Beat The January Blues and Make More Money This Winter!
The high of the Christmas season usually wears off once January and February figures roll in. A lot of hotels, bars and restaurants tend to shrug their shoulders and recite the typical excuses for low turnover. “People spent all of their money at Christmas” or “everyone quit drinking for January” and the classic “everyone is on a resolution diet.” While this is undoubtedly true for a section of the population, there are always opportunities to seek out additional business. You just need to work that marketing muscle to beat the mid-winter slump!
Plan
Planning your promotions the previous year is always ideal. If you can lock in your campaigns before the crazy Christmas rush, you can roll them out nearly as soon as the clock strikes midnight on New Year’s Eve. But don’t despair if you haven’t planned anything yet, you still have weeks ahead that can undoubtedly benefit from some extra marketing.
Light Menus
A fairly popular promotion is to feature healthier dishes and drinks on your menu for your newly calorie conscious customers. But why not try and stand apart from the myriad of venues running these offers? Create an entirely carb free menu or vegan menu for the first week of January. Try offering low calorie versions of your bestsellers for the month of January, or design an entire three course meal for under a certain number of calories. Hand out healthy samples at your front door. There are hundreds of ways to promote your healthy options, just make sure to differentiate from your direct competitors.
Fitness Partners
Team up with local gyms to provide their members with extra benefits. Most gyms have between 3000 and 5000 members, and January sees a massive influx of new business for them. Owners and managers are generally quite keen to yield added value for their customers, and working with them can pave the way for potentially huge new markets. Offer discounts or free low calorie dish and drink vouchers to members and ask to keep copies of your menus on gym premises.
Meetings and Events
Unlike the hospitality industry, corporate businesses tend to make money consistently throughout the year and often get new budgets in early January. Reach out to offices in your area and offer them complimentary use of your venue for off-site meetings and networking events. You can also get in touch with local networking groups on Eventbrite or Meetup. More bodies in the building provide many benefits, even if they aren’t spending a ton of money.
Event organisers will usually order canapés and drinks for their attendees, and meetings usually require coffees and croissants
You will appear busy to people looking in, and nothing is more appealing to a customer walking-by than an atmosphere
The more guests in, the more social media tags you might get
Event guests might not have previously been to your venue, and may return on their own time
Keep Customers Cosy
Winter is a time for “Hygge”, a trendy Danish term that essentially means nesting at home and keeping warm by the fire. Appeal to the hibernation-inclined customer by posting images of your cosy seating, fireside cocktails, hot chocolate and and warming winter soups across your social media and website. Buy hot water bottles and furry blankets to keep your customers extra toasty and less likely to leave, and try putting on film or TV premiere nights to make them feel right at home.
Up Your Marketing NOW
Set yourself up for the rest of the year by starting out with a huge marketing push. Even if you aren’t running any specific early-year promotions, champion whatever you do best and get people thinking about your business. Market heavily on social media, other digital, video, e-mail, print, sponsorship, flyer-ing or whatever channels are most suited to your venue. Why would you spend more on promotions when you are already busy? Now is the time to supercharge your marketing!