How To Get Started With Seasonal Marketing
Seasonal marketing strategies can be incredibly beneficial for your brand and business. If you want to know why, should read this entry first: “Why Invest in Seasonal Marketing” where I go in-depth on a few reasons why it’s a good idea. In fact, you should probably read that one before this one. But today, we are going to go step by step into Getting Started with Seasonal Marketing.
Preparation is crucial in any plan. Starting too early can wreck your campaign, and starting too late can affect its effectiveness. But, even though the timing can be tricky, seasonal marketing pushes are excellent opportunities to form genuine connections with your audience throughout the year.
So let’s dig in. Where do we start??
First, we are going to look at the whole year, and then we will focus on each season. Okay?
Yearly Outlook
1. Pick your seasons
We will be looking at the seasonal opportunities we have in a year and picking those that best align with your products and core beliefs.
Depending on where you are located, you might want to explore some local holidays. For example, if you are a bar in New Orleans, you might want to do something for Mardi Grass, but if you are a clothing boutique in France, well that would make no sense.
Ask yourself what seasons resonate the most with your audience and assign a priority & budget to each.
For example, my audience is creatives, and mom entrepreneurs looking to make their passions into a viable way of living. My audience goes through a lot trying to get their businesses afloat while doing all the things “moms” are required to do. Sometimes they feel invisible, so a Mother’s campaign for me might be the right call.
You have to know your audience and understand their pains and struggles so you can better show up for them when they need to, and celebrate those occasions that best aligned with your core beliefs.
If you are a huge brand, you might be able to tackle all the occasions, and holidays, but let’s be real. We most likely don’t have the means to do so. So this is where priority comes in handy. Divide your marketing budget, by prioritizing your ROI. (Return of Investment) and assign priorities of seasons that are the most and least important.
2. Create a calendar
Once you have selected the seasons you want to focus on, work your way backward. Set aside time for ideation, planning, design, and promotion.
For example, if Mother's Day launch is May 14th, you should launch your campaign 3-4 weeks earlier, which means you should plan on having all materials ready, by then. Plan accordingly and in advance. Rush jobs tend to be stressful and a mess.
I’ll go more in-depth once we focus on the Per season Planning. (so keep reading)
3. Gather inspiration
Ideation and brainstorming can be quicker if you have a constant bank of images you have collected throughout the year. Don’t wait until you are already close to the season to start looking for inspiration.
Create a board on Pinterest for all your seasons, references from successful past campaigns, case studies, and anything that can spark an idea. Keep it fresh and make it a part of your weekly habits.
I also like creating mood boards for winter, spring, summer, and fall. It helps me stay on a more global feel for the quarter.
BONUS TIP: Keep yourself organized from the beginning, otherwise, you will get to a point where you have SO much stuff, you have to take the time to organize it and it takes forever. (From personal experience)
4. Establish an offering
Decide on what product or service you want to feature/promote each season. You can also innovate and create seasonal products, just schedule extra time for product development.
My clients at Dolce Mela create a special menu for Easter, Mother’s Day, Halloween, and Christmas. The key to doing this is making sure there is a need for this product and not doing it just for fun sake. They are a bakery rooted in family, so it makes sense that they use holidays where kids and family have a priority.
Okay, if you made it this far. Kudos to you.
Let’s look at what to do when you are about to start each season.
Per Season Planning
1. Set goals
What are you trying to achieve this coming season? Is it more followers? More conversions? More sales? Brand Awareness? Clearly answer this question and set metrics for yourself. For example, I want to sell 100 tickets or gain 200 new subscribers, etc.
This will help you, later on, to realize how successful a campaign wise, so don’t skip it!
2. Brainstorming/ Ideation phase
Based on the references pulled, the products and services you will offer, and your goal, set time aside to think about what message you are trying to communicate and what is the best way to do it. Take into consideration time and money restrictions.
There aren't bad ideas at this phase. Go wild.
BONUS TIP: I like using Post-it notes and a big whiteboard.
3. Pick a concept
Pick your best idea and run with it. If you have no ideas, hire someone to do the thinking for you. (Someone like me maybe? wink wink) Once you have picked a winner, think of what is the best medium to communicate this idea. Photography? Video? Art? Collage? Music? Installation?
Think about what resources you have at hand to be able to pull this off.
Also, at this stage, if you want to outsource design, photography, or anything like that, I would recommend you get quotes and hire people.
4. Nail down messaging
Once you have an idea and a medium. It's time to nail down the messaging. Do you need a tagline? A voiceover? a Call to action? Take into consideration that whatever you decided to go with must be on brand.
For example, if you have a playful cheeky brand, something like: "May your holiday season be filled with joy" will feel wrong. Maybe something more aligned could be: "Don't get your tinsel in a tangle and eat the freaking candy!"
Here is where copywriters come in handy. 🙂
5. Create imagery + graphics + content
Custom is always better. Finding stock imagery that perfectly aligns with your concept is hard, and you also run the risk of other brands using it. So try and stay away from it.
If you suck at taking pictures, creating layouts, and videos, hire someone to do it for you. If not, get to work and get shooting. Take your time and plan ahead. Also, set deadlines, otherwise, it might never happen.
6. Establish a schedule
Once you have all your assets. Plan when and where to release them. Take into consideration your customer's buying habits and the format you are using to communicate with them. Adapt your marketing based on where they are.
For example, if you are making a promo video, and you are posting it mainly on social media, make it vertical! If it is an ad, that will be viewed on a phone, adjust letter sizing, etc.
Take into consideration where your audience hangs out and what kind of content they are looking for when they are on that platform. Reels for example are perfect for brand awareness and entertainment, but stories are stronger for building a community and converting sales.
7. Pre-launch
You need three things for launching the right way: Hype, Connection, and Solution. Make your audience care about what you are launching by making it about them. How is what you are offering going to help them? Also, get them excited about it!! Make them curious… and release your campaign between 3-4 weeks before the actual holiday. Depending on how big, you might want to start early.
For example, Mother's Day campaigns only need 3-4 weeks, while for Christmas you can probably start promoting 6-8 weeks earlier. These will depend on the product or service you have and your audience's buying habits.
8. Promote, promote, promote
Most of the work is done by now, so just monitor your efforts and adjust the budget depending on how well or how badly they are performing. Stay on top of customer experience and make sure to deliver on your brand's promises. Repost, like, and answer comments on the social media front. Fix any issue that might come up with logistics. For example, if you promise to make a delivery of flowers by Mother's Day, you better do it. Otherwise, you will have a super unhappy customer.
9. After-sale?
If you have leftover stock, that can't be sold at a later time, think about doing and after the fact sale to get rid of all themed products. If not, you are freaking lucky. Write a thank you post with giant SOLD OUT letters. It will feel AWESOME. I promise.
10. Track Results
Keep track of metrics, conversions, sales, and every number that can back up the questions: How well that went? —This will only give you an idea of your ROI but will set a benchmark for future marketing campaigns.
For all of you visual people, I made a cute infographic.
IF YOU FOUND SOMETHING INSPIRING, INTRIGUING, OR ENCOURAGING IN THIS JOURNAL ENTRY—I WOULD LOVE TO KNOW!
Send me a message in the DMs or contact me to inquire about working together. I can’t wait to keep the conversation going.
