5 Ways to Boost Engagement During Slow Periods

Whether it’s a three-day weekend, a particularly cold winter month, or that universally low traffic week known as Spring Break, marketers know that there are some times of year that are just impossibly slow. These periods can tank an otherwise great month or hinder momentum during an important quarter—and they can be difficult to explain to clients who are expecting to see month-over-month growth. So what do you do?

The smartest marketers know that there are a few low-budget (or outright free), reliable ways to encourage engagement among social media followings, boost blog traffic—and, hopefully, increase conversions.

Social Media Questions Provoke Engagement

If your social media stats are lagging, utilize a basic sociological principle (as detailed on the Invisibilia podcast): People love to assign themselves categories, and they love to see who’s on their team.

Try asking a question, either with the new Twitter polling mechanism, or on Facebook—and make it easy enough for people to answer, but relatable enough for them to want to answer. You can use this question to gage interest in a product or service (Are you on team X or team Y?), or simply to get people clicking and replying to your page (Do you like X better or Y?). This is especially wise on Facebook, where the more people comment or like other people's’ comments, the more they’ll see your content in their feed.

Involve Your Friends and Partners

You know how much you like to share articles and posts that mention your company—so why not pay it forward? Write a blog post highlighting your favorite local companies, or some of the brands that you think are doing a great job at some facet of your industry.

Then, share it across your social media platforms, and be sure to tag them all. Even if just a few of them retweet it or share it on Facebook, you can be sure that your brand (and your blog) will end up in some new distribution channels.

Give Something Away

Contests and sweepstakes are probably one of the easiest ways to boost engagement quickly, but you'll need something to give away. This is really only a good option if you’ve got a bit of petty cash or money in your marketing budget that you don’t mind spending. The flipside, though, is that often, the amount you spend on a prize ($300 for an iPad, for example) is much less than you’d spend on a larger-scale marketing campaign or pursuit.

Before you launch a contest, make sure to read up on the rules. There are lots of laws and guidelines about what you can give away, how you can select the winner, and where you can ship materials. This is a pretty good rundown of what you need to know.

Remember Your Greatest Hits

If you have a particular blog post that always seems to be in the top of your stack, now’s the time to re-share it—and consider throwing a little money behind it. If you don’t have a Facebook sponsored post during slower weeks and months, consider spending a little bit of cash to highlight one of your most popular posts.

This will not only boost traffic, but it will also help guide new readers to the content that tends to land the best with your clientele. Plus, just because your site is slow over a particular holiday doesn’t mean people aren’t online. You just need to ensure that you’re where they are—and that’s usually Facebook.

Reach Out With Good News

Sometimes, you can’t wait for clients to come to you—you’ve got to contact them. If you know that a particular week is likely to be slow, tee up an email campaign to land in their inbox right when you need it to. Include links to new blog posts, an announcement about your company, a sale you’re having, or any other engaging news that will drive clicks and gain interest.

Email is a personal, effective way to reach people, even when they’re on vacation or snowed in, and using it to boost engagement during slow months is a gentle (but functional) way to remind them about all the good work you do.

Whatever you decide to do, just make sure you don’t give up on the slow months. Even though it may seem fruitless to focus your energy on boosting engagement and traffic when no one’s online, even a little bump can be the difference between an up month and a not-so-up month.

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