Putting Your Marketing Plan on Hold Takes Away Your Competitive Edge
We all tend to flow with the seasons—our attitudes and activities seem to change to match the changes in weather patterns. Holidays, hockey and basketball in the winter, baseball and weekends at the lake in the spring and summer, the beginning of school and football in the fall. One thing doesn’t change, though, and that’s our day-to-day business. Granted, there are lulls in the amount of work we need to do, but seven days a week the wheels of commerce keep rolling, and the national economy keeps ringing up the tally. That’s why you can never afford to pause or stop your marketing efforts, no matter the season. Slow periods in business do not mean business has stopped, particularly since most business and marketing is done online—and the internet never sleeps.
Playing the Game
Marketing can be compared to an athlete. Some days you’re on your game, and some days you’re not. Sometimes you win big, and sometimes you don’t. Most often, it’s just one day after another picking up wins and losses as we go, racking up new stats. And then comes the off-season—which makes all the difference in the numbers we rack up when the season starts up again. Any good major league hitter spends time in the batting cage during the winter to keep the eyes and reflexes sharp. Every good quarterback spends their off-season working out at the gym and memorizing the playbook. Anyone interested in winning a gold medal in the next Olympics trains hard every day of the year. There is no off-season.
Staying Ahead of the Game
You never want to fall behind your competition, especially the ones who keep pressing forward day after day, thinking of ways to stay on top of their game to beat you. When you pause or stop your SEO, PPC, or social media marketing campaigns, you lose all the momentum you’ve gained during your “on-season.” Sure, there are slow times in your business, but by putting your marketing strategy on hold, you slow down your business even more. Then, when you want to restart your SEO and advertising campaigns, you’ll realize you’ve lost a lot of analytical ground that will take you more than a few months to make up. Your business will have gotten slow and flabby, and because the rules of the digital marketing game change with the breeze, your strategy will have lost its keenness to hit one out of the park.
No one says you can’t take a personal vacation, but you need to keep your marketing campaigns in top shape during your off-season to maintain your edge and to hit the ground running when your busy season is upon you. If you want to be a champion, you have to keep the ball rolling.
The Benefits of Maintaining Your Marketing Efforts Through the Off-Season
While pausing your marketing campaign during the off-season may seem like a logical approach to stretching your marketing budget, it does not serve your company’s long-term growth. Off-season is the ideal time to get a leg up on your competitors and improve your market share by investing in SEO and website improvements.
Here are some benefits of maintaining your marketing efforts during the off-season:
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- The off-season is a great time to identify your annual goals and address challenges.
- It’s a good time to discuss strategies for expanding into new markets.
- Ask your account manager to perform a technical website audit and identify solutions to improve performance, rankings, and conversion opportunities. This may include core web vitals, addressing content challenges, and UX/UI for improved conversions.
- Consider adding more content to your website to maximize your marketing goals.
- An organic social media marketing campaign can be extremely valuable during your off-season. This is an opportunity to connect with your audience, build brand awareness, and create a community.
- Rather than turning your marketing campaign back on once your busy season approaches, running a brand awareness campaign leading up to your busy season can be an ideal way to test the current market and identify campaign performance.
- Google rewards websites that invest in their infrastructure with valuable, unique content and a systematic approach.
- It’s important to remember that some of your competitors will actively work on their marketing efforts during their off-season, and will enter the next busy season notably ahead of those who do not.
Depending on your unique goals and the type of marketing services you have with SharpNet Solutions, your account manager is here to provide multiple options that will fit your budget, goals, and timeline, preparing you for a productive season with no downtime. So instead of pausing your marketing services during your off-season and losing valuable traction, reach out to your dedicated account manager to devise a strategy that will put your business ahead of the game!