Jingle Bells! Jingle Bells!

At a networking event a while ago I met a really nice guy who the owner of a small print/copy company in a seaside town. He was interested in what low or zero cost marketing activity I would recommend to drive some very short term revenue. To cut a long story short we agreed to meet at the end of the working day and over a beer he told me all about his business. We had an enjoyable couple of hours and I promised him I'd put a few ideas down on paper for him. One of the things I suggested was to contact all the local hotels and restaurants to discuss their plans and requirements for Christmas publicity materials: menus, leaflets etc.

I was reminded of this a couple of days ago when at another networking event the host hotel had their Christmas leaflets on the table - "Looks like my timing was about right," I thought. Now it doesn't take a genius to work out that Christmas comes around every year but what are the other drivers of business that operate on cycles? Going back to the printer, he was situated very close to an FE College. Students have dissertations to complete often towards the end of the academic year. We all know about the historic rush to book summer holidays just after Christmas and the peak in house price sales in spring and Autumn (is that still happening in the credit crunch?). Valentines day and the school terms are all very predictable.

Thinking more locally we have things like Canterbury Festival, The Whitstable Oyster Festival and the Faversham Hop Festival. All generate lots of business activity. We also have harvest time on the farms and holidaymakers during the summer months.  Less obvious are the hidden cycles that can be key to your revenue and growth. Who are your big customers and what is their budgeting cycle? When does supplier selection take place? When do budgets get set and when does spend have to be made?

So today I am asking you to think about your cycles. What are the things that happen on a regular basis that create peaks in demand. If it's not obvious look back over your sales figures and look for peaks in sales or revenue. Are there peaks that happen at about the same time every week, month, quarter, year? Do you know what causes the increased demand?

Also think about things that happen that could create demand for your products but maybe you're not exploiting right now. The key thing here understand the timescales and plan for them. How far ahead of the event will the purchasing decisions be made? 

Once you have a few ideas you can proactively begin marketing around them. Get in early, be proactive and clean up the business before your competitors realise what's happened.

If you spend an hour or so think about this and really can't come up with anything well never mind. Maybe you'll get a cycle for Christmas.