It is fall. Where I live, that means that leaves will be coming off the trees and landing in my yard soon, thus I will need to rake them up. So I went into a big box store the other day to pick up a rake. However, the lawn and garden center had been changed over into a Christmas wonderland. No more lawn tools, the garden center is now decked out in lights, garland, laughing Santas and Christmas trees. It is not that I am anti-Christmas – I think it is the hap-happiest time of the year. I just think the timing of the transition from fall lawn needs to Christmas is a bit premature.

Timing in marketing is critical. There is a right time to market your products and services, especially when you are selling on a seasonal cycle. But even if you are not selling cyclically, there are moments when your target market will pay attention to you and times when they will not. In other words, there is a right time when they are more inclined to listen to your marketing message and, conversely, a wrong time to try to sell them. How do you know the difference?

First, determine the length of your sales cycle. How long does it take someone to typically gather all the information they need about your brand before they actually buy it from you? What pieces of information do they need to convince them to buy? Back your marketing timeline up to coincide with the sales cycle. If you are selling a big ticket item - a house for instance - your sales cycle will normally be longer than if you were selling something that was not nearly so costly, such as a rake. Small ticket items typically have a short sales cycle – like within a few minutes after you enter the store, so your marketing has to be point-of-sale ready. Big ticket items have a longer sales cycle and your marketing has to take into account all of the steps and questions that will be asked along the way. Normally people will look at several houses and compare things like school districts, the neighborhood, amenities in the community, etc. before they purchase a house. I say typically because there is something happening in the housing market that is drastically shortening the sales cycle. There is more demand for houses than there are houses on the market. This has caused the normal cycle of selling a house to be tossed aside. Many houses are selling the same day they are listed.

This is the second bit of information you must have to be able to determine the right time to market your brand. What is the demand for what you produce? If demand is high, you have to push it while the market it hot. If not, when will demand pick up again? Many times people don’t get motivated to buy until they feel the pain of not doing so. How many plumbers do you think get a call that asks them to replace water heater before it stops working (or starts leaking?) Find out when your target market feels the pain and you will understand the right time to promote your brand as a solution to their pain.

The third bit of information has to do with your competition. What are they doing to sell your customers? The choice your customer has should impact how and when you market to them. You want to win the selling season when it comes to your competition. In other words, you want to make the most compelling argument for why they should buy from you and not your competitors. That means you have to understand when they are pushing their marketing and what they are saying. I tell customers all the time, don’t copy the marketing of your competitors, but make sure you understand what they are doing and be prepared to counter it.

There is a right time and place to market to your customers based on your sales cycle, the demand for your products and services, and what your competitors are doing to sell the same customers. When you are putting together your marketing campaigns, take all these factors into consideration. Find the right time to push your marketing.