As a retailer, taking advantage of big seasonal marketing events such as Christmas, Easter and even Black Friday will likely be second nature, but are you taking advantage of all the seasonal opportunities as best you can, and maximising sales during key periods?<\/p>\n
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There are so many events, awareness days and seasonal peaks throughout the year that you can leverage to boost your sales, so it\u2019s important that you\u2019re aware of and capitalising on these too.<\/p>\n
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Seasonal marketing isn\u2019t just about Winter and Summer, (although seasons can be an important factor to consider<\/a>) but in fact relates to any trend, key date or event that is relevant to your business. Christmas, Easter, Valentine\u2019s Day and Halloween are some of the best-known examples of seasonal marketing in practice.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Essentially, it\u2019s about planning and adapting your marketing campaigns to tie in with current or upcoming events. Whether that means creating a piece of blog content, launching a social media campaign or announcing a product promotion – seasonal marketing is a great way to capture customers attention and make sure your brand remains at the forefront of people\u2019s minds.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n You\u2019ll likely already be planning ahead for the big events like Christmas, but there are plenty more dates in the calendar that could help boost your profits during quieter periods.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The key, however, is preparation, and a great place to start is to create a campaign planner. There are free awareness calendars, such as this one from Awareness Days<\/a> available online to help you get started.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n 1.<\/strong> \u2018Egg\u2019cellent marketing from Aldi<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n We can learn a lot from some of the big retail brands, and one of the best examples of a brand that really knows how to do seasonal marketing is supermarket giant Aldi. Aldi has a unique business model, and unlike some of its competitors who will stock a huge range of products, they focus on only stocking products they know people want or need at that time.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n They offer new products on a weekly basis with limited stock available and only for short periods of time. These \u2018Specialbuys\u2019 are always planned months ahead and based on the products they know will be in demand during particular periods.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n A standout example is the now-infamous egg-chair<\/a>, which earlier this year sold out in a matter of minutes. Aldi timed the launch of this garden furniture just ahead of a bank holiday when many people were getting their garden\u2019s ready for Summer and planning for BBQs or outdoor gatherings.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n And the results were definitely impressive. Hats off to Aldi!<\/p>\n 2.<\/strong> Starbucks spices things up <\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n It used to be that the start of autumn was signalled by falling leaves and darker evenings, but now it\u2019s marked by the return of the beloved Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte<\/a>. \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Since the launch of their first limited edition drink, Starbucks has become synonymous with seasonal campaigns and to this day the Pumpkin Spice Latte continues to dominate headlines each year and is reported to be the best-selling drink of all time with more than 200 million sold to date.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The concept was fairly simple, but the execution of the campaign is what made it stand out from anything else. Starbucks identified their target audience and built the whole strategy around this.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n They completely understood their audience and targeted them with engaging and creative content that they knew would resonate well with them, through the channels that they knew they used.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Through this, they successfully created an incredible demand for the drink, that sees customers come back year on year.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n 3. Christmas is coming for Coca-Cola <\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Possibly one of the best-known examples of seasonal marketing comes from Coca-Cola, and I\u2019m sure you\u2019ll already know which campaign we\u2019re talking about. Running since 1995, Coca-Cola\u2019s \u2018Holidays are coming\u2019<\/a> campaign has now become part of Christmas culture, and more than 20 years on it\u2019s a campaign the brand evolves each year.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The brand is now known as being an icon of the festive season and although their product doesn\u2019t directly link to Christmas, they\u2019ve managed to utilise this period to increase brand awareness and build the brand identity.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Now, it just doesn\u2019t quite feel like Christmas until the Coca-Cola advert airs on tv.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Not all retailers have the marketing budget or resources that are available to Aldi or Starbucks, but that doesn\u2019t mean that marketing seasonally can\u2019t work for you.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The key is understanding what it means for your business and making sure that you identify the dates that will be important for you \u2013 some will offer fantastic opportunities, while others definitely won\u2019t.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n This could be linked to a specific date or event – if you own a sporting store then the Olympics might offer opportunities. Or it might simply be a period of time when your business is likely to see a spike in traffic, for example, you\u2019ll sell more garden furniture when the weather is nice.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n To delve into this further and identify what these might be for your business, you should look at three key things:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n 1. Your historic data and analytics<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Look at your website\u2019s analytics and sales history over the past few years and compare year to year to identify times when you see specific peaks in traffic, search queries and sales. Google has a great checklist<\/a> to help you get prepared.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n 2. Market trends and keyword research<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n By utilising free tools such as Google Trends<\/a>, or Google Analytics you can easily identify periods when you might see a peak in search queries or keywords relating to specific products or trends.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n 3. Key competitors<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Looking at events or days your competitors are, or even aren\u2019t, taking advantage of can give you a good idea of the potential opportunities. You can even draw inspiration for your own seasonal marketing strategy.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Now comes the fun part. Once you\u2019ve established the dates that are important for your business, you need to plan a stand-out campaign that can help you take advantage of these periods.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Here are some tips to help you make the most of seasonal spikes.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n 1. Start preparing early<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n You need to have a clear strategy mapped out well in advance of any seasonal campaigns to ensure you\u2019ve got everything aligned and in place. A successful campaign isn\u2019t just about marketing, you have to consider the logistics too.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Make sure you have planned your stock, staff and recourses carefully and have a plan B in place in case you do end up selling out of a specific product. As they say, failing to prepare, is preparing to fail.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n 2. Consider the full customer journey <\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n When you\u2019re planning a big campaign it\u2019s easy to get carried away with the promotion and marketing, but if you\u2019re bringing customers to your website or store then it\u2019s vital, you\u2019re giving them the best customer journey possible.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n There\u2019s no point in driving traffic if it doesn\u2019t convert into sales and if a customer has a poor experience during a peak period, it could impact their perception of your brand.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n A 2021 consumer trends report by KPMG<\/a>, indicated that one of the key purchase drivers for consumers was the ease of buying with 40% of people agreeing, while a further 34% stated that customer experience and range were important factors in their purchasing.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n So, ensuring that your website is easy to use, fast, offers competitive delivery and returns options and allows customers to use their preferred payment method are all key elements in the success of seasonal marketing.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n 3. Set clear objectives <\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Make sure you\u2019re clear on what you want to achieve from the campaign – are you hoping to push a specific product? Do you want to reach a new customer base or simply want to increase brand awareness?<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Establishing your objectives will help to shape your strategy and inform the content you create, and the channels you\u2019ll likely utilise. Not only this, but without clear objectives in place, you\u2019ll be unable to review and evaluate the success of specific campaigns \u2013 so ensure you\u2019re readily able to monitor this. Setting up Google Analytics goals<\/a> can help give you a view of the success of your campaign.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n 4.\u00a0 <\/strong>Time your campaigns carefully <\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Timing is one of the most critical elements of seasonal marketing. There\u2019s no point launching a Christmas campaign on Christmas Eve, by then most people will have planned, bought and wrapped all of their Christmas shopping.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s always best to launch the campaign before the actual event to build buzz and get people excited, but not so early that people switch off and forget about you. Take the time to map out your timings and be prepared for things to change along the way. Your competitor analysis and market trends insights can help to shape this.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/h2>\n
Examples of brands that nailed seasonal marketing campaigns<\/h2>\n
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How to understand seasonality for your business<\/h2>\n
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How to make the most of seasonal spikes<\/h2>\n