The alcohol business, more so than almost any other industry, is defined by seasonal buying habits.
For instance, according to NielsenIQ data, Rosé sales jumped by more than 50% from Q1 to Q2 in 2021. These buying patterns repeat, and, for the business owner who knows how best to take advantage of them, it can serve as a powerful profit boost.
As a business owner, you know these patterns, and you know how they affect your in-store experience. However, online marketing is often a daunting task for those first getting their feet wet. And even with City Hive’s suite of advanced marketing tools that simplify the process, beginning your marketing journey can seem like another stressor to add to your already stressful day. But that doesn’t have to be the case. With these simple tips, you can boost your profits by taking advantage of seasonal buying trends.
1. The Earlier the Better.
The first all-important question that you need to answer when preparing your seasonal marketing is, “when should I start?” There’s often debate about when it is too soon to start marketing your products for specific holidays and seasons, but the consensus is the earlier, the better.
According to Google, 50% of U.S. shoppers will shop earlier to avoid out-of-stock items. With your customers looking to shop earlier, it’s important to make sure that your marketing and promotions reflect that change in customer behavior. If you run your marketing after your customers have already bought their items, it will have no effect on their behavior, even with significant discounts. Planning a holiday season promotion? Try marketing it two weeks earlier than you normally would to take advantage of seasonal trends!
According to research by Maxus, most consumers, older ones, in particular, are unlikely to experiment with their alcohol purchases. With 62% of older drinkers and 55% of younger drinkers unlikely to branch out, your customers need a reason to try (and buy) new things, and often, your expertise as a business owner can provide that reason!
2. Your Customers Value your Expertise.
If you know that your customers are more likely to buy Rosé in the summertime, put together a group (using City Hive’s Product Groups 2.0 feature) of your highest margin Rosés with the click of a button and attach it to your marketing materials with the title “Our Staff’s Favorite Summertime Rosés.” Want to finish the deal? Embed a link to a blog post from your website discussing the important factors in choosing a good Rosé! With endless customization options, all you need to do is track when your customers buy your products! Thankfully you won’t have to do that manually, thanks to the Analytics option on the City Hive dashboard that tracks customer spending habits!
3. Channel your Marketing.
It’s important to remember that not all marketing is the same. An email campaign will reach and be opened and appreciated by a very different (and ever-changing) group of customers than an SMS text campaign.
Even if the content of both campaigns is the same, it’s important to know how your customer might be viewing it. If you send out an email campaign during Thanksgiving when many of your customers are not particularly interested in checking their email, that campaign might fall flat. However, a text message campaign at the same time might result in great sales numbers due to your customers being more likely to check their texts.
As a business owner, sometimes pragmatism is the best course of action. When you have a million things on your plate, it’s not always productive to add another, and sometimes, if you can’t give that new addition the care it deserves, it can even be detrimental.
4. Automatically Send Marketing Materials.
As business owners ourselves, we know how hard it is to balance the necessary tasks to run a successful business. That’s why we provide City Hive AutoPilots, automated marketing campaigns that run across channels and provide you with profits without you investing your most valuable resource: time. Autopilot increases engagement with your customers by automatically triggering emails, push, or text notifications based on specific user actions. To learn more about Autopilots, click the button below!
