The Off Season Marketing Calendar: What to Do December Through August

Most farm marketing follows a predictable arc: nothing happens until late August. Then a panicked sprint of ads, emails, and social posts until opening weekend. Then frenetic in season activity. Then total silence the week after the season ends.

The farms that grow consistently year over year don’t follow this pattern. They run a lighter but continuous program through the off season. The work compounds. By the time peak season arrives, they’re starting from a much stronger position than their competitors.

Here’s what to do month by month.

December: the wrap up month

Two priorities right after the season ends.

Send the season recap email. Include the best photos, a thank you note, and a “save the date” tease for next year. Open rates on this email are typically very high because families are still emotionally attached.

Capture every review you can. December families remember the visit clearly. A targeted post visit SMS campaign through the first three weeks of December can produce significant new review volume. These reviews carry your Google rating through the rest of the year.

Don’t push promotions. Don’t announce anything for next year yet. Let the season breathe.

January: the planning month

January is for you, not your customers. Two things to do.

Review the season’s numbers. What worked, what didn’t, what to repeat, what to drop. Build the calendar for next year based on actual data, not memory.

Set the goals. Ticket revenue target. Customer count target. Average order value target. Repeat customer percentage target. These four numbers drive every marketing decision for the next 11 months.

Marketing to customers is light this month. Maybe a single “happy new year, here’s a sneak peek at what we’re planning” email. Maximum.

February: the early reactivation

The first real campaign of the new year. A two part sequence.

Email 1, mid month: A reactivation email to your full guest list. Subject: “We’ve been busy planning.”

Content: what’s coming this year, what’s changing, and a single ask. Hit reply with one thing you’d love to see this season.

Email 2, end of month: Reply to every actual reply individually. Real responses from you or Jenna, not a templated reply.

This sequence does two things: it confirms which families are still engaged, and it builds genuine relationships with the most active ones.

Start the monthly newsletter cadence. Subject: simple. “Spring update from Sunny Acres.”

Content: behind the scenes photos of off season work. Field prep. New construction. Equipment maintenance. The boring stuff that families never see but love hearing about because it builds the sense of a real farm doing real work.

Open rates on these “off season updates” routinely beat in season promotional emails. Families are curious. Give them content worth being curious about.

April: the soft pre season tease

This is where most farms make the mistake of going dark. The right move is the opposite.

Send one email previewing the year ahead. Open dates. New events. New attractions. Anything specific you can share.

Start posting on Instagram twice a week, even if you have nothing new to photograph. Use throwback content from last season, prep work from this season, anything to keep the feed active.

Algorithms reward consistency. Going dark for six months and then trying to ramp back up takes weeks. Maintaining a low key cadence is dramatically more efficient.

May: the platform work month

May is when we do most of the platform engineering work with partner farms.

TicketSpice page updates. Calendar coloring for the new season. Bundle restructuring. New promo code logic. Email template refreshes. Custom landing pages built for the new season.

This work needs to be done before tickets go on sale. May is the sweet spot. There’s no opening weekend pressure yet, but the season is close enough that decisions are fresh.

Marketing to customers is light. One email mid month with platform updates if relevant. Otherwise quiet.

June: the soft launch

First real revenue activity of the new season.

Open early bird tickets to your full email list. Promote it through email, SMS to opted in subscribers, and a single Instagram post.

Don’t run paid ads yet. The goal is to convert your most loyal families into the first ticket buyers. Their purchases give you proof the platform works for the new season.

A good June produces 5 to 15% of total season revenue, all from your existing audience.

July: the warm up month

Start the warm audience paid ads. Facebook Custom Audiences pulled from last year’s guest list. Retargeting from website visitors. Lookalikes based on your highest value past customers.

Increase Instagram post frequency to 3 to 4 times per week. Mix new season previews with throwback content from last year.

Build the influencer partnership list. Reach out to micro influencers about late August and early September content collaborations.

Email cadence: one email per week. Pre season excitement building.

August: the full ramp up

Everything intensifies in August. Daily Instagram activity. Twice weekly emails. SMS announcements for opted in subscribers. Cold ad audience expansion. Influencer partnerships go live.

The five week pre season window starts now. The strategy we’ve covered in other articles takes over from here.

What changes when you actually run the off season this way

Three things, every year.

Opening weekend isn’t a panic moment. It’s the result of nine months of work. The platform is ready. The list is engaged. The brand is visible.

Customer acquisition costs drop. Cold paid acquisition is the most expensive customer. By keeping your warm audience engaged year round, you reduce dependence on cold acquisition for the same revenue.

Returning visitor rates climb. Families who hear from you in March, April, and May are dramatically more likely to come back in October than families who only hear from you in September.

The off season effort is small

This is the most important point. The off season program above probably takes 4 to 8 hours per month of focused work. It’s not a heavy lift.

The mistake most farms make is thinking the off season is “off.” It isn’t. It’s quieter, but the work continues. Stop the work and you give competitors a head start they don’t deserve.

What we do with our partner farms

We run the off season calendar year round so your team can take a break after the season ends. We handle the monthly emails, the social cadence, the platform work in May, and the soft launch in June.

By the time peak season arrives, partner farms are already ahead. That’s the compounding advantage of treating marketing as a year round practice instead of a fall sprint.