Every brand, regardless of its size, needs to do everything in its power to stay relevant in the ever-changing market. Although there are countless strategies they can use to achieve this, seasonality is indeed the most successful one. Using it right can help your company be a part of the conversation all year round.
If you want to find out how you can tap into seasonal trends to stay relevant in your industry, read on. We will reveal all the tips and tricks that every business owner should know.
Seasonality: A Definition
Though it might seem complex, seasonality simply refers to keeping track of all holidays and other notable annual events and using them to promote your business. You’ve probably already taken advantage of different times of the year for advertising, including Christmas, Easter, Halloween, Valentine’s, and so on.
During these events, you can tailor your promo items game to the festivities. For example, you can organise giveaways or have sales for Black Friday or do special events for Christmas and Easter. Either way, as long as you think about what your audience loves most during these times, you cannot go wrong.
How Can You Use Seasonality to Your Advantage?
Here are the main ways to capitalise on seasonal events regardless of the industry you belong to.
Being a Part of the Conversation
If you are on any social media platforms, you probably know that people love talking about different holidays and events. During Christmas, Easter, Diwali, or any other religious holiday, socials are full of pictures, aesthetic posts, and conversations about the festivities.
Thus, the best way to fit in and drive attention to your brand is to take part in all those conversations. That way, when people seek relevant content, your posts and profile will pop up as well, giving you new impressions and interactions every day.
Connecting With Your Audience
If you tell engaging stories during the holidays, your audience will feel closer to you. They will see that you are just like them, celebrating the holidays and going through the same steps as they are. If you also include some tutorials and how-to tips connected to the festivities, you are bound to increase your engagement.
All of these steps can help you immerse yourself in the culture and, by extension, in your customers’ lives. Furthermore, it can aid you in establishing your legacy and standing compared to your competitors, which is always important.
Planning Your Budget
If you plan your activities and budget around different events, you can spread your expenses evenly over the year. Therefore, you get to plan campaigns ahead of time and always have enough money to ensure everything you organise is flawless.
Having so much time to plan your marketing strategy also lets you foresee any potential problems that may arise. So, you can plan how to overcome them in a way that won’t hurt your promo efforts but will actually help them.
How to Use Seasonality for Your Business
Partner With Influencers
Nowadays, influencers have large followings and a lot of sway both on social media and in real life. Partnering up with them for a promo campaign can benefit you both, especially if you play your cards right and come up with something interesting and innovative.
Of course, you need to find influencers that are relevant to your industry. That way, the engagement for you both will be much higher. For example, it makes little sense to collaborate with a makeup guru if you own an independent bookstore and need someone to talk about your books or deals.
On the other hand, you would need someone into sports or workouts if you own a sportswear brand. Thus, it is best to work with someone who has a similar or the same audience as you.
Since these users have many followers and a lot of sway over them, you can expect more people to check out your products. Even if they just familiarise themselves with your brand and don’t buy anything, you’ll still be better off than you were before.
So, you need to do some research into the influencers tied to your industry. Who has the most followers? Who has the same values as you and approaches the topics you want to tackle in a similar manner? Answer these questions, and your seasonal campaign will be off to a great start.
Seasonal Loyalty Programmes
Loyalty programmes are an excellent way to increase sales and engagement at a particular point in time. As such, they can be perfect for seasonal campaigns as well, be it for Christmas or Black Friday.
The best way to use this strategy is to start a loyalty programme in the months or weeks leading up to a holiday or event. The points that your customers earn during this time should be valid during the holiday or leading up to it so that your sales can increase at the right time.
For example, if you are planning a huge campaign for Christmas, you can start the programme in autumn. That way, you will profit off the Back Friday and Cyber Monday and start the Christmas countdown right. Then, when the holiday draws near, your customers will have more than enough points to do their shopping and ensure your registers are overflowing with cash.
Keyword Research
With SEO becoming an essential part of online marketing, you have to include it in your planning as well. Luckily, it can help you a lot, no matter how intimidating it may seem. Namely, figuring out what people search for during holidays is a fantastic way to plan your promo efforts.
Aside from tailoring your posts to these searches, you can also use them to plan promo gifts. Based on the season, you can gift your customers branded beanies, custom travel mugs, personalised Easter chocolate eggs, or printed heart-shaped mint tins. Whatever you choose, your brand awareness will increase exponentially.
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Promotional Sweets – Perfect Business Gifts For Christmas
Final Thoughts
Embracing seasonality is all about creating a promo campaign that will be relevant at different times of the year. That, in turn, helps you get closer to your audience. This guide can improve your marketing moves for the upcoming season, and your brand will thrive like never before.
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