5 Ways to Revamp Seasonal Marketing Efforts for Year-Round Profits
Just as the seasons come and go, marketers are under increasing pressure to capitalize on cyclical, short windows of opportunity to turn seasonal shoppers into loyal customers.
As marketers evaluate their campaigns using trends and industry knowledge from previous years, the following five tips can help quickly focus marketing efforts toward extending seasonal sales and eventually transforming them into a year-round business:
1. Know your data.
Understanding your year-over-year data to gain additional insight is key. This includes researching and analyzing monthly sales volume and website traffic over the past year, looking for surges and comparing them to category trends, consumer changes and your competition. By understanding your customer and their buying behaviors, marketers can send very targeted messages that can keep them engaged year-round.
2. Make content reusable.
When capitalizing on seasonal trends, design campaigns and content that can be used in the future. Content (e.g., infographics, e-books, videos, whitepapers) should be viewed as assets rather than campaign one-offs. For future planning, archives can help marketers understand what worked, what didn’t and what creative ideas could be repurposed. This approach saves time and, of course, cost, as opposed to starting from the beginning every season.
3. Be consistent.
Consistency is key when launching integrated marketing campaigns. E-commerce retailers need to consider all marketing platforms (e.g., websites, digital ads, email, mobile, social media) when creating seasonal campaigns. Keeping the same look and feel consistent across all platforms will ensure less consumer confusion and deliver a better customer experience.
A consistent omnichannel campaign creates a stronger message for viewers and will further keep consumers engaged across multiple platforms.
4. Timing is key.
Targeting the right person at the right time with the right message is critical when launching and managing seasonal campaigns. Use data to identify the best time to reach customers, and refine micro communication and campaigns as such.
5. Re-engage previous buyers.
Targeting previous buyers that are already familiar with your product and/or brand is the quickest route to sustaining and growing sales. Leveraging deep customer insights to better understand who your best customers are, how often they buy and what they’re purchasing enables marketers to send more personalized messages to attract and re-engage existing customers. For instance, if one of your customers purchases a product around the same time every year, use that data to your advantage and send that customer a new seasonal-themed promotion (with content tailored to their interests) a few days before their regular purchase.
Seasonal campaigns aren’t always the easiest to tap into, but when executed effectively, they can exponentially increase overall sales and revenue growth. Additionally, by understanding who your customers are and engaging them in an authentic, personalized way, marketers can turn seasonal shoppers into life-long customers.
Al Corona is president and CEO of TouchCR, a one-box e-commerce marketing platform for B-to-C organizations.
