www.marketingsavant.com 888.989.7771 The MarketingSavant Group
The MarketingSavant Group
Marketing Through the Seasons
Your guide to creating a marketing plan for every season!
The MarketingSavant Group
www.marketingsavant.com
888.989.7771
www.marketingsavant.com 888.989.7771 The MarketingSavant Group
www.marketingsavant.com 888.989.7771 The MarketingSavant Group
Can I Get the Slides?
Are you recording the webinar?
YES! http://www.marketingsavant.com/resources/
YES! http://www.marketingsavant.com/resources/
www.marketingsavant.com 888.989.7771 The MarketingSavant Group
www.marketingsavant.com 888.989.7771 The MarketingSavant Group
Post-Webinar Resources
www.marketingsavant.com 888.989.7771 The MarketingSavant Group
www.marketingsavant.com 888.989.7771 The MarketingSavant Group
What You Will Learn
• The benefits of seasonal marketing
• How to pick seasonal themes to base your marketing message around
• Reference Chase’s Calendar of Events for additional promotional opportunities
• How to select seasonal products and services to promote
• How to set up your promotional calendar for the year
• Create a strategy to implement seasonal marketing year round
• Effectively integrate social media into all of your seasonal marketing efforts
www.marketingsavant.com 888.989.7771 The MarketingSavant Group
www.marketingsavant.com 888.989.7771 The MarketingSavant Group
Why Seasonal Marketing?
• Tap into increased consumer spending • Take advantage of inherent marketing themes • Heightened consumer awareness and excitement
surrounding the season, holiday or event • Create a sense of urgency with limited, seasonal
promotions • Give customers something to be excited about
leading up to your promotion and a reason to buy during the promotion
• Annual traditions induce emotional buying patterns
www.marketingsavant.com 888.989.7771 The MarketingSavant Group
www.marketingsavant.com 888.989.7771 The MarketingSavant Group
Seasonal Marketing by the Numbers • Online spending increased 15% November – December
2001 from the previous year
• During November and December of 2011, US consumers spent $37.2 Billion on online purchases, according to comScore
• In 2011, US consumers spent $1.25 Billion on Cyber Monday alone
• According to B2B Marketing, marketing emails sent in November have the highest open rate, at 12.28%
• Targeted emails sent in November also result in more transactions than any other month
www.marketingsavant.com 888.989.7771 The MarketingSavant Group
www.marketingsavant.com 888.989.7771 The MarketingSavant Group
5 Steps to a Sound Seasonal Marketing Strategy 1. Select marketing themes for each season
a. Seasons b. Holidays c. Events d. Anniversaries e. Sporting Events
2. Align products and services with their respective season, holiday or event
3. Create a seasonal marketing editorial calendar for the entire year
4. Integrate seasonal marketing into your regular marketing strategy
5. Promote your seasonal promotions
www.marketingsavant.com 888.989.7771 The MarketingSavant Group
www.marketingsavant.com 888.989.7771 The MarketingSavant Group
Pick Out Your Themes
• Pick out holidays to base themes around
• Reference Chase’s Calendar of Events to find:
– Holidays
– Relevant Dates
– Famous anniversaries
– Major sporting events
www.marketingsavant.com 888.989.7771 The MarketingSavant Group
www.marketingsavant.com 888.989.7771 The MarketingSavant Group
Chase’s Calendar of Events
• A single reference source for calendar dates, and for authoritative and current information about various observances throughout the year
• Includes – Special events – Holidays – Federal and state
observances – Historic anniversaries – Unusual celebratory
traditions
www.marketingsavant.com 888.989.7771 The MarketingSavant Group
www.marketingsavant.com 888.989.7771 The MarketingSavant Group
Holidays
• Christmas
• Valentine’s Day
• St. Patrick’s Day
www.marketingsavant.com 888.989.7771 The MarketingSavant Group
www.marketingsavant.com 888.989.7771 The MarketingSavant Group
Relevant Dates
• Earth Day
• April Fool’s Day
• Relevant industry dates
www.marketingsavant.com 888.989.7771 The MarketingSavant Group
www.marketingsavant.com 888.989.7771 The MarketingSavant Group
Famous Anniversaries
• Abe Lincoln’s birthday
• Columbus Day
• Industry anniversaries
• Watch the Google Doodles
www.marketingsavant.com 888.989.7771 The MarketingSavant Group
www.marketingsavant.com 888.989.7771 The MarketingSavant Group
Major Sporting Events
• Olympics
• March Madness
• Super Bowl
• World Series
• PGA Championships
• Stanley Cup
• Major local sporting events
• Involve any teams or leagues that you sponsor
www.marketingsavant.com 888.989.7771 The MarketingSavant Group
www.marketingsavant.com 888.989.7771 The MarketingSavant Group
Go for the Gold Summer Ideas!
