Every business has a busy season and a slow season. It’s tempting to only advertise for the busy season because we know the other times will be slow.
But your slow season isn’t a time to be complacent. The off-season is when you should be building your marketing strength for the rest of the year, work on maintenance of your marketing, and build your customer database through things like email lists.
Email marketing can have a massive $42 ROI for every $1 spent. Let’s take a look at simple ways you can grow your email list in the off-season to make your life easier during the busy season.
FIGURE OUT YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE
You need to understand your audience before you’re able to build your email list. Start by building a marketing persona for your business if you don’t already have one. Once you understand who your target audience is and where they’re spending their time online, you can create a strategy to capture their email addresses.
OPTIMIZE YOUR WEBSITE
If your business is strictly relying on social media for its web presence, it’s time to upgrade to an actual website. If you have a website already, take a fine-tooth comb to it and make sure it’s optimized for people to find and use. Create an opt-in page or widget so that people can sign up for your email list.
GET AN EMAIL MARKETING SERVICE
Simple and free services like Mailchimp are available to ease you into the process. Paid versions are also available, which offer more flexibility in services like segregated audiences and the ability to send to more email addresses.
AUTOMATE YOUR LISTS
There’s no reason you need to be spending hours on end specifically curating your emails to each of the thousands of email addresses you’ve collected. Most of the popular email marketing management services have automated processes that trigger when certain conditions — which you dictate — are met.
Automating email lists helps you in a few ways:
- Allows you to personalize the email to each person
- Saves your marketing time
- Improves retention rates
- Scales your marketing strategies
OFFER EXCLUSIVE CONTENT
If you have premium products like ebooks and in-depth guides, you can offer that particular content only to people who sign up for your email list. Premium content is a great way to entice people who want to receive more of your services with minimal effort.
To learn more about off-season marketing, read the blog Should You Advertise During Your Industry’s Off-Season? by Federated Digital Solutions.
