Seasonal marketing: tricks for business success

At Clever Ads we always talk about digital marketing as something you should take into account while planning marketing strategies and ad campaigns for your business.

Especially throughout Q4 of every year, key dates follow each other and represent opportunities that we have to take advantage of to spread the word about what we do and who we are (make rebranding) – and of course, to increase your sales!

What is seasonal marketing?

Brands know very well that customers respond better to their marketing stimuli if they have been planned with care and logic. The “easiest” way to do this is through a model called “seasonal marketing,” which is nothing more than adjusting the budget, messages and strategies to the important seasons and dates or holidays that are presented during the year and capitalizing them.

While this may seem like a very obvious and relatively simple plan to implement, if not thought through strategically, it could turn out to be a waste of a budget that will not generate any profit. So what is the key to making the most of these special days? Develop a smart combination of content, timing and channels that generate greater engagement with the target audience.

 

 

Why is seasonal marketing important?

It’s as simple as that, if you use well the so-called Seasonal Marketing, you will increase (maybe a lot) your sales. Simple and easy!

It’s logical if you think about it, seasonality or sales season is a term that refers to the seasons of the year where there are more possibilities of increasing sales due to people’s behavior on or around specific holidays: Christmas, Black Friday, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Valentine’s Day… Who doesn’t buy gifts at those times of the year? 

Knowing this, it is very relevant that brands assume and respect the characteristics of each season in order to achieve their purposes and increase sales as much as possible. It is necessary to do it with a clear head!

The different market variations (supply and demand) have a reason, they are not simply coincidental. This is largely a result of what we are talking about, the seasonality or sales season.

Seasonality: dates where brands must adapt their strategies to respond to demand and consumer behavior according to each season or special date.

The importance of this in marketing means that each season of the year has specific products and/or services that also correspond to the needs and desires marked by the seasonality itself; it is essential to adapt to the “times” – or in this case, holiday. Use your imagination and adapt your strategies and campaigns!

Companies have to take these changes in their strategies and campaigns into account for products and/or services, as well as in their promotional techniques in order to reach their target audience without getting lost among the competition on these special dates. The relevance of seasonal marketing is the result of the need to become part of and stand out within a movement that leaves high profits.

 

 

Dates to take into account in seasonal marketing

Do you know the concept of a marketing calendar or retail calendar? Among other things, marketing departments include all these essential dates with their day and countries, campaigns, etc.

Don’t forget any key date!

• January: beginning of the year + Three Magic King’s Day (Spain).
• February: Valentine’s Day.
• March: Spring begins.
• April: April Fool’s Day.
• May: Mother’s Day.
• June: Father’s Day + Summer is coming.
• July: Summer Season.
• August: Summer Season + Back to School.
• September: Fall Season + Back to School (Europe).
• October: Oktoberfest + Halloween.
• November: Thanksgiving + Single’s Day + Black Friday + Cyber Monday.
• December: Christmas and New Year’s.

 

 

Essentials when doing seasonal marketing campaigns

How do we carry out everything that we just mentioned? There are a series of essential and very important actions that we have to carry out before we start promoting things in terms of seasonality of marketing. Read the following sections and don’t miss out on the details because they will help you organize your campaigns for this quarter of the year:

Set budgets and goals

As in any business strategy, first you must have clear your goals and the budget you have. What do we want? We may want to increase the sale of all our products, get rid of products that are still in stock, or promote a particular product that we believe in because it fits the theme of a particular holiday, among other examples.

On the other hand, as always, keep your budget in mind to organize and optimize it well, don’t spend everything on the first holiday of the year (Valentine’s Day, for example), and then have nothing left to invest in end of year campaigns such as Black Friday or Cyber Monday, which, needless to say, are among the most important… Be careful!

Calendar of actions and campaigns 

As we have mentioned before, getting organized and having a calendar is essential. Although opportunities, events and campaigns will probably come up later on and you will have to deal with them as you go along, if you have the year planned in months or quarters, everything will be easier and you will not forget any important seasonality date or campaign. Organization is key!

Planning actions and campaigns

Once you have completed these two steps, you will be able to give way to creativity and imagination to think about and structure all the campaign ideas (offline and online) you can come up with. Carry out the plan and start rolling!

 

 

Doing good keyword research

Keyword research is a priority in any online ad campaign you do, whether seasonality or not.

You have to know how your target audience is looking for your products and services in order to use those keywords and optimize your campaigns to the maximum to obtain the best possible results.

You don’t know how to do it or you don’t have the time? You can always use tools to help you do your keyword research like this tool, which is for us the best Chrome Extension for Keyword Research.

Promotions and discounts

Be aware of the times of the year when users spend more on gifts, products, travel… and look for lower prices and offers. It doesn’t have to be huge discounts or all year round, maybe focusing on the day in question and offering things like a small discount, gift packaging or free shipping is enough. Think about your product/service and adapt your promotions to your capabilities

Other actions: contests and raffles

Another option is having contests and/or raffles with fun prizes related to the specific holiday. For example, if you are an online supermarket, how about doing a raffle on social networks where the prize is a Thanksgiving turkey for the winner?

The more original your idea is, the more viral it will become and the more people will know about your brand, which usually translates into more sales.

 

 

Wrapping up!

We have learned what it is and the importance of seasonal marketing as well as the essential steps to carry out our campaigns. It’s October and soon the quarter of the year will be the strongest in that sense with dates like Black Friday and Cyber Monday, followed by Single’s Day (increasingly known outside of Asia), Thanksgiving, and Christmas. If you didn’t have anything planned this year… It’s not too late! Organize a few campaigns for more powerful dates for your business and start organizing for next year now!