What Is a Seasonal Campaign?
There are certain times of the year where we see an increase in brand awareness, web traffic and sales. Think about Christmas ad campaigns, or Black Friday sales and how marketing efforts are amplified during these periods.
Put simply, season marketing is the act of advertising products and/or services at set points throughout the year.
Why Are Season Campaigns Important?
Seasonal marketing campaigns allow you to reach a whole new branch of customers, meaning an increase in sales, web traffic and brand awareness. They also help to retain existing customers, particularly if you become known for your promotions. In addition, they give customers a reason to spend money where spending activity is usually limited. For instance, January sales help encourage sales post Christmas.
Ultimately, in order to retain and grow loyal customers, increase brand awareness and boost sales, you need to be taking advantage of season marketing campaigns. But what’s the best way to run a successful seasonal marketing campaign? Take a look at our list of things you should consider below!
How to Run a Successful Marketing Campaign
1. Plan Ahead
In order to make the most of a seasonal campaign, it’s vital you plan ahead to ensure you make the most of the season. An easy way to do this is to create a content calendar and mark the most important dates throughout the year, such as Black Friday, Halloween, and Christmas. You will likely want to consider summer deals and promotions too, as well as national holidays and awareness days. You can easily find awareness day calendars to help you plan your yearly marketing campaigns and activities.
Awareness days are where you need to really tap into your target audience and their needs. Is your audience UK based, US based or both? Will you be creating promotions for UK bank holidays? Or perhaps a deal for Thanksgiving or Labor day? If you want to expand your brand overseas, it’s important to consider these if you haven’t yet, as it will help you break into a whole new market.
2. Start Early
When running seasonal marketing campaigns, the last thing you want is to try and organise everything at the last minute. It’s best practice to allow yourself a few months so you can ensure all aspects of your campaign are ready to be deployed.
Think about what content you want to promote your campaign – ask your self the following:
- Will you want to run it in your newsletter or blog?
- Will you want to share it in the mediasphere through news blasts and advertorials?
- How will you push and tease the campaign through social media – and which channels should you prioritise?What updates will you make to your website?
- Will you use banner ads and exciting visuals? You may even want to have a separate landing page.
You may have a brilliant seasonal campaign idea, but without considering how you will promote it, it won’t have as much of an impact.
3. Know Your Objectives
You will already know who your target audience is, but before you embark on your campaign, think about the objectives and goals you want to achieve. Are you trying to raise brand awareness through a seasonal advert, or are you running a promotion to encourage new and existing shoppers? Whichever you choose, you should establish objectives and KPIs, and have a clear vision of how your campaign will run, including where, when and how long.
4. Think About Your Message
Conveying a strong or important message through your season marketing campaign can have great results, both for brand awareness and sometimes in raising awareness for important issues. A great example of this is Benetton who, for International Women’s Day, created the #UnitedByHalf hashtag and ad campaign to highlight women’s wage disparages in India. Benetton then went on to promote initiatives that aided factory workers in India.
5. Consider Your Copy
With Benetton, the incorporation of the hashtag allowed the campaign to trend within social media circles, widening its reach. To really accelerate your season marketing campaign, there’s nothing better than a catchy hook, slogan or phrase that you can share across your website, images and through social media hashtags. Think about how you can creatively use text to create a shareable hashtag, or an interesting piece of copy. You will want to carefully choose your messaging, tone of voice and copy to ensure it meets the desired audience and objectives, while still being engaging.
Read more about eCommerce marketing strategies that increase sales.
A Few Other Things to Think About:
Think about How You Can Use PR
PR is a great tool in amplifying any marketing activity. Before you embark on your seasonal campaign, consider how it can be promoted through PR work, and what angle you can use to get it published within the press. You might also want to consider alternative PR methods, such as events, exhibitions and awards.
Improve Your SEO
To make the most out of the seasonal campaign, it’s important that your website is ranking highly on search engines in order to draw more traffic to your website. To do this, make sure your website is SEO optimised so your campaign can reach its maximum potential.
Make the Most Out of Visuals
Visuals are always important with any marketing activity, so ensure they are at the forefront of your seasonal campaign. Think about what reflects your brand values and identity and what resonates with your target audience to ensure you make the most out of your campaign.
Think outside the Box
There’s nothing in the rulebook that says you have to stick to seasonal sales or particular holidays. Think about your customers’ spending habits – are there any particular consistent luls that you could boost through a marketing campaign?
Want to ensure success on your next campaign? Get in contact with Digital Glue to find out the best strategy to take your business to the next level.
