Seasonal Marketing
In order to utilise seasonal occasions and make the best possible profit, brands will adjust their online marketing campaigns to the ongoing events.
They do this by targeting important events or national holidays to drive more attention to your product or service. Seasonal marketing is taking note of the yearly calendar and identifying the appropriate opportunities to capitalise upon.
To achieve this, most brands will shift their messages and content so it speaks directly to the new seasonal mindset.
Seasonal Marketing and Search
Web traffic tends to fluctuate in annual cycles, so you will find that the demand for your product, service or content is hugely dependent on season.
For example, many B2B businesses this time of year will experience a drop in traffic. This is due to the Christmas and New Year period pulling attention away from work matters.
How, then, can you adjust your marketing actions to avoid this?
Seasonal Trends
It is a constant battle for traffic, leads, sales and shares. In this on-going fight for consumer attention, many marketers can fail to notice trends.
Seasonal content marketing helps bring your business back into the spotlight and is a fantastic way to recapture your buyers’ attention.
A buyer will be planing ahead for a particular season especially one such as Christmas. They have their purses at the ready. The goal of seasonal content marketing? Making sure your business is the one they think of first when their purses come out.
Seasonal Marketing Is Time Based Or Event-Based
When it comes to seasonal marketing, seasons aren’t limited to Summer, Spring, Autumn and Winter. Any trend related to your business can be considered a seasonal interest.
The two main kinds are:
Time based content (regular seasons of the year.)
Event based content (remembrance day, bank holidays etc.)
There might be some overlap between some of these trends, so you’ll have to determine whether you’re targeting more than one.
Will Seasonal Marketing Work For My Business?
For a B2C business, national holidays provide the perfect excuse to spend some extra dough. For example, many of us might spend money on a new cocktail dress for a festive party or book a romantic trip away for Valentine’s Day.
When it comes to B2B business however, seasonal marketing gets a little trickier. In this instance, creativity and smartness is required for your campaign to look both natural and consistent.
Many companies can benefit from seasonal interest by tapping into the consumer psyche. The very best seasonal marketing ideas will go beyond sales and offers.
The essential ingredient to success? Offering a service, product or content that provides value to your customers.
Seasonal Interest & SEO Strategy
Most SEO strategies focus on long-term gains. However, when it comes to seasonal marketing, the most effective campaigns will take into account how consumers interact with search engines during a particular holiday. There’s no doubt that seasonal interest will impact search, so ensure you plan your keywords accordingly.
For example, ‘Black Friday deals’ are likely to peak around a certain time. SEO marketing teams can count on specific queries like this, to trend around the same time each year.
Seasonal Interest & Social Media
Social media is a powerful way to engage with your audience. This is especially true when it comes to seasonal interest. Seasonal content is often more shareable than regular content, making it perfect for boosting brand awareness.
The season is already in the consumers’ mind so your content will enter naturally into their minds and feed.
Need some ideas to get started?
Update your website and social channels to reflect the holiday – Whether it’s Christmas, Easter or Halloween, you’ll want to give your social channels a seasonal make-over. Swap your cover photo over for one that has seasonal elements. A Santa hat or pumpkin hat will do. Just make sure you stay on brand. You will want your brand message to still come though.
Promote relevant products – If you can, you will want to promote relevant products for each season or holiday. For example, if you are a greeting card business, Christmas will be the best time of the year to invest your marketing budget and efforts.
Seasonal Marketing: Timing is Essential
In today’s overcrowded ad space, it’s about getting your content in front of the right audience – at the right time. Fortunately, seasonal holidays give you a definitive answer regarding time.
Be prepared
Don’t be the last person to join the conga line. Launching a seasonal campaign before your competitors is a great way of ensuring your message gets seen.
Promote, promote, promote.
There’s a lot of build up to a national holiday. You will want to take full advantage of the days leading up to it.
Make sure content is optimised for mobile
With most of the web traffic now coming from mobile devices, you will want to make sure your seasonal content is optimised for mobile.
Make sure you website and landing page has a responsive design. You will want to make sure all visual assets are mobile friendly too.
Watch this great example of seasonal marketing
WestJet took advantage of the Christmas holiday season to promote their flight services.
‘With help of 175 WestJet volunteers, three airports and Santa himself, we made a Christmas miracle happen for more than 250 guests on two Calgary-bound flights.’
blog comments powered by Disqus
