5 Post-peak Season Strategies for Small Businesses

With only one full month of the summer left, many seasonal businesses will no doubt be starting to evaluate whether their peak months have been a success. If that’s you, and you’re certain that they have - congratulations! But what are you going to do once it’s over, and the dreaded post-peak period starts to swoop in?

Just because it’s off season, it doesn’t mean your business needs to slow down. You don’t have to experience a drop-in revenue during the quieter months, instead, you can use this time to fine tune your marketing and encourage customers to buy off-peak.

Here are five top tips to help your seasonal business combat the off-peak months and maintain momentum:

1.  Make your customers an offer they can’t resist

Offering customers the most attractive deals during peak season is a given. But these deals don’t have to stop once the summer months are over, the trick here is to make the winter seem just as enticing as peak season.

You could tailor limited time, relevant and personalised offers to your customer database. This is a great way to keep your offering exciting.

For example, if you run a hotel or B&B, you could increase bookings by including complimentary services if guests book with you in a specific month. This could include a free breakfast, tickets to a nearby show or a voucher for your restaurant. These complimentary services will incentivise guests to book during quieter months and show them you can offer outstanding service all year round.

Horn of Plenty, a boutique country house hotel, has tailored their ‘Luxury 3 Night Break’ offer so it runs from the late summer until the end of the year in a bid to encourage bookings during the quieter months.

The offer provides exactly the same treats and extras to customers regardless of whether they book peak or off-peak. However, the price is reduced to £700 in October and £600 in November and December.

This deal is bound to attract those who are looking for a quick, affordable getaway during autumn and winter, which are notoriously quieter months for hoteliers (excluding Christmas and New Year’s Eve).

2. Revamp and Evolve Goods

Once the peak season dies down, you might find yourself with more free time on your hands. Make the most of it by using this time to start exploring new revenue possibilities and revamping your products and services.

For example, if you own a restaurant in a tourist town, you could consider expanding into a catering service during the off-season when fewer people are travelling. Or, you could offer Christmas party bookings throughout the winter season.

Finding ways to subsidise your seasonal business will provide you with a steadier cashflow throughout the year. But bear in mind that, depending on your revamp or ideas, it could become a costly process to do so. To combat this, you could look into gaining additional funding, such as a Liberis unsecured business loan, which enables you to avoid the constraints of fixed payments and hidden interest fees of a traditional loan.

3. Get Creative with Contacting Customers

Reminding existing and previous customers that you’re still in business during off-peak months is a no brainer. But exactly how creative you get with reminding them will play a huge part in nailing customer relationships and encouraging them to make that purchase.

Simply using the same marketing tactics all-year-round isn’t enough - you must tailor your contact methods to your audience and season to stand a chance of competing and staying top of mind.

If you send out a monthly newsletter, try to include something interesting and of value to your customers. For example, let’s say you run a gardening business, you could send your customers newsletters on garden maintenance tips during winter and include some of your own products that will help. You could also offer a discount to incentivise further purchases. This way, customers will feel you’re going above and beyond to maintain a relationship with them all year round.

Finding unique ways to communicate with your customers will help to maintain their intrigue and set your business up for seasonal success.

4. Gather and Respond to Reviews

Post-peak season is the perfect time to gather all the reviews you’ve generated during your busiest period. Remember, these customers have experienced your business recently, so their feedback will be fresh and current – and this could make all the difference in persuading a new customer to shop with you.

As a hotel/B&B you could add property listings on third party sites, such as Booking.com or TripAdvisor. These reviews could then be plugged into your company website to ensure new and existing customers are able to see them.