Summer is winding down, and that means it’s time to roll up your sleeves and start preparing your food business for the busiest time of the year, the holiday season. Whether you sell through farmers’ markets, local retailers, or online, your Q4 strategy can have a huge impact on your year-end success.
Although it’s ideal to get to a point where you’re able to spread your revenue uptake throughout the year, the last three months of the year can be critical to the financial success of many small Canadian food businesses.
In a small business report from Constant Contact (email marketing provider), the final quarter is crucial
Although the above numbers are for small business in general, these numbers do apply to a large segment of the small food business sector.
As an example, one of our clients, Spray Creek Ranch, indicates that their fourth quarter results from last year were 34% of their annual sales. The holiday period from Thanksgiving through to Christmas is a key focus.
Reality being that holiday season planning should have already begun, but if you’re not quite there yet, let’s get you started now, so you can be successful with:
Grocery and other retail outlets plan for holiday promotions earlier in the spring and summer. If you’re already providing product, then reach out and leverage your relationship. When approaching for the first time, be sure to have a sound plan and offer that shows both the uniqueness of your product and benefit to the grocer.
Marketing and In-Store Support: Consider how you can support in-store promotions, such as special displays, demos, or discounts. This includes providing promotional materials, signage, or even staff for tastings. Sell sheets are also useful to the manager and staff.
Seasonal Promotions: Be ready to align with the store’s promotional calendar, offering holiday-themed promotions or products that tie into broader store campaigns like flyers and social media.
Product Management: Organize your retail accounts to ensure you can fulfill stock requirements. Have clear communications of order minimums, delivery cutoffs, and processes for last minute orders and returns.
There still may be some space in your regional Christmas markets, but ideally after you’ve been in a market you deem successful, book your space for the following year. You’ll get priority of where you want your booth to be for optimal traffic.
Once you’ve secured your booth space, there are many aspects to this type of marketing channel.
Display Elements and Esthetics: Essentially, you’re creating a mini-store to sell your wares. It needs to be attractive, functional, and easy to manage. Consider all the elements you need to provide an excellent customer experience from eye-catching materials, to tasting (when practical), to checkout.
Time Management: Prepping takes time, delivering product and booth, managing booth usually for multiple days, family commitments (e.g., baby sitting, pet care), booth take down. All these activities are out of your daily business routine. Plan for the calendar time, and physical and mental commitments that the show demands.
Prepare for Post Show Activities: When you go back to ‘work’ after a show, you won’t be jumping into your normal routine. You need to deal with your display elements and leftover product, recording sales, and following up with people who want more information, or even better, more product. Have a process prepared to deal with it all (e.g., follow up emails written, staff assignment), so you’re not scrambling at the last minute.
How ever you plan to push your product over the holiday season, create a sales projection for each channel you sell in (e.g., Christmas Market, e-commerce website, retail). You can do this based on previous years’ experience and or market research. This will dictate what needs to be done with your manufacturing.
Product: Determine what products you’ll need to produce and promote during the festive season and how many? Do you have a specific flavour or product that suits that time of year, or a special gift-size? Identify how many of each you’ll need to meet and exceed your sales targets.
Production: To meet the sales targets, you have to plan for inevitable production increase with adjusting manufacturing schedules, ordering ingredients, booking kitchen space, and perhaps hiring temporary employees. Also consider the logistics of where to store increased ingredients and outgoing ready-to-go product.
Packaging: Order any packaging (e.g., pouches, glass jars) as soon as possible. Know that large-scale producers will have ordered months ago and suppliers will give them priority over your small order. Next year be prepared to order earlier. Also, order labels and any special gift packaging elements to accommodate your increased production.
Based on where you plan to sell your products, you’ll have to plan what physical marketing elements you’ll require.
There are some options that need creative marketing expertise for any retail presence. Confirm with your retail customer what is available, then reach out to your graphics professional to get your materials designed and created. If you have the opportunity, some options to plan for and purchase:
There are many physical items required for your mini-store in a market booth. You’re creating an appealing, inviting, and functional space, and most items will be branded or complementary to your brand elements. Get in the queue with your marketing agency to ensure you can receive these items in time for your event participation.
Holiday promotion graphics and language ideally should be visible on all your digital marketing assets. Some things you can likely do on your own, but many things will require a graphic designer to help you present a professional position.
You’re a busy food business owner and preparing for a hectic holiday season can be overwhelming. Planning is the key to success both before and after the show.
Be ready for inquiries, complaints, and returns. Have a system and approach to manage both negative and positive communications from current customers or potential buyers. Your confident responses will reflect well on your professionalism and reputation.
Whatever info you can track during this time will be extremely beneficial for any future marketing and sales activities. What people buy, how, and when, can direct business decisions as you grow into next year. Consider your activities and results in each channel. These are just a few examples of what kinds of things you could track and measure.
This is your big push to reach your revenue numbers for this year, and prepare for growth next year. You need to extend your best efforts to deliver a quality experience for anybody involved with your company – customers, prospects, retail partners, market managers, anybody who sees or interacts with your brand.
At Farm Food Drink, we are brand experts and solely work with small food businesses. We’d love to help you have a successful holiday season promoting your business.
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