Spring, summer, winter and fall are more than just seasons, they're opportunities for businesses to grow and succeed throughout the year. Although marketing is a year-round endeavor, each season comes with a unique set of holidays, events and activities, and there’s no shortage of ways to make your marketing campaigns relevant and timely.
Many businesses will flourish at certain points and struggle at others, making it important for professionals to pay close attention and know which strategies (and holidays) are worth focusing on. Seasonal marketing is a great way for marketers to use their knowledge and skills in giving their business a welcome holiday boost.
To give you a better understanding of how to generate seasonal promotional ideas, here are some important notes.
Spring
Many view spring as a “fresh start,” hence the term “spring cleaning.” This season is the perfect time to refine your marketing strategy. Get rid of old tactics and replace them with fresh, innovative holiday marketing ideas. After all, there are a great deal of events and themes that are relevant to this time of year.
- Saint Patrick's Day - March 17
- Easter - April 1
- April Fools' Day - April 1
- Earth Day - April 22
- Mother's Day - May 13
- Cinco de Mayo - May 5
- Teacher's Day - May 8
- Memorial Day - May 28
- Father's Day - June 17
Easter - From little chicks to online easter egg hunts, coming up with Easter-specific seasonal marketing ideas is honestly EGG-citing! Besides the abundance of chocolate eggs, businesses bring out their A game to make sure families enjoy this special day. A good way to entice your target audience is to create a fun egg-related game or gimmick, just like this “Guess How Many” (Easter Egg Edition) game done by Wacky Creative.
April Fool’s Day - Show the world your take on prank ads, or create something more interactive like GIFs or viral videos. April Fool’s is the perfect way to put some fun into your marketing strategy! For example, Windex created a prank ad claiming they added actual sparkles to the product to make Windows literally sparkle. This is just one of so many examples — and your brand should get in on that!
Summer
Summer may not be as holiday-heavy as Spring, but this season holds numerous marketing opportunities. The weather, particularly when summertime arrives, can open up plenty of opportunities that any creative marketing agency would be thankful for. Brands, for instance, may factor in the weather and develop marketing ways to beat the heat. To summer, er, summarize, this season is just loaded with opportunities.
Holidays
- Flag Day - 1st Monday in September
- Independence Day - July 4
- Labor Day
Events and Themes
- Summer Weather
- Backyard Barbecues
- Vacations
- School's Out
- Shark Week
Labor Day - “Labor Day Weekend” is a great opportunity to bring sales up, celebrate America, and engage in lots of social media activities. This time around, we also look forward to see what other brands are going to do to stand out during times of intense competition. If you ask us, we’d say be creative and share a viral video, just like this one from Carhartt.
Fall
Picture this: Summer has come to a close and the holidays are just around the corner. After enjoying the summer heat, take advantage of the fall season in the same way. Highlight the changes in the weather, the color of the leaves and the activities that many take part in during this time of year.
Holidays
- Columbus Day
- Halloween
- Veterans Day
- Thanksgiving
- Black Friday
- Cyber Monday
Events and Themes
- Back to School
- Fall Activities - Pumpkin Picking, Haunted Houses
- Football
Ready for fall? Here are some ideas on how you can ensure that your audience will enjoy your promotions.
Thanksgiving - This holiday is considered as one of the most important days in American culture. It is a time to be with one’s families, and is all about gratitude and celebrating the good times. With all the joy and love in the air, it’s important that you, as a brand, will need to pitch your campaign just right – and that means being generous with your Thanksgiving promotions.
Winter
The holidays are here - promotions here and there, they’re literally everywhere! Depending on what your business has to offer, you can use these holidays and events to not only develop new marketing offers, but also honor the holidays celebrated by your audience. Now’s the perfect time to make an effort to form a true connection with them, beyond just your products and services.
Holidays
- Hanukkah
- Christmas
- New Year's Eve/Day
- Martin Luther King Jr. Day
- Valentine's Day
- Presidents Day
- Chinese New Year
Events and Themes
- Super Bowl
- Snow
- Staying Warm
- Online Shopping
Christmas - ‘Tis the season to shine above the rest! This time of the year is the undoubtedly the busies, with brands promoting sales here and there (and establishments pulling marketing strategies and email campaign ideas out of their Christmas sacks). The holiday season is the ideal time for your brand to gear up and step up, because there will be a LOT of competition.
Giveaways are a great way to amp up your brand’s marketing strategy. This promotion will help increase ROIs, leads and gain exposure. Come up with a social media contest that you think your audience will enjoy and benefit from. Here’s a sample from Sperry Top-Sider.
Valentine’s Day - you might be interested in merging the most lovey-dovey of days with your campaign. If you don't have any ideas planned for the 14th, maybe you can take a cue from this cool ad from Revlon.
Marketing can be tough, but having a well-thought-out plan and committing to it can definitely help you be a more successful marketer. Planning a marketing campaign will help you learn what works and what won’t, so you can continue to build on your knowledge, get even better results, and grow your business.
With 2018 coming at us with full steam ahead, start brainstorming about which events could benefit your business in the coming months. After all, succeeding with seasonal campaigns could very well be the key to your best year yet.
Now’s the perfect time to jump start your business. Know more about our services and how we can help you succeed in 2018 - contact us today!
You can also get on a free, no-obligation discovery call with our team to see how we can help create foolproof marketing strategies for your business.
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