times in December to decrease the last minute surge just before Christmas.
- How do you stay in touch with customers during the low season?
We typically employ email over the summer months to keep in touch with customers and to stay in mind over a period where they are less likely to buy. We also meet customers face-to-face with events such as RHS Chelsea Flower Show which is a great opportunity to showcase and get feedback on new designs ahead of their full launch in autumn as well as sign people up to receive our catalogue.
- What is the biggest challenge you face as a business with a seasonal offering?
Sunshine! Managing and maintaining a consistent level of sales during the ‘off season’ is the biggest challenge we face as extended good weather really can make a difference and that’s something outside of our control. It’s also difficult during this period to get the message to resonate that Turtle Mats are still incredibly useful when the sun is shining and people are spending more time coming in and out of the garden, so we use this time to send out more supportive communications i.e. how to wash your mat etc. so that the communications are still useful.
- What advice would you give to others facing a similar challenge?
My advice would be to really leverage the seasonality and your peak periods rather than fight to have sales year round and throw budget at the low season when it’s not going to offer the same level of return. Find other related topics to communicate to customers over the low season to keep your business in mind, cultivating a resource that customers like to read and find useful whether that be gardening tips on the blog for a doormat company like us or a ‘guide to the best sunny winter get-aways’ for a suntan lotion company for example.