How To Handle Seasonal Marketing Like A Pro

The seasons come, the seasons go. Culture, time, events, and the economy are constantly in flux, and yet businesses’ goals rarely change: you want to keep your customers, reach new ones and get more revenue. So, how can you adequately handle the ups and downs of seasonal marketing and set an accurate budget to reach your goals? Here are some tips for putting the right seasonal marketing strategy in place.

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1. Look Backward & Forward

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First, review your own data. This doesn’t have to be complicated, nor should it be. Review revenue every year for the past five years as a starting point, and identify your biggest sales months of each year. While every year won’t be exactly the same, you should be able to pull out some trends.

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Once you can see which months or quarters tend to give you your largest sales volumes, do some detective work. Did you exhibit at a major trade show that drove purchases in this time frame? Was it around the holidays? Did it follow a targeted campaign? Once you better understand where you’ve been and why your patterns have been as they are, you should have a good idea of the seasonality in your business. If you’re in the fitness industry, for instance, you likely see a big burst of new clients around the beginning of January when people commit to New Year’s resolutions. Knowing this, you can project out a year or two to get an idea of what to expect in terms of forthcoming peaks (and also plan for inevitable dips).

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2. Review Your Marketing Budget

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Sometimes, companies make poor marketing decisions because they’re trying to keep up with their competitors. They may jump on the bandwagon of video ads since another similar business’s video ads keep popping up everywhere, without considering that the channel may not be right for them. So, take a look at how you’ve spent your marketing budget in the past year or two. Which tactics have proven to yield you the most ROI? Which have flopped?

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Then, revisit your buyer personas. Do you have a persona that fits your seasonal customers? It’s important to consider the overall context of your marketing efforts. After all, a Google Ads campaign might perform exceptionally when promoting your seasonal offerings, but very poorly when promoting your regular products because of demand, keywords and competition. Make sure you’re aligning your tactics around your personas (including seasonal ones) and then allocating your budget from there.

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3. Make The Most Of Every Season

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Finally, don’t look at your peak seasons as the great ones and your downturns as throwaways. You can actually benefit from slower sales months if you view them as periods for reflection, analysis and preparation. If you sell surfing products, for example, your busy months are likely spring and summer.

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Plan to use the fall and winter to review your data, reallocate your budget and plan your strategies for the next spring and summer. You can also use the time to improve efficiencies in your manufacturing process, conduct team-building exercises and experiment with new product ideas. There’s no such thing as wasted time unless you choose to waste it. Looking for more help with your seasonal strategies? That’s what we’re here for! Give us a call.