Giving each quiet-season audience a reason to visit

Most attractions talk to one audience for most of the year, and that audience is usually families. The message in January tends to be much the same as the one in August, which makes sense, because families are the backbone of the school holidays and a message that works in July is easy to carry forward.

In the quiet months, though, the people most likely to visit are often different. They include locals, members, adults without children, younger visitors and people who already know the place well, and each group has its own reason for coming. Below, we look at how to find them in your own data and how to give each one something that fits.

Who visits when, and why it changes by season 

Visitors are becoming more strategic about timing. With more choice and less spare money, many are waiting for the right moment instead of going on impulse, and for a growing number that moment falls outside the school holidays. Among people planning autumn breaks, 44% say they are doing so for quality time, which has more to do with enjoying a place without the crowds than with peak season. Young adults are also leading participation in seasonal events, so a good programme can bring in people who weren't part of the summer picture.

The reasons for visiting shift across the year. In summer the driver is often practical, with children at home and a need for something to do. In the colder months it tends to be about the experience itself, whether that is an evening out, a seasonal event, a quiet walk somewhere familiar or a treat for a friend. A single message struggles to cover both, so it may end up fitting neither very well.

Most attractions already hold enough information to see who visits in the quiet months. The first step is to compare it with the summer, and a few questions are worth putting to your booking and ticketing data:

Who is booking outside the school holidays? Look at ticket types, party sizes and the age of the person booking, and see how they differ from July and August.

How far are they travelling? Postcodes show how many are local, and the answer is often higher than expected.

How often do they come? Members and repeat visitors appear as the same names returning, and their patterns say a lot about what they value.

When do they decide? The gap between booking and visiting, and the days of the week involved, show when a message is most useful.

What did they respond to? Results from previous quiet seasons show which offers and events drew people in, and which audiences they drew.

Advertising data adds another layer. It shows who clicked and who booked, and how conversion differs between age groups and genders. A group that looked uniform often turns out to contain several different patterns of behaviour, which helps when deciding where to put effort.

Seen this way, the quiet months stop being a smaller version of summer and start to look like a different set of people with their own habits, which is what makes it possible to speak to them directly. 

Once the groups are visible, the question becomes what each would find worth a visit. The answer is rarely a discount, and a few examples show how different the reasons can be:

Locals can come on impulse, and they respond to what is new, such as a seasonal trail, a refreshed exhibit or a quiet weekday.

Adults without children often want something that feels grown up, like an evening event, good food and drink, or a favourite place at a calmer pace.

Younger visitors tend to be drawn by events with atmosphere and something worth sharing. The evidence that young adults lead seasonal event participation suggests this is an audience to plan for.

Couples and friends may want a reason to make a day of it, so a meal, a workshop or a guided experience can give them a plan to book.

Families in term time still visit at weekends and on days off school, and they respond well to clear, practical information about what is on and how long to allow.

What these have in common is that each group is helped by a message about its own reasons for visiting. The same site can feel quite different to an adult looking for an evening out and to a parent planning a Saturday, and the description can reflect that.

For many attractions, members and repeat visitors are the most reliable audience through the quiet months. They know the site and have already decided it is worth their time, and they are often the first to notice when something changes. That makes them a good foundation for a winter plan, because the aim is to give them a reason to come back sooner or bring someone with them.

Some of the most effective ideas are modest. A members' preview of a new seasonal feature, an invitation to bring a guest at a quieter time, or a note about what has changed since their last visit all give a reason to return without a major campaign. It is also worth thinking about people who visited once last year and haven't been back. They know the attraction but have no particular reason to return, so a message about what is new could be enough.

Email is the easiest way to put different messages in front of different audiences, since the data is already there and the cost is low. Even a simple split into members, recent visitors, lapsed visitors and local subscribers lets each group hear what is most relevant to them. Asking about interests when people join or book adds another layer, because it records what they care about as well as who they are.

Paid advertising works in a similar way. Radius targeting around the site suits locals, and audiences built from past visitors and members can help find similar people. Different age groups can also be shown different events. In the quiet months it often helps to narrow rather than widen, putting a modest budget behind messages for specific groups instead of a broad appeal to everyone. It is worth checking that summer audiences haven't been left running, since a campaign aimed at families on school holidays will reach few of the people described above.

The quiet months are a good time to try things, because the stakes are lower and there is time to see what works before the next busy period. A few focused tests are usually more useful than a large programme. A sensible approach is to choose one audience and one change at a time, such as a new message, a different offer or a particular event, and to decide in advance how success will be judged.

Comparing results by audience, rather than in total, shows which messages reached which groups. A simple record of what was tried and what happened means the learning carries into the next season. Over a few months this builds a clearer picture of who your off-peak visitors are and what they respond to, which is useful when planning events, setting budgets and deciding where to focus next summer.

If you'd like to talk through how your own campaign calendar could flex around the forecast, let's have a discussion.

Email us at hello@navigate.agency or book a meeting