Let’s talk about seasons in our businesses. Disney has them, too. Naturally, it’s colder during the fall and winter, but not in California and Florida, really. During this time of year, you would be hard pressed to find any kind of discount or special offer because during the holiday season, especially around Christmas, that’s basically one of the few times that Disney approaches near capacity at their parks, because who doesn’t want to spend a magical Christmas or Thanksgiving at Disney?

The slow seasons for Disney are around September to October and then after Halloween to November and then again in January and February. For us, we love to go during these times because the weather is cooler and everyone is in school. The parks are pretty quiet and wait times are still there, but they’re a lot lower. So every fall, Disney sends out more emails about their discounts. Often their room discount. You can get 25 to 35% off of your room, depending on which room category that you use, whether it’s value, moderator, or deluxe. And sometimes you get Disney dining offers where you actually get free dining.

But why does Disney offer these discounts? 

It’s pretty simple: Like any business, Disney wants to drum up interest in the parks. In fact, Disney’s lowest season tends to be in late August, early September, because it’s hurricane season. The risk of another massive hurricane hitting Florida can be really scary to a lot of vacation goers. And let’s be real, you don’t want to spend three or four of your trip indoors because it’s pouring or raining and Disney says that everyone has to stay in their hotel rooms for safety purposes. Disney is actually one of the safest places to ride out a hurricane in Florida. But you know, you want to go for the parks, the atmosphere, the food, not to be cooped up in doors all day. So that could be a huge bummer and a huge risk. So in order to maintain crowd levels and to maintain their revenue goal, Disney tries to lure you in with discounts. 

So what does that mean for your business?

Well, it’s super interesting as Disney’s busiest seasons, which tend to be around the holidays and even the summer, so you don’t have to worry about pulling your kids out of school. Families tend to do a lot of vacation time then, which is the exact reason that it’s a slow period for our clients, because everyone is sort of out of office. They’re trying to enjoy time with their family, enjoy the beautiful weather. For us northerners, we spend as much time outdoors in the summer when we can, because it gets cold, real fast around here. And it’s kind of hard to keep people engaged, keep them focused when they’re kind of off their devices and computers and enjoying the great outdoors and their families. 

So one thing Disney does is stay aware that these slow periods are coming up. They prime their audience with offers in advance of them to get them interest in, to get them to commit. Of course, when things quiet down for your audience, it tends to be different for everyone. Your exact slow periods may be a little bit different, but knowing that summer’s coming up and your audience is going to be a little bit more offline than usual. 

You can offer promotions on your programs in April just to get them engaged and purchasing before they sort of move into that quieter period. And you can also customize the messaging to encourage them to stay engaged. Hit on their pain points, too! They’re busy, that kids are at home for a lot of the mompreneurs and they can’t spend as much time on their computers but they want to continue to move their businesses forward. So speak to the fact that coming to your program or offer your service can help keep them on top of things and have that momentum that they normally would have let go of a little bit during that time.

The Canadian offer for Disney goers

Yasmine speaking. I’m going to speak to the Canadian offer that Disney sends out pretty much every year. So if you don’t know, the Canadian dollar and the US dollar are no longer in parody and haven’t been for awhile. In fact, it typically costs Canadians 30% more if they buy anything in US dollars. So when you tack on that additional 30%, that can be a pretty tough pill to swallow because it’s not really easy on any Canadian’s wallet. Disney offers a discount on park tickets to basically mitigate that exchange rate and make going to Disney a little bit more affordable for people North of the border. And they address that pain point because they know Canadians tend to hate paying those really high exchange fees to buy anything from the U S or to travel to the U S.

Create NEW offers!

You don’t always have to discount things to bring people in during slow periods… you can create new offers. So one thing that Disney has is their Moonlight Magic Events, which are a hard ticket event, meaning you have to pay extra on top of your ticket to attend. That takes place in the evenings where you deal with a lot lower crowds. You get a lot of free treats and popcorn. This is what we did with one of our clients, Christina, last January that tends to happen during the quieter periods. And it’s another revenue source for Disney because during a time that’s already slow, you’re getting people to spend an extra hundred or so dollars to spend a couple hours at the park, but the added bonuses that all the rides tend to be like walk ons or very minimal waits. 

Talk to your audience during their quiet periods

So if you know that there is a special offer or program that you can offer your clients that again, address their needs and their pain points. Do this during your quiet periods and just make sure to sell them on it in advance so you can get them to commit before, you know, things get crazy and busy. So that’s the other way that you can bring in a bit of a cash injection during a quieter business period. 

We hope you were able to take away a few things that you can do to really drum up business and revenue during quieter periods in your company. And if you aren’t following us on Instagram, you can do so @pixiedustandprofits. And if you’re not on our newsletter, we highly encourage you to join because that’s where we share a lot of special tips and bonus content!