Embrace the power of seasonal marketing to foster enduring, trusted connections with your customers, enhancing your business’s value throughout the year. Trevin provides in-depth insights on leveraging marketing seasonality to your benefit. Watch the video to uncover more.
Transcript: Season’s greetings!
Marketing seasonality is pertinent to every business, regardless of whether it operates in the B2B or B2C sector.
Whether you offer indoor or outdoor goods and services, there’s an opportunity to capitalize on every season and holiday to drive sales. For those seeking seasonal marketing strategies, the tips section in the video description is a great place to jump ahead.
I’ll delve into what marketing seasonality entails and how to pinpoint your peak sales period.
Many businesses experience fluctuating performance throughout the year.
Sales often soar during peak seasons, such as summer, only to plummet as temperatures drop.
These ups and downs are what we call marketing seasonality.
Seasonal marketing involves tailoring your promotional activities and budget to accommodate seasonal shifts, holidays, and other significant events.
Consider a home decor store, for instance.
Their inventory is updated based on holidays, seasons, and major milestones, such as the back-to-school season.
Their seasonal advertising campaigns are aligned with their inventory.
So, when autumn arrives, you’ll notice content featuring pumpkins, soft blankets, and a multitude of warm hues.
As winter sets in, you’ll see images of snow, sleds, and more snow.
Imagine a store that only sells summer decor.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with that.
However, since their inventory doesn’t evolve with the seasons, they must adjust their marketing strategies during the off-season to secure adequate resources for the upcoming peak summer season.
Seasonal marketing can help you sustainably build relationships with your audience, ensuring that when peak demand arrives, you’re positioned ahead of the competition.
As emphasized, virtually all businesses exhibit some form of seasonality, whether it’s due to weather changes or industry-specific conditions.
Identifying your peak and off-seasons is as simple as analyzing your business performance on a year-over-year basis.
Observe patterns in your revenue to identify any consistent spikes or dips.
You may notice that sales surge in the first quarter or that November sees a slowdown.
Analyze your website traffic and conversion rates for similar fluctuations.
Utilizing tools like Google Analytics can help you quickly compare time periods to measure site visitors, email submissions, form submissions, or any other goals.
Pairing your data with insights from Google Trends can provide a more profound understanding of search behavior.
For instance, analyzing the search trends for patio furniture in Pennsylvania reveals a clear pattern each year.
Understanding the seasonal trends can help you tailor your marketing strategies accordingly.
After identifying trends, it’s time to develop a seasonal marketing plan. We have tips to guide you through this process.
1. Leverage downtime for significant projects
The ideal time to initiate major projects is when your schedule is less crowded. Use your marketing seasonality to your advantage by reserving large projects for quieter periods. Refresh your website with a redesign.
Conduct a comprehensive search engine optimization (SEO) audit of your site.
Redirect or eliminate outdated pages. Record the videos you’ve been planning to shoot.
Ensure your website is ready to handle increased traffic when the next peak season arrives, to avoid any crashes during critical times.
2. Maintain engagement during the off-season
Avoid fading into obscurity once your busy season ends.
Keep nurturing relationships with your audience through ongoing marketing efforts so they’re ready to return when the time is right. You don’t want your customers to forget about you during the months or quarters when interest in your products or services wanes.
Continue to post on social media. Send email newsletters to loyal customers, and consider suggesting purchases at discounted rates when appropriate. Develop website content that will be there for your audience when they need it.
SEO requires time to generate traffic, so preparing your site in advance will allow you to capitalize on increased interest when it returns.
3. Seasonally adjust your ad spending
While it’s beneficial to intensify marketing efforts during the off-season, your seasonal advertising campaigns should not have a constant budget.
Decide how to allocate your ad budget according to your business needs. If you wish to save costs during slower periods, invest in non-paid strategies like SEO, content marketing, or social media marketing.
All three strategies are excellent for fostering valuable long-term relationships with your audience.
While you can launch ad campaigns at any time, be mindful that you may want to allocate a portion of your budget specifically for peak season marketing.
If you’re advertising with Google, you can use AI to help optimize your campaigns for seasonal marketing.
Your ad copy should also align with your business’s calendar. More details on this will be covered next.
4. Craft content relevant to special events and time periods
Consider the auto industry. In regions with harsh winters, people often purchase snow tires before major storms.
Analyzing Google Trends data for snow tires in the United States shows that interest typically peaks in November or December.
If snow tires are a significant seller for you during this time, your seasonal marketing should focus on them. Begin promoting them in September, encouraging people to prepare ahead of the storm, and continue the campaign before the cold weather arrives.
Even if your inventory remains consistent or your services don’t change, create content around various holidays and time periods.
If you sell outdoor furniture, promote it as a Christmas gift for loved ones.
If you manage a daycare and see reduced enrollment during the summer, write a blog post about popular vacation destinations or offer tips for traveling with children and share them with parents.
As long as the content you create is helpful and relevant to your business, your audience will appreciate it.
We appreciate your time watching this video to the end.
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