Why is it Quiet, and What Should Your Business Be Doing?
Joel
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As an advertising agency and Premier Google Partner, we speak with a lot of businesses. Even more so when it’s quiet, and business owners are needing to ‘drum up business’.
Why is it quieter at this time of year?
We’ve heard from a significant number of clients in recent times and have received a lot of feedback that it’s pretty quiet out there for many businesses, even those with a strong online presence and large advertising campaigns (although these businesses tend to have a lot more flexibility to scale up to maximise business during the quieter periods). While this doesn’t affect all industries, we’ve got a number of factors at play at this time of year:
- A lot of people tend to do a bit of ‘belt tightening’ at this of year. Summer is well and truly over, so it’s time to pay back Christmas debt, or perhaps that international holiday. And this can often mean putting off non-essential spending as well as being more price focussed.
- As we draw closer to tax time, consumers can also oftentimes delay non-essential spending in anticipation of their annual tax return.
- Elections! Read on below.
What about elections?
As Australian’s we’re very fortunate to live in a democracy. However, the cost of democracy is elections! As you can see in the image above/beside, our mailbox has been overflowing with election advertising. We’ve received 16 separate pieces of advertising just over the last fortnight! So when people say that elections create uncertainty, it’s pretty easy to see why. Much of the messaging is designed to create fear and uncertainty. If you don’t vote for X, then the world will supposedly end! And this is ONLY print advertising. Add to that online advertising, tv advertising, outdoor advertising, and so on. And that’s JUST for the NSW state election. Just wait till the federal election rolls around in a couple of months time.
All this fear and uncertainty for many businesses, can lead to clients/customers delaying non-essential spending. NSW based businesses get a double-whammy this year with BOTH state and federal elections just months apart. While many businesses we speak to indicate things are a bit quieter around elections, there are certainly some businesses who are less affected, particularly those that offer products/services which people are not able to put off.
So what should your businesses do when it’s quiet?
- Sit tight and ride it out as best you can.
- Encourage your staff to take a holiday and use annual leave. This might even be the perfect time for you to jump on a plane and take that well deserved break, making the most of the quieter period.
Want to be a bit more proactive?
- Consider running a time limited special promotion to encourage prospective customers to take action, even though they might have originally been planning on putting it off.
- Play secret shopper, and check to see what your competitors are up to, and make sure your product/service offering remains competitive, and a great choice for customers.
- Use this quiet time to improve your website and make sure your website is working for you at full speed, to convert browsers into buyers. This is REALLY important, and can often help to accelerate your business both during quieter and busier times. Need some ideas? Start with these basic landing page tips. Want more? Email our friendly staff, and we’ll be happy to do a ‘once over’ on your website, and put forward some expert CRO (conversion rate optimisation) recommendations tailored to your business.
- Are there other business improvements you’ve been putting off? Now is the time to get these sorted. For example:
— Is it time you upgraded your phone system?
— How about setting up a live answering service to ensure you never miss calls or business again?
— Updating your email stationary
— Setting up an email newsletter
— Posting some social media updates
—Taking some team, office before and after photos for your website (which can really help to give an excellent first impression and maximise sales/enquiries).
— That other thing you’ve been trying to get done - Consider increasing your investment in advertising to try and drum up more business. If you’d like to discuss the option of increasing your Google Ads click budget, please shoot us through an email, and our team will be happy to give some expert advice, and make a recommendation.
The good news is that quiet times don’t last forever. Take the opportunity to invest this quieter time wisely, whether that be on business improvement (as outlined above), or that well deserved holiday, so you’re refreshed, re-charged and well positioned for when business does pick up.
