Like dogs, seasonal advertising isn’t just for Christmas. There are plenty of times of the year where you may see an increase in sales.
After the crazy Christmas period is over, or perhaps now during the calm before the storm. You need to start thinking about next year’s seasonal advertising.
Seasonal hot points will vary dependant on your business. The simplest example being; sales for an ice cream retailer will be at their highest during the summer and low during the winter. Yet sales for a warm drinks retailer will be at their highest during the winter and at their lowest in the summer.
How to plan your seasonal advertising
The easiest way to do this is to sit down with a calendar and map out all of the seasonal hot points for your customers and target audience.
This might not be quite so straight forward as you think. You need to consider every seasonal point which will appeal to your customers and target market. So this might depend on things such as religions or where people live.
If you sell internationally you’ll need to think about seasons as well. For example, it would be okay to sell winter clothes to British people during December. However trying to sell them to Australians during December would be pretty pointless.
Then there are budgets to think about. If you haven’t got the budget to advertise and promote your products or services for every seasonal event, you will then need to think about which hot points will provide the most return for you.
Once you’ve worked out your seasonal hot points, you can begin to look at when and how far in advance you’d like to begin promoting or advertising your products or services.
You might then decide to look at finer details such as what kind of advertising you’ll do. Whether it’s an email campaign, PPC or print adverts.
Then you can begin to look at things like whether you’d need to print a new brochure or catalogue. If you need leaflets or cards to hand out in store to direct people back to the website. Or whether you’ll need to make amends to your website.
Once you’ve got your seasonal advertising planned out, you’ll know what you need to provide to your in house team or marketing company. They’ll then be able to create whatever you need for your campaigns and ensure you’re prepared. So there’s no rushing around at the last minute.
What if big seasonal hot points don’t apply to your business?
There are plenty of businesses, such as B2B or services, whose sales won’t increase before large seasonal events such as Christmas or the summer.
For example, an electrician’s workload will probably remain pretty steady throughout the year and it’s not likely to increase in the run up to Valentine’s Day or Christmas.
Most B2B businesses won’t see an increase in sales in the run up to Christmas either.
So what should B2B or service based businesses do if holidays or seasonal hot points don’t apply to them?
If that’s the case for your business, it’s important for you to keep in touch with your customers, so that when they’re ready to spend again your business is the first one they think about.
As we mentioned in our blog post about Christmas marketing campaigns, the easiest thing to do is to send them an email. This could be something as simple as a Christmas e-card, or an email which reminds them of something they need to begin preparing for after the season is over.
Contact us
For more advice on all things seasonal when it comes to marketing please feel free to browse the rest of the category.
If you’re looking for a marketing company to create and manage your seasonal advertising campaigns, get in touch with us now to talk about how we might be able to help you. You can call us on 01543 387 047 or email us on contact@themarketingpeople.com