The spring season is commonly associated with ideas many entrepreneurs are inherently drawn to, including new beginnings and growth. Regardless of your product or service, leveraging some common spring themes in your marketing strategy can help remind existing customers of all your business has to offer and generate new interest among prospects.
Here are four ways to harness the power of spring in your marketing strategy.
1. Breathe new life into a proven product
You don’t have to launch a new product or service to market your business with a spring-themed message. Instead, consider spring as an opportunity to breathe new life into how you present staple products. Start by making a list of your top 3–5 most popular items or services. Note the product/service features that have most contributed to each item’s success. Then, brainstorm how you might tout those particular selling features to position the product in a new light as part of a spring campaign. For example:
- Reach out to your most influential customers (which may be local influencers, other small business owners, or customers with a larger social media following). Ask them to describe one or two specific benefits they experienced from the product that changed their life in some small way, which can include saving them time, money, or reducing stress. Feature one new customer testimonial on your website for each day or week of spring, selecting testimonials that specifically communicate how your product or service provided a “fresh start.”
- Incorporate spring hues into online images of your products, in fonts, or on product packaging. (Check out the color palette associated with 2016’s Pantone colors Rose Quartz and Serenity for inspiration).
- Test different approaches to sales copy on your website; incorporate the search terms people use most often to find the product into marketing headlines and product descriptions.
2. Create a community
The warmer temperatures and longer daylight hours of spring tend to inspire people to get out of their homes and into their communities. Leverage this aspect of the spring season to cultivate engagement on social media and form a sense of community for your business. Bryan Clayton, CEO of lawn care company GreenPal, says his company has found success with an annual “Best Looking Lawn Contest” held in the spring. “We have homeowners share pictures of their freshly mowed lawn. We judge which is the best looking and award a free lawn cut every week. It generates all kinds of shares on social media and word-of-mouth buzz in the five cities that we operate,” says Clayton.
You can also promote a sense of community by partnering with other small business owners to host a spring sidewalk event or community “meet and greet.” When you team up with other business owners to hold a special event in the spring, you can help to cross-promote one another’s products, move old or unwanted inventory as part of “spring cleaning,” chat with your customers face to face, and even use the event to generate buzz in your local media.
3. Make yourself relevant to the customer’s mindset
Struggling to correlate your business with the spring season? Create content that’s relevant to issues the customer has top of mind during the spring season. Your marketing strategy may not drive immediate sales, but they can still offer value by creating brand awareness, driving traffic to your website, and boosting your social media presence. Darren Green, founder of Roman Blinds Direct, plays up the spring season and drives traffic to his website with a weekly inspiration page on his company’s blog that offers spring-inspired interior decorating tips.
If you own a fitness facility, for example, you might engage clients with a daily healthy recipe on social media that suggests ways clients can cook with locally grown produce. If you own a daycare facility, share ideas parents can use to encourage kids to play outdoors and learn about nature. Nearly any business can attach itself to a spring theme, provided you understand what your customers care about during the season and are willing to put in the effort to develop a relevant campaign.
4. Align your business with a spring holiday (or two)
In addition to well-known annual spring events like graduation and Mother’s Day, there’s a good chance you can find at least one spring event that’s relevant to your customer, or the values you’ve built your business upon. Below is a list of just some of the upcoming celebratory days that will take place this spring. Perhaps one will inspire a new idea you can leverage to promote your business!
- May 21: Armed Forces Day
- May 23: Victoria Day
- May 24:National Brother Day
- May 28: National Burger Day
- May 30: Memorial Day
- May 31: World No Tobacco Day
