Bronto Blog

Update: Read the Blooms Today Case Study

---

If you’re an advanced marketer, you’re not only looking forward to the holiday season, better known as the “feast,” you’re already planning on how to generate sales for the “famine” season of Q1 2008.If your business is seasonal, you have to work harder for off-season sales. Bronto customer Blooms Today was featured recently in Marketing Profs, for their ability to increase off-season sales.Every business has “famine,” it’s typically a time that a company recognizes as off-peak, which they use to regroup and prepare for their “feast.” However, for those businesses looking to grow by leaps and bounds, a “famine” is an opportune chance to work for unplanned sales.

For Blooms Today, they started by focusing on non-traditional holidays. They feast on traditional holidays like Mother’s Day and Valentine’s Day, but by offering specials on Teacher’s Day and Grandparent’s Day, they can encourage sales outside of their anticipated sales cycles. Think about how you can emphasize the need for your product or service outside of the normal pattern of sales. This goes hand in hand with promoting your strengths. I may not be interested in buying a bathing suit in February, but if you combine strong messaging; promoting its high quality fabric and how the style and color is “in” for summer 2008, along with a super saver deal for purchasing early, you’ll be looking at some hot sales in January for a very summery item.

Another tactic that made Blooms Today so successful, is changing the way they asked customers to register for their email list. Instead of asking simply to be added to the list, ask if they would like to sign up for special discounts, coupons, or sales. Make them feel that this is an invitation to exclusive deals, and you are bound to increase your email list. Once you have increased your list, makes sure you email regularly and also resend to those who did not open your email.

To confirm that these tactics work, Blooms Today:

• Increased their click through rates 35-40% on average
• Increased their email list 40% in just over a year
• Using remailing, have increased their open rates 30%
• And above all have substantially increased their ROI

Think about how you too can plan for a dreary January while feasting on hot sales.

Caroline Smith
Marketing Program Manager at Bronto