Local Marketing Ideas To Bomb Cyclone An Upcoming Snowstorm - Make Money Still!

Winter weather makes staying in business hard during the year! But every smart and experienced business knows to expect it every January through March, with the hopeful end in April. The holiday months of November and December don’t really matter, because Americans are hell-bent on shopping, and snowflakes are part of most interior decors and theme music on repeat that plays in every store. But the cold and gray lull before Valentine’s Day? Shudder!

How do you get the people out from underneath their heavy blankets? It requires a lot of coaxing with constancy. Think of the fast food commercials you (used) to see at night while watching cable. You may be too young for this, but, way past the dinner hour, commercials for pizza and burgers would come on. No one was going to get up off the couch right then to drive to get the food, but the next time they were out, they would pull over.

Back to our problem of getting the people out - or at least to buy your product:

• Set the scene with visuals in your Instagram and TikTok.

• Send similar or different pictures in a newsletter with special SNOWDAY coupon.

• Promote ways to buy from you digitally.

Examples On How To Profit On A Snow Day

Pre-Promote Delivery - The Farmer

Problem: A farmer who usually sells in-person at markets is going to lose all sales on a snow day if she can’t show up to the market.
What To Do: 2 days before the predicted snowstorm, use the regular Instagram graphic you had designed that says: SNOW DAY! FREE DELIVERY! Also send that image in a newsletter to your people. They need to be conditioned that you

A. do free delivery,
B. are going to have a hard time showing up at market,
C. they might skip going to market that day.

Make their lives easier by telling them (again, and again, and again) that you deliver. Consider including a 5% off coupon for those who book early. You don’t need to do this every time. We know you need every penny.
Need Something? Don’t have a cute Instagram graphic like this? Hire us at Katie James Inc. to make one for you! We’d love to sink our creative juices into your brand to makes something that will compel people to get off their couches.

Pre-Promote That You Will Be Open

Problem: The snow is falling, and people see inches of snow out their front doors and sidewalks. They assume everything shut down, and they are taking the day off to binge-watch something (including Instagram and TikTok).
What To Do: 1 day before the predicted snowstorm, show your shovels and salt. Tell your people that will most likely be open - that you will most likely be open. Do this in Instagram and TikTok. Schedule a newsletter in advance that let’s people know “WE’RE OPEN!” despite the snowfall. Write it the day before, and have it ready to send the next day. If you can’t open because it’s all just too much, then don’t send it.
Need Something? Don’t have time to write such a newsletter or Instagram campaign because you’re out buying salt, and then you’ll be out shoveling in order to open? Hire us at Katie James Inc. to write it and schedule it for you.

Promote Online Sales

Problem: You shoveled out, but there aren’t a lot of people out. How are you going to reach them?
What To Do: Drop the prices for limited time only. Have a sale, where people can buy the products from their phones. Use Shopify to hook up to Instagram Ads. Or, if you need something less fancy, use your Squarespace site or your Square site to sell something at a special price. This sale pricing needs from be from a certain time frame, and only for that snow day. Create an Instagram graphic that says these time ranges and sale % off. Share this also to your newsletter
Need Something? You know what we’re going to say! Hire us at Katie James Inc. to finally make or improve that website of yours. Or, if you already prepared with a slick website, hire us to create the Instagram and newsletter combo to push your sales.

Book us in advance though! We need to plan just like you do. We usually don’t need to shovel out to do our work, however. So…We’re Open!

Farm Kits Featured In New Grocery eCommerce Section Of Homespun Foods

Product Image Design: Katie James, Inc.
Illustrations: birdiydesign

Homespun Foods has brought back their Farm Kits - a creation during the early pandemic days when they needed to survive during the shutdown. Katie James Inc. Was able to create this new Grocery section for them in their Squarespace website, with Farm Kits being the first product. We opted to create an ecommerce section called “Grocery,” where all food products can go in, and auto-populate. Homespun staff will be trained in how to create a Grocery product so that the section can build itself. Of course, Katie James, Inc. can do it for them in our Pay As You Go program if they get too busy in the kitchen.

Most likely, other retail items like Honey and Maple Syrup are next to be added to the Grocery section.

Farm Kits are offered in limited supply, in Quantities of 12 bags each week. We utilized SquareSpace’s Variant option to create a different day for which someone could order. Maintenance will require removing the day once it has passed, and adding the next week’s day. A “How It Works” section was also added to the sales page, to educate people in how it works, in order to provide them with expectations for no surprises later on.

We designed the product image to be reflective of what might be in the seasonal bag of fresh grown food, putting it on a black chalkboard. The chalkboard is a signature look inside of Homespun, as they have their menu board on a chalk board across from the register. Homespun is all about good food and working with one’s hands, so the scratchy look is on-brand for them.

Being that the Farm Kits are a joint offering between Homespun and Common Ground Farm, both of Beacon, NY, we included both logos to help identify both brands as the image passed through social media, newsletters and advertisements.

Need an enhancement for your website or a fresh pair of eyes? Katie James Inc would love to help. Reach out ☺️💕

Illustrations from clip art created by @birdiydesign on @creativemarket 💜

Need enhancements done to your website or brand overall? Hit us up :)