Marketing as a seasonal practice – with Astrid Bracke

Astrid Bracke is a mentor supporting small business owners, freelancers and creatives to run a slower, gentler and more profitable business. Her gentle marketing programme Grow helps you to market in a gentle, easeful and effective way—in a way that is all you. Find out more about Astrid and the course on her website and sign up for her own small business newsletter.

Soon after I started my business, I realised that I couldn’t keep up with my own marketing plan. And that was odd, because I am normally so diligent. I’ll stick with anything (even to my detriment).

The problem, of course, was that I’d absorbed all the marketing advice out there that told me to market all the time, on all the channels — consistently. And that meant: at the same volume, at the same pace, no matter what. Seven years on, I approach my marketing very differently: as something that scales and moves with my life, and whatever season I might be in.

Seasons in business and life

Perhaps your seasons correspond to the external, natural seasons. You might feel slower, heavier, less energised during winter; and more outward-focused and eager to experiment in spring. Or your seasons might be tied in with your menstrual cycle if you have one, or to other cycles and seasons, like the school year if you have kids. Your seasons might be predictable, or catch you by surprise.

Accepting that we have seasons is key not only to being a human, but also to running a sustainable business. None of us can always be going at the same speed (trust me, I’ve tried). Personally, I’ve found having a plan to fall back on to be really supportive. It helps me be more compassionate with myself when I need to, and to gain trust that even in seasons when I need to scale back, my business will be fine.

Your core marketing is what you can do in a regular, average week or month; not what your most optimised, energised, rested self can do. 

A flexible framework for marketing

In this framework for marketing, I’ve defined three stages: core marketing, scaling up, and scaling down. Your core marketing is what you can do in a regular, average week or month; not what your most optimised, energised, rested self can do. This might be less than you’d like to do—and that takes some getting used to. For me, my core monthly marketing consists of my newsletter (2x/month free; a monthly check-in with paid subscribers; quarterly office hours and workshop), my blog (2 recycled newsletters as posts a month) and Pinterest (6-8 pins a month).

Scaling up is when you have enough time and energy to do more marketing. It is generally a defined, limited period of time, for instance around a launch. For me, scaling up has meant creating a mini podcast series around sustainable marketing; or, currently, experimenting with a gentle YouTube channel. It’s when we try those new things that might have been on our list, when we get to experiment and play.

And then there’s scaling down, when even our core marketing is not feasible for us. This is when you decrease your marketing: perhaps send fewer newsletters, recycle old ones, or stop using one or several channels altogether.

In the end, all this framework is about is supporting us to work within our capacity — and to be gentle and compassionate with our needs.

What this looks like in real life

I’ve spent the past couple of years primarily working within my core marketing, with tiny bursts of scaling up. I’ve not had to scale down because I’ve outsourced a part of my marketing (uploading the newsletters onto my blog and creating pins for them). If I hadn’t, I probably would’ve dropped this part of my marketing—maybe even gone down in newsletter frequency. And in absolutely extreme circumstances, as I had to 5 years ago, perhaps stop marketing altogether.

None of us wants to be in a position where we really radically have to scale down. But having a plan, especially for this phase, helps a lot. It gives us permission and especially breathing space when we’re already stretched thin. Having a plan of sorts means we don’t need to make decisions, or weigh up options.

You’ll notice that what fits in which category might change. For instance, right now creating a YouTube-video every two weeks is part of scaling up for me. But, as I get more practised at it, perhaps even if my energy doesn’t drop down quite as far as it did, YouTube might become part of my core marketing as well.

In the end, all this framework is about is supporting us to work within our capacity—and to be gentle and compassionate with our needs. It is also knowing that different seasons will come. And it is realising that really only by working with our seasons, can we build a marketing strategy that is truly sustainable and keeps us from working ourselves into the ground.

Reflecting on your marketing

Take a moment to review your marketing and make it more sustainable with these questions.

• Looking at your own marketing, how sustainable is it currently? Does it match the season you are currently in?

• Realistically, what would fit in with your core marketing? You may need to experiment here and make some tweaks.

• What would it mean to scale down your marketing? Which parts could you decrease in frequency? What could you potentially outsource? What would you have to let go?

• What would scaling up your marketing look like? Which channels or platforms would you like to experiment with? What would you like to create or put more time into if you have the capacity?

If creating a marketing strategy that feels more intentional, sustainable and effective is something you're curious about, I'd love for you to check out Grow.

Grow is my gentle, lifetime-access programme where I help you discover your own frameworks, rules and strategies for marketing in a way that works with you. It opens again on 6 July 2026 for the waitlist only: join the waitlist to be part of the launch.