The Monday Morning Marketing Podcast is brought to you by Esther of IPA Group, bringing premier online promotion to your business.
And Melanie of STOMP Social Media Training, who empowersbusiness owners to manage social media and marketing for themselves.
Welcome back to another episode of the Monday MorningMarketing Podcast. We're here today talking about every business has itsseason. Now what do we mean by that?
Well, this came about from a blog that I wrote recently andit's basically understanding how content can be created to help each businessgo through its seasons. So seasons obviously aren't just summer, winter, so onand so forth, but seasons are the ups and downs of your business. It's whenyou're likely to earn more or less in that time frame. And there's otherthings, especially like currently right now at the time of recording, we'regoing through a crisis again.
Another one?
Yeah, another one. And so supply chains, financial issues,and obviously a couple of years ago we had pandemics, so there's alwayssomething that's going to have an impact. But there's two ways that we can lookat seasons, we can look at them, predictably which is ahead, and then we canlook behind us as well and learn from what's happened in the past. But itreally depends on where you are as a business, whether you're a startup orwhether you're a scale up.
Okay, so let's say we're a startup and first year inbusiness, how could we predict some of the peaks and troughs for this firstyear? I mean, I don't even remember what percentage of startups fail within thefirst five years. Not to scare you guys, but it does seem to be an awful lot.Do you think that if the peaks and troughs could be better managed, that smallbusinesses would survive for longer and get through that tough first period?
Well, there's only so much that we can predict by ourselvesand that's why courses, and it's in every country that you're listening to,there'll be "start your own business" courses where they'll give yousome guidance on how to manage certain elements. But the seasons of yourbusiness are very dependent on the type of business that you're running. Solet's say you've got a shoe shop. Okay? So people buy shoes year round. Mostshoe shops will offer a range of different types of shoes. So children's, men'sand women's. So for the children it would make sense that shoe shops, whenthey're creating content or looking at the seasons of their business, will beunderstanding that there will be greater amount of shoes sold just before thekids start back in the new year and after the summer holidays. Especially afterthe summer holidays. For some reason children are like flowers and they tend togrow faster during the summer. And then there's also the understanding thatmen's shoes tend to be replaced less often, but when they are replaced, ittends to be autumn. And believe it or not, the reason why is because if they'vegot holes in their shoes, that's the time that they decide to change them,because it's cold and wet.
Unless you live in Ireland and it's cold and wet all yearround.
But then women tend to change their shoes slightly moreseasonally. So open toed or sandals for the summer and then closed warmer shoesduring the winter. And this is something that they can predict, this issomething that they can make the time for. So let's think of a service then. Solet's think of solicitors, because that was a product, so let's think of whatsolicitors. So you need a solicitor year round?
Yeah, let's hope not.
Okay, now there's very different types of solicitors, butmost of them won't do just one thing because again, of the seasonality. Solet's say you have solicitor or a group of solicitors who offer house sales,help with house sales. Most house sales happen in spring and the largest amountof application for divorce is beginning January. I wonder why. And the largestamount of natural deaths happen in the winter. So if you're doing selling off ahouse or reading wills, all that sort of stuff, that tends to be in the winter.So a lot of it makes a lot of sense. So you can predict, when you understand,when you've done your customer avatar, you can understand the highs and lows, thedips and surges in your business and you can predict. And as a startup, you'vegot those options.
So you should look at your competitors and look and see whatthey're promoting, what they're advertising right now, like you were sayingabout the shoe shops, the same for clothes shops. You wouldn't be sellinglittle summer dresses in the middle of December unless you live in a warmerclimate. But you can sort of predict what people are going to buy and when. Ifyou provide for the wedding industry, then a lot more weddings take place inthe spring and summer because it's the warmer months, tones and colours, allthose things would change with each season. But what about a service like youand I? When do more people go looking for website designs? When do more peoplego looking for help with their social media?
Yeah, so we're slightly more niche, I suppose, but peopleneed training, people need websites year round, but company budgets especially,we're talking for larger companies. So here in Ireland, we have to respect thatother countries will have different budget times. But here in Ireland it'sJanuary to December, so something I've noticed, and you probably have as well,is there's one of two things that happen in December. In December, you'lleither get a huge amount of people contacting you in one go to try and spendtheir budget because they haven't spent it before the end of the year, orthey've spent a lot by November and it's completely dead.
By November? You're lucky. Most of the time it's by March.
Jeez. So I've had kind of weird years, actually, where someNovember and December I've been basically there's been crickets bouncing aroundmy office and other times I lost my voice. Do you remember last year I lost myvoice because I was speaking so much.
It's the same too, in the summer, a lot of businesses willgo quieter over the summer months. Yes, because unless you're in the travelindustry or providing entertainment for kids, weddings and stuff, then the summermonths are when most people will take a break. They'll take a step back and notbe spending the money on other products and services. But that's not always thecase either. I mean, during the covid years we were busy 24/7. So, yes, you canpredict, but at the same time, you can't.
Well, this is why it's supposed to be a guide. When peopleapproach both of us about what should we put up on our website, what do peoplewant to know? How often should we blog? What should we put up on our social media?And all they think of all the time is sales. And whether you're talking aboutsocial media or traditional media, people tend to use the media rather than thesocial. They put the emphasis on the wrong part. The reason why it's calledsocial media is because you're meant to be social on it first. So there is anawful lot of things that you can create content about if you thought beyondyourself.
Yes, it comes back down, like we were talking in a previousepisode about the art of storytelling that has disappeared. So tell a story.Tell your story as to why you chose to sell what you sell, why people should goto you for the service or the product rather than somebody else. Listen to youraudience, listen to their needs and meet them where they're at. Yes, there willbe some shoe shops that sell sandals and open toed shoes in winter becausepeople will be looking to escape colder weather and go on a summer retreat. Butthe majority of people will be buying their winter boots. So, yes, you can havea section that caters to year round, but listen to the people around you, likeMelanie was saying, to look at previous year's sales and see what more peoplewere looking for, because more than likely they will repeat the cycle. Theywill come back for their next pair of shoes or their next tiara for theirwedding to you.
And content doesn't just stop at one platform either. So ifyou're creating something for Facebook, like a post, can that post be somethingthat you go live on YouTube shorts? And then could you make it a podcast topicwhen you're speaking to somebody else? And could you arrange to be a guest orrun your own webinar or even do email campaigns from this. I mean, there's somany different ways that you can reach your audience talking about one topic,if you just diversify and look at them objectively.
Yeah, absolutely. And because your business goes throughthese different seasons, that content can be repurposed for the next year andreused without having to change much.
So if it's evergreen absolutely. And yeah, if you're goingto go to that much trouble to create a webinar or do a blog, and thesesometimes can take hours, days even, then, don't just share it once or do itonce. Keep doing it.
Exactly. All very good points and all very usefulinformation. As always if you have any questions about your business and howyou can get it to be more peaks rather than troughs year round, do get in touchwith Melanie. She knows a lot about this stuff and she will be happy to helpyou with this. Won't you, Melanie?
I will. So check out my website at stomp.ie.
That's right. It's very easy to remember as well. So that'sit for today, guys. We'll next week with more Monday Morning Marketing. Untilthen, bye.