Every product should be fixing a problem for consumers. Marketing campaigns are an integral part of explaining how your brand solves that consumer problem. Effective marketing campaigns help businesses grow by reaching new audiences and increasing sales and revenue. HubSpot describes marketing campaigns as “organized, strategized efforts to promote a specific company goal, such as raising awareness of a new product or capturing customer feedback.”
Seasons are a great tool to explain your “why.” Summer is here already, so if you haven’t started, it’s time to get that summer marketing campaign planned! But first, what is seasonal marketing?
What is seasonal marketing?
According to Astrogrowth, seasonal marketing is when you tie your marketing campaigns to specific events in the year. A seasonal marketing strategy actually helps smooth out the bumps in your revenue throughout the year.
Summer is a season full of opportunities & challenges for brands. For example, during warm weather months (like the summer) people are outside more, socializing more and away from their computers and screens. This could be considered a problem for companies that advertise on TV. With the right marketing strategy in place, you can turn those seasonal lemons into lemonade and expand your customer base. Do yourself a favor and take full advantage of the seasons to educate, inspire and show off your creativity.
Why is pre-planning critical for seasonal marketing?
One of the best ways to achieve maximum benefits is by planning ahead. Starting early and having an idea of what your campaign will be about and when you want to put it into action for summer can put you ahead of the competition.
ShutterStock has listed three main reasons for pre-planning your campaign, these are:
- Saves time and effort – You will avoid scrambling to put together a last-minute haphazard plan by planning seasonal content ahead of time.
- Gain more visibility – When you post seasonally relevant content, you reach a wider audience, and your regular content will keep them coming back for more.
- Boosting old content – Updating and repurposing old seasonal content that has done well in the past will boost its effectiveness.
How does seasonal marketing help SEO?
Did you know that the season affects how people search, use, and purchase on the internet?
That’s right! An obvious example is the winter holidays – There is typically an increase in the number of searches for gifts around holidays. But there are also subtle behavioral changes that affect organic search traffic and content efficacy.
What are the benefits of a seasonal marketing plan?
According to Cobizmag, the benefits of a seasonal marketing plan include:
- Helps in better engagement with your audience.
- Benefits sales and traffic in both online and brick-and-mortar stores.
- Increases customer loyalty.
- Provides an opportunity to send personalized messages to your customers
7 steps to launching your seasonal marketing plan.
Let’s take a look at the seven steps you need while launching your summer marketing campaign.
Step 1: Decide what you want to accomplish.
The key reason behind every marketing campaign is to achieve something for your business. Whether it’s expanding your audience reach or introducing a new product or service, you need to ensure that you have clear set goals.
Remember, the best objectives are significant, evident, and action-oriented. They ideally work best when they are within your overall business goals.
Step 2: Generate ideas.
Sit together with your team and have an idea-generating session. Remember, there are no bad ideas, so have an open mind and listen to everyone.
Step 3: Identify the best marketing channels for your program.
There are several marketing channels that you can choose from. Here is a list of the best marketing channels to help you choose your program.
- Search engine optimization (SEO)
- Content marketing
- Email marketing
- Social media marketing
- Word of mouth marketing (WOMM)
- Influencer marketing
- Offline advertising
- Online advertising
- Partnership marketing
- Community building
- Influencer marketing
Step 4: Identify your success metrics and how you will track them.
Success metrics are measurable data used to determine the achievements of your business efforts. You can use the following metrics to evaluate marketing initiatives at various levels to understand your performance by audience segment, product, media, and more.
- Overall impressions
- Lead generation response rates
- Cost-per-lead
- Cost-per-sale
- Return on investment (ROI)
- Lifetime value of a customer
- Return on engagement (ROE)
- Traffic volume
Step 5: Make your launch timeline.
KPIs are an integral part of every marketing campaign. KPIs (key performance indicators) are measurable values that determine how effectively an individual, team, or organization is achieving a business objective. Examples of KPIs include net profit and online traffic.
Every successful marketing campaign is incomplete without a launch timeline. A launch timeline is a tool that businesses and marketers use to keep them on schedule for a successful launch. Timelines serve as visual representations of the key phases of a launch.
Step 6: Figure out your primary and secondary messages.
So, you have determined your goals and launch timeline; next, you need to figure out what your message is going to be. To make it simpler, you can split this into primary and secondary messages.
The primary message is the “thing” the audience needs to understand no matter where they are in the campaign. The secondary messages are proof points and key differentiators. Remember to include keywords in your message. Emphasizing seasonal keywords annually during your campaign will build rankings and authority with search engines.
Step 7: Identify the players.
The final step is to identify the players who will be involved in your summer marketing campaign. You need to figure out what you will do internally and what needs to be delegated. If you plan on outsourcing, you need to start searching and reaching out to these people beforehand.
Now that you know all about seasonal marketing, it’s time to go ahead and start planning the best summer seasonal marketing plan for your next campaign. To learn more about creator and influencer marketing, visit our website!