How to Beat the January “Slow Business” Trap

For a lot of businesses, January drags along like a snail. Sales slow to a trickle, and cash doesn’t come in as much as they would like. If you’re perceptive enough, you might just about sense the mood of the month hanging over the landscape, and finding expression in the subdued tones with which many people reply greetings at this time.

But is it just a brute fact that business years should begin sluggishly? Isn’t it possible to start off with a bang, inundated by a stream of orders from customers and gathering the revenues in already? We believe this is achievable. There are several small enterprises and large companies making this happen, and your business can become one of them.

It all lies in your ability to get customers eager to buy, even after the Christmas shopping period has taken its toll. The good news is, there are a number of ways to draw them back into your stores. They will be willing to take out their wallets and spend on your products and services if you’re able to get the following things done.

1. Keep Customers In the Loop About Your Products

Keep your offerings in the buying public’s consciousness as much as is possible. You might wonder whether this actually works. It does. When you update your customers about your products and services, you’re bringing your business back to the fore in their minds; this will make them more likely to make a purchase if they find that they’re actually in need of what you sell.

The point is, Top of Mind awareness (as marketers call it) is just as important in January as it is at any other point of the year. Don’t let the post-holiday blues rob you of this knowledge. Stay active on social media, connect at networking sessions, send out emails, get your leaflets out, and remind people that you’re in business to serve them. This increases the chances that you’ll land new deals and gain new clients.

2. Expand the Scope of Your Marketing Efforts

Maybe you’ve stuck with social media and word of mouth marketing for a long while now, but you’re finding that it doesn’t draw in as many potential customers at the start of the year as you want. Here’s a suggestion: why not broaden the scope of your verbal communication, to include people in demographics, industries and niches where leads may be found? How about other digital channels, like email? And, have you considered other social media and online forums besides the ones you’re currently using?

Getting on more marketing channels could help you connect with new markets; it could also raise the frequency to which your ideal clients get exposed to content from your business. This, like the first tip we gave above, will help place your business closer to the top of your potential customer’s options when they eventually decide to buy the type of product you’re offering.

3. Run New Year Themed Marketing

If you want the new year to kick off with big sales, you should be prepared to take a big leap first. A smart way to do this would be to run with new year themed marketing. You could tap into a general expectation and optimism for the year, and present your brand as being in tune with the times. This is another great way to keep your business in the sights of your customers.

You can find a lot more on this in our article, Engage Customers With New Year Marketing.

4. Make Your Marketing More Target Specific

This should be normal practice anyway. But if you haven’t been following through on it, the arid days of January might give you the opportunity to finally do so. That’s because the start of the year tends to be a financially leaner time for most businesses, perhaps including yours, and you would want to be extra sure that every dime spent on marketing efforts brings in as much as it possibly can. Getting deliberate and specific about the exact sort of people and businesses you want to reach, and targeting them accordingly, will help minimize wasteful spending in this respect.

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ikenna-nwachukwu

Ikenna Nwachukwu holds a bachelor's degree in Economics from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. He loves to look at the world through multiple lenses- economic, political, religious and philosophical- and to write about what he observes in a witty, yet reflective style.

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