Gear Up for the Busy Season
According to our friend Mr. Groundhog, spring may be arriving early! That means it’s time to start gearing up for the busy season. Preparation for high-traffic seasons can be a bit overwhelming, but Flavor Burst aims to support our clients by providing some tools and tactics to ease the load. This blog will cover some tried and true marketing strategies to inform and support you so that you can feel confident and prepared as spring and summer approach.
Marketing is the lifeblood of small businesses. It is essential that your target audience receives tailored advertising that fits your demographic, creating positive associations with your brand. By investing in your online presence, you are setting yourself up for success as you enter into busier seasons. As word of mouth spreads and foot traffic increases, a successful online presence supports the impressions being made in person. Marketing does not need to be costly or confusing, rather a good marketing strategy should be a concise, logical, and useful continuation of your business model.
Marketing Strategies
Here are three marketing strategies to implement for a booming spring and summer season:
1. Social Media
Social media is an incredibly accessible and beneficial tool. With most social media apps costing nothing, not posting is simply a waste of opportunity and money. Posting trends can be fun to keep up with and, ideally, portray the fun more light-hearted side of your business. Short-form video content paired with trending sounds and music are excellent for exposure. Social media posts that pique customer curiosity by requiring a viewer to swipe through several photos or watch 30 seconds of a video rate highly and generate strong viewer engagement. This is seen most evidently on platforms like Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube shorts. Best of all, there are many articles online assessing popular social media trends to provide you with a blueprint of what might work well for you. Get posting and don’t be afraid to bring out your silly, fun side!
2. Home Base
A website or landing page of some sort for your business is imperative. This is what distinguishes you as a functional and successful business. A website should provide customers with a solid understanding of your hours, your specialty, your location, and your business style. Having a news section on your website can be another excellent way to promote customer engagement. Customers can learn about any possible involvement you may have with the community, special events that may attract more people based on specific interests, sales or specialty items, etc. Ensure that your website is obviously advertised on your materials and in your shop so customers know exactly where to go to learn more about you. Your website should be simple and enjoyable to use, enhancing the customer experience and maintaining a positive lasting impression.
3. Offer Special Promotions or New Novelty Flavors
Running promotions is a great way to generate word of mouth and increase foot traffic. Creating opportunities for connection with customers increases the likelihood of them being a repeat customer as well as the likelihood of those customers bringing friends and/or family the next time they stop in.
Another opportunity for growth in this area is expanding online offerings. Flavor Burst has recently implemented this ourselves by launching our new online Syrup Shop, available to all U.S. customers. This makes the product testing and buying process simpler and encourages a greater degree of customer interaction. Our Syrup Shop provides the opportunity for customers to try out new flavors without needing to commit to order minimums. This increases the likelihood of customers experimenting with new flavors and coming up with new and creative ideas to implement in recipes that draw customers in. This feeds directly into social media presence, providing additional posting opportunities as well as possible collaboration opportunities with social media influencers and online creators. This generates additional marketing for you that can be shared across platforms and your website.
Support Your Sales Goals
All of the above are excellent opportunities to foster closer relationships with your customers. With so many tools at our fingertips, online marketing is an accessible and affordable way to support ourselves in our sales goals.
Contact us today or place your online Syrup Shop order to get started on your next creation!