Business marketing for seasonal events can help to boost your sales year-round, by targeting consumer spending habits. More than this, it can give your social media marketing an edge over your competitors by helping you to create relevant, targeted content that lines up with seasonal events.
You’re undoubtedly already marketing for major holidays like Christmas and Easter, but there are other opportunities throughout the year that your business could be capitalising on. Read on for inspiration and advice on how you can market your business seasonally.
What seasonal events should I focus on in my business marketing strategy?
Look at your annual sales and traffic patterns
Depending on your industry, you will find that your sales peak and drop at certain times in the year. While B2C companies tend to get a rush of Christmas gift sales, B2B businesses often experience a drop in sales at this time, as clients’ attention is on family rather than work.
Looking at both your website traffic and sales patterns, find where your business’s strongest and weakest seasons are. You can use tools such as Google Analytics to track seasonal trends in your annual sales.
There should be predictable upward and downward trends that happen every year. It’s good to make the most of the times where your sales are strong, but seasonal marketing can also boost your sales during your business’ drier seasons.
Find events that suit your business
Beyond the obvious seasonal events like Christmas, New Year and Easter, there are countless events that you can use to give your social media strategy some oomph. Finding specific annual dates which suit your business can give you the edge over your competition. Here are some examples:
Food and drink awareness days: it goes without saying that these work best for food-related or hospitality businesses. Check out our full list of food and drink awareness days for 2021.
Religious celebrations: it’s important to be inclusive in business, and exclusively focusing on Christian holidays could mean that you are missing out on connecting with large groups of your target audience.
Good cause awareness days: while these awareness days are particularly important for charities, using these awareness days to draw attention to causes that are close to your heart is not only important, but can provide a personal connection with your audience. As well as this, standing up for sensitive issues demonstrates your business as having strong ethical values. View our list of good cause awareness days for 2021.
Important dates for your business: perhaps it’s your business’ birthday, or you’re celebrating another success, like winning an award or setting up a new branch. It goes without saying that you’ll want to let your customers know.
How to add seasonal events to your business marketing plan
You’ve identified seasonal events that will help to boost your sales. Now, you need to get ahead of the curve, by planning your strategy and content in advance.
Start early
You may or may not already have a content plan for your social media strategy. Now that you have a list of seasonal events which are important for your business, you can use them to create a unique content plan in calendar form. This will help you plan your content well in advance, saving time and ensuring that your promotions go out in a timely manner.
You may want to start early to beat the competition – you’ve probably noticed that high street shops start gearing up for Christmas the day after Halloween. One-third of consumers have already started their Christmas shopping in October, so it’s good to bring in your marketing strategy early enough that you capture your audience’s attention first.
Use hashtags
Hashtags are crucial to your seasonal social media content. Using popular hashtags for the seasonal event will mean that your posts appear under the popular search on the day, reaching a wider audience. In addition to this, ensure you also use popular hashtags that are searched year-round so that your content stays relevant. For example, hashtag both #NationalPizzaDay and more general hashtags like #Pizzeria or #Pizzagram.
Customize your products or services
This tactic lends itself well to most B2C companies. If you don’t have the time or resources to introduce a new seasonal product, you could offer bundle deals. For example, at Easter, you could put together a sampling of your products in the form of an Easter hamper. Here are some other ways you could customize your offerings:
- Exclusive gift-wrapping or thank you notes. This takes away some stress for the consumer by taking care of the wrapping. As consumers increasingly shop online, this will also allow customers to send gifts straight to the recipient.
- Seasonal product guides and categories. You could put together a new section of your website, or even a simple email newsletter, putting together your products that are suited or tailored to seasonal events. Think ‘back to school’ edits as well as Christmas gift guides.
- Update your website’s appearance. You could edit your logo or header images to match the seasonal event or add a countdown timer to the big day itself, or your sale.
- Partner with other businesses to create seasonal offerings. Linking up with a fellow business can help to increase exposure and offer something unique to your customers. For example, a gin distillery could team up with a local delicatessen or chocolatier to offer Valentine’s Day hamper.
Create exclusive offers
There are some seasonal events that won’t lend themselves well to a custom product offering, such as good cause awareness days or holidays where it’s not custom to buy gifts. But you can still offer seasonally-based promotions.
- Offer exclusive discount codes. These could form part of an email marketing campaign, offered to your loyal customers already on your email list, or as an incentive for customers to sign up. For example, a pizzeria could offer 10% off on online orders on National Pizza Day, through the code ‘NATIONALPIZZADAY’
- Seasonal email lists. You could invite new customers to join your newsletter, offering early access to your Black Friday sale, or any other upcoming seasonal discount.
- Offer charitable donations. Instead of offering money off of a product, it might be more suitable for some events to pledge to donate a certain percentage of your sales to a charity. This sort of campaign, when done right, can boost your brand’s reputation as being ethical and caring. Companies like Lucy & Yak have had great success with their alternative Black Friday, through which they raised money to send 36 girls to school in India.
- Host a giveaway. Seasonal events can offer a great opportunity to add a giveaway to your social media strategy. However, it’s important to do this safely, so make sure you do so safely, handling your customers’ data with care. You can find out more about this in our guide to running a giveaway safely.
Conclusion
Seasonal events offer a unique opportunity to target your consumers’ spending habits, and to increase your sales during low seasons. There are a variety of different ways you can incorporate seasonal events into your business marketing strategy, but the most important thing is to plan well in advance to keep ahead of your competitors.
Could you use some further support with your business marketing strategy? We offer a range of services from social media management to PR. Get in touch today to find out how we can help your business to grow, thrive and blossom.
