Tis the season for seasonal marketing campaigns!
We’re all used to seeing storefronts plastered with Halloween-themed ghouls and goblins, travel companies urging you to “Book now!” before tickets skyrocket before Thanksgiving, and online advertisers teasing upcoming holiday sales.
Seasonal marketing, however, is more than just putting up store decorations and creating special discounts; it’s all about perfect timing, unique content, and how your campaign is executed that earns engagement and ultimately, sales.
Sure, you may have created a special promotion, launched a few social media ads, and optimized some landing pages with holiday colors in the past. This may work for some companies, but to really stand out in a crowded field of digital advertisers, you need to think outside the gift box.
In this guide, I’ll briefly outline:
Photo credit: Kensa Creative
Seasonal marketing is a form of marketing that focuses on creating campaigns based on annual events. Seasonal marketing involves three types of annual events:
You don’t need a product that is gift wrapped or an exclusive holiday promotion in order to take advantage of financial boost around popular holidays. Instead, a successful seasonal marketing campaign hinges on offering your customers or users valuable content.
According to 2016 research from 451 Marketing, 75% percent of shoppers aged 18-24 (millennials) will spend under $500 on holiday gifts. Photo Credit: 451 Marketing
For instance, if you’re consumer-facing food delivery service, you can offer more than an exclusive discount on their next offer. This is the perfect opportunity to create an infographic on how to cook a Thanksgiving turkey correctly, create a short, behind-the-scenes video about Valentine’s Day chocolates are made or share recipes for refreshing summertime cocktails on your blog.
Even B2B companies can get in on the fun! Let’s say your company sells office furniture to companies of all sizes. You can create a blog post on how to successfully throw an office party on a limited budget, design a fun infographic on how to creative ways to decorate your office during the holidays, or create a hashtag encouraging your customers to share photos of their office’s holiday party.
This, however, does not mean you should create a seasonal campaign for every holiday, but you should be strategic about choosing a seasonal opportunity. It helps to know you know your audience’s attitudes towards official and non-official holidays, and that’s precisely why conducting keyword research is essential.
Starting with the copy and creative for your seasonal campaign is working backward and will force your ad to fit into a less-than-optimal set of keywords. By identifying a set of keywords to target opens up a ton of options for catering your seasonal content to your audience.
Before you begin planning your seasonal marketing campaign, here’s what you need to keep in mind.
Timing is everything when it comes to putting together a seasonal marketing plan. This means planning your seasonal marketing strategy well in advance–if you’re beginning to plan your Christmas-themed campaign in November, you’re going to be in serious trouble.
Begin to plan your seasonal marketing plan at least 3-4 months in advance (this takes into account the build-up prior to the event or holiday). This also gives you enough time to create a comprehensive marketing strategy, create high-quality content, and finalize an execution schedule for your campaign.
Unique seasonal content is at the forefront of your seasonal marketing campaign.
If this is your first time planning and executing a seasonal marketing campaign, here are a few content ideas to help you get started:
For experienced marketers or companies with a large budget dedicated towards seasonal advertising, here are a few additional ideas for content and paid ads to make your seasonal marketing campaign really stand out.
When you’re ready to execute your seasonal marketing campaign, aim to get a head start before your competitors–look at what they did in the past to give you insight on when they’ll most likely post this year.
And don’t forget about your audience! Your campaign schedule should include the best times to communicate with your users and the types of content they’ll most likely engage with.
Finally, keep in mind that customers want to have more choices when shopping on and offline. One unique characteristic of successful retailers is that they’ve applied the “omnichannel marketing” approach to their seasonal marketing strategies. Omnichannel marketing is a new consumer-based strategy known to improve the customer experience and overall business performance. Click here to learn how the omnichannel approach benefits retailers.
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