Seasonal promotions: what are they?
Any promotional activity (such as special discounts, offers, or limited-edition products) that is motivated by holidays, celebrations, or seasons is referred to as a seasonal promotion. You must be familiar with the holidays, Black Friday, and back-to-school times of year.
Seasonal campaigns are a great way to organise your marketing schedule. With carefully thought out and unique promotions spread throughout your sales funnel, pre-planned marketing initiatives enable you to delight your clients. But that’s not all; armed with a thorough promotional strategy, you can always outsmart your rivals and be the first to connect with potential clients.
Don’t misunderstand me. It is overly required to fight constantly for leads, clicks, and conversions. However, in the midst of this conflict, your marketing team may occasionally forget about trends and data, which are crucial components of any promotional effort. Your brand has the ability to innovate its messaging by staying on top of trends. With the help of trends, you may mix things up a bit and integrate your company into the flow of happenings, keeping your name in front of clients all year long. Seasonal marketing revolves around this.
Do you know what the best aspect of seasonal marketing is? I saved the best for last. The consumer wants it. Yes, you heard me correctly. Customers now anticipate and appreciate seasonal advertising and promotions. During back-to-school season, they want to dress in tacky Christmas sweaters, sip pumpkin lattes, and purchase two backpacks for the price of one.
Seasonal marketing strategies often feature special occasions.
The two types of seasonal marketing are time-based and event-based. It should come as no surprise that time-based marketing strategies are tied to the particular season. You may consider the holiday season or the grilling season here, for example. Event-based seasonal marketing, however, is motivated by specific events (both recognised holidays and non-traditional holidays). This category includes occasions like Mother’s Day, Independence Day, and elections.
Any event can serve as the basis for uniquely tailored seasonal marketing efforts. The most important thing is to always draw attention to your goods and services, not the event itself. Not the season, but your campaign and your product should be the focus of your messaging. Seasonal promotions have many benefits over conventional marketing. Your offer seems less intrusive and bothersome because your customers are already thinking about certain seasons or events.
Increase through seasonal promotions
Seasonal discounts encourage customers to purchase your product or, at the very least, peruse it. Even corny catchphrases like “prepare your wardrobe for spring” are nevertheless effective and promote impulsive buying.
Discounts and promotions are most effective when paired with seasonal advertising. Why? Mother’s Day special 25% discount for all outstanding mothers is certain to generate more sales than regular product X 25% discount.
From bringing back fond memories of Christmas, to a sense of urgency (“Order by December so it comes on time”), to an unexpected remarkable event. Great seasonal campaign ideas will increase traffic, clicks, conversions, and revenues in addition to other marketing metrics.
Optimum methods for seasonal promotions
Continually be prepared
Forecasting is useful for identifying seasonal patterns, demand peaks, and price strategies used by rivals. It is not a matter of “if,” but rather of “how,” to forecast the results of your advertising activities and the economic environment surrounding the specific event or season. Remember to maintain a careful check on seasonal and search patterns that affect your audience and how they perceive your brand (e.g., with the aid of Google Trends). Allow yourself enough time during a slower phase to get ready for the seasonal campaign. This way, if things don’t work out, you’ll have plans set to go from A to Z.
Additionally, make sure you have adequate personnel on hand to deal with a spike in customer interest and demand for your goods. The picture of the sales and support employees becoming buried under unresolved claims is not encouraging. You’d better be prepared since keeping your word could bring years of trouble for your company.
Set a specific objective.
Launching a marketing effort without a specific goal in mind is pointless. You won’t be able to properly reach your target audience, evaluate the campaign’s performance, come to any conclusions, or improve your performance moving forward without a clear goal in mind. Do you wish to dispose of any remaining stock? Sell admission to a Halloween event? or raise the visibility of your brand on Facebook and Instagram? You won’t learn if you remain in the dark, no matter what the objective is.
Timing is important.
To succeed with seasonal promotions, you must get at least two things right. What kind of content and deals are you going to promote during the campaign, and when will it begin? To establish oneself as the trailblazer and not the follower, it is preferable to start the marketing before the actual event or peak season. Don’t forget to wait before using the heavy equipment; your campaign should attempt to create tension and anticipation before the big event.
In your seasonal content strategy, use time bombs.
Real-time marketing includes, for example, time bombs. They signify the inclusion of trends and current events in your messaging. A simple verbal error can occasionally set off a chain of unanticipated media events. especially if you are the foreign minister of a sizable European nation. Witold Waszczykowski experienced this when he used the fictional nation of San Escobar to capture the attention of Polish marketing teams and internet users. Pizza Hut capitalised on this pure viral gold by releasing a new pizza the next day with a steep discount for anyone eager to try it. Simply said, time bombs increase the relevance and shareability of your offers and promotions.
The season should be defined by your brand.
It’s not a good idea to alter your promotional offerings and messaging for every occasion and season. Customers are confused and will think it’s hilarious that you’re trying so hard (at best). The important thing to keep in mind is that seasons and events ought to serve as platforms for your message to resound in a more novel and distinctive way. Seasonality is a great time to highlight the positive impact your company has on society. To ensure that the consumer experience is consistent, you should intersperse this message in a way that matches the mood of the particular season or event. Keep your emphasis on the events that best suit your demographic and distinctive offering while remaining selective.
Keep an eye on the competition and historical seasonal trends
You don’t need to come up with brand-new, riskier marketing strategies every year. Remember that employing a marketing plan that is too aggressively can (and frequently does) backfire. If your previous campaign was successful, launch a comparable one with a few modifications.
Being a copycat is not a virtue, to put it another way. However, if your rival is succeeding in another area, you might want to change your seasonal efforts to match them.
Source: promotion strategy , promotional strategies
