Episode 19: Don't Just Post - Plan: Marketing Through Your Business Slow Season

Speaker A: Welcome to the Business Flow Formula podcast. A uh, podcast where I, Erica, the CEO of Signal Operations, talk about behind the scenes business issues and how to overcome them. Here at Signal Operations, we help business owners understand the signals that their business is sending them via finances, marketing team members, or just general business needs. Something that I've been chatting with my clients about is the flow season and how every business has this and every business goes through it regularly. Whether you're in a food service industry or business to business or just a brick and mortar retail store, there are always slow periods and that's totally okay. Today we're going to talk about the marketing side of it, but we still have the people op side of it to go through. We've already done systems and finances. As you likely know, I like to call slow seasons exactly what it is. It's a decline in revenue and a decline in profitability. Uh, it is also a little bit of boredom and feeling inadequate if you run a service based business, creative shop, storefront or even just not just, but just a side hustle, you know what I mean? One month's lean receipts can feel like a punch to the gut. So today we're going to talk about why slow seasons hit so hard and how to protect your marketing, your communications and your sanity with three practical things you can do right now. So let's go through why slow seasons feel so stressful from a, uh, marketing and communication stand front. During a slow season, it's easy for business owners to question if they're communicating effectively with their clients and prospective clients wondering what we're doing wrong, if uh, we're promoting, promoting the wrong things and just why the heck is it not resonating with people? That's a feeling I've had. Many of my clients have had. Many of my friends in business who have gone through slow periods have also had. But there's many reasons for why the slow season is happening and it's not all about being misunderstood. We're um, going to do a quick reality check here where I want you to ask yourself some questions. Does your business typically have some type of routine slow period where clients or customers are needing your products or maybe where they're not needing your services or products? Have you been using the same marketing techniques for months now? And lastly, have you been showing up authentically in your business, whether physically or online? Of course it's not about placing blame on you, but sometimes, especially after a period of hectic ness, we just want to hibernate and enjoy the slow time for a bit and that's okay, but showing up authentically can impact our marketing long term. So here's some practical steps that you can take right now. I don't want you to start posting without a strategy. It's easy to want to try a million things to get back back on track and things going again and bringing the money back in. But I want you to stop refine your messaging and start with a strategy first. Marketing often takes a little bit to start working, so once you've started implementing your plan, let it sit with your audience for a bit. If you're like me, you're probably a little impatient, but trust me, it just needs a little bit of time. Also, and I'm sure that you've already done this and downloaded a million marketing resources, but we do have a marketing checkup free resource on signaleth or. Com. I'll have it in the show notes for you and uh, talk with a marketing expert. Again, I know that you need to have some time, but if you're just not really sure where to start and you want to make sure your strategy is on point, chat with us. Let's have a quick story around marketing. And I want to get very real on artificial intelligence and marketing. AI. It's the biggest thing in the world right now. I know there's so many tools out there that will create the posts for you. It can do the whole thing, it can do some of it, or it can do none of it. When I spoke earlier about showing up in your business authentically, I also mean truly showing up. People buy from people, not from AI. Here at Signal, we have a very comprehensive policy around AI and using AI with our clients. But AI is simply a tool that can give us an outline when we're feeling stuck. This podcast episode was entirely scripted by me, our marketing plan entirely planned by Amyris, our coo. Of course, sometimes we do feel stuck and need to ask Google or the AI engine of choice, what are five things going on for business owners right now? And then it can spark a little creative engines and send us off while we do our content creation. I've also created content by using old call transcripts with clients just to find the most frequently asked questions. And then I create reels or static posts or even podcast episodes like I'm doing right now. AI is a tool. It is a great tool to use, but it's not an employee and it's certainly not a marketing expert. So use it as a tool. Use it as something that can help you, but ultimately you are the expert in your business. As we shift over into mindset, um, let's shift our mindsets. In the slow season, especially where we may be feeling misheard or miscommunicating with our clients, prospective clients, customers, you name it. It's important to refine how we talk to ourselves. For example, I'm a big believer in the energy that we put out into the universe is how people are going to show back up into our business. I actually have so much scientific proof about how this works in our business. But, for example, having a mantra where you're hyping yourself up is important. I have my own. You'll have yours, of course. But it's important to remember that you are an expert at what you do and being incredible value to your customers. Whether, again, it doesn't matter if you have very transactional relationships with your customers. They come in, buy a coffee, they leave, they come in, buy a shirt, they leave. Or you have repeating business with clients or whatever that looks like you're bringing value to them. Regardless of what you're doing and how you're showing up, it is just temporary. Business will pick back up, and if it doesn't, it's okay. Businesses shift and change and go different directions. Many times. Entrepreneurs start many, many businesses throughout their lifetime. Finally, if you're feeling stuck and you're just in an endless Google or YouTube wormhole for days or weeks now, I want you to take a breath. Just take a breath, take a break, and come chat with us for an hour. We have 60 minute ask a Creative session where we'll walk you through how to formulate your strategy and key content pillars to focus on. If you're not quite stuck in the wormhole, another option is to just walk away from your desk and seek clarity somewhere else. For example, I scripted this entire episode at my kitchen table because I just couldn't get the creative juices flowing at my desk. Where's your creative space? It could be at the kitchen table, maybe the couch, maybe it's outside. Maybe it's at a coffee shop. Go buy a coffee. See, they bring value to us. In closing, uh, here's your checklist for marketing. In a slow period, I want you to refine your message. Start showing up in your content or in your messages. I know I kind of repeated message there, but if you start showing up authentically in the message that you're sending out online, in socials, at meetups, whatever, I think the slow period will start to shorten. Finally, book a call with us@, uh, signalether.com to go over your plan and help focus your marketing strategy and your energy. And remember, slow seasons don't last forever. And it's not because you're communicating wrong. You just need to find a message.