Even if you can’t sponsor the 2012 Olympics, you can still get your business involved in Olympic-sized promotions! • Offer a 5% discount for every gold
medal your country wins, capped at a certain number.
• Tie discounts to the win of your favorite athlete. If, say, Michael Phelps wins a gold, give customers $10 cash back on that day.
• Advertise Olympics specials: 25% off all athletic gear until Aug. 24 (the last day of the games).
• Selling special products or services, such as a special Olympic-themed mixed drink, especially for the Olympics.
www.marketingsavant.com 888.989.7771 The MarketingSavant Group
www.marketingsavant.com 888.989.7771 The MarketingSavant Group
Research Seasonal Consumer Demand
• Look at last year’s trends – Check sales records – Look at your analytics
during that period for top-performing keywords
– What content on your website performed the best?
• Research high volume search terms and keywords – The Google AdWords
Keyword tool is great for this research
www.marketingsavant.com 888.989.7771 The MarketingSavant Group
www.marketingsavant.com 888.989.7771 The MarketingSavant Group
Align Your Products/Services with Seasonal Demand
• Consumer demand changes seasonally and it’s important to give them what they want
• Once you have figured out when different products and services will be in high demand, figure out how you’re going to promote them during their respective “peak” seasons
www.marketingsavant.com 888.989.7771 The MarketingSavant Group
www.marketingsavant.com 888.989.7771 The MarketingSavant Group
Promoting Your Promotion – Media Outreach A successful seasonal marketing campaign is all about timing and getting the word out!
• Media Outreach – Free publicity
– Large audience
– Must pay attention to different outlet lead times • A monthly magazine publication may require you to
pitch your story 3-6 months in advance
• Daily newspapers may require virtually no lead time so you can pitch your story and have it published the next day
www.marketingsavant.com 888.989.7771 The MarketingSavant Group
www.marketingsavant.com 888.989.7771 The MarketingSavant Group
Promoting Your Promotion – Social Media • Social media allows you to meet your customers in their
medium economically and efficiently • Allows for efficient customer conversion with an easy
transition to ecommerce sites • Create a special landing page on your website or Facebook
page specifically for the promotion • Use Facebook ads to get the word out • Leverage the power of blogging to go into more detail
about the promotion • Inform your Twitter Followers and Facebook fans a month
prior and remind them of the promotion several times leading up to it
• Use Pinterest to launch your seasonal product line or feature promotional products or services
www.marketingsavant.com 888.989.7771 The MarketingSavant Group
www.marketingsavant.com 888.989.7771 The MarketingSavant Group
Promoting Your Promotion - Email
• Leverage your email list to promote your seasonal campaign to current and previous customers
• Email allows you to reward repeat customers with coupon codes or priority access to “limited supplies”
• Can include links to promotion landing pages for easy conversion
www.marketingsavant.com 888.989.7771 The MarketingSavant Group
www.marketingsavant.com 888.989.7771 The MarketingSavant Group
Focus on Benefits
Holiday shoppers are more likely to open emails that have enticing subject lines.
Keep these four characteristics of winning subject lines in mind:
• Useful
• Ultra-Specific
• Unique
• Urgent
For example, Piperlime—an online retailer of shoes, apparel, and accessories for men and women—sent an email with this subject line in the summer of 2011: “Last day! 20% off fall apparel + smokin’ slippers.” This has all the characteristics of a winning subject line:
• Useful – The offer of 20% off is valuable to the email’s recipient.
• Ultra-Specific – The subject line is clear: the recipient can save on fall clothing for one more day.
• Unique – This promotion stands out because instead of offering a discount at the end of the season like most retailers, Piperlime offers it at the beginning. Plus, the reference to “smokin’ slippers” is unusual and catchy.
• Urgent – “Last day!” pushes the recipient to read the full email sooner rather than later.
www.marketingsavant.com 888.989.7771 The MarketingSavant Group
www.marketingsavant.com 888.989.7771 The MarketingSavant Group
One Step Ahead
• When to start planning
– Have a seasonal marketing schedule mapped out for the year
– Planning for each promotion should begin 2 months prior to the beginning of the season, holiday or event
• When to launch the promotion
– Your target window to promote is about one month prior
– You don’t want to jump the gun but if you start too late other businesses will have a head start on you
www.marketingsavant.com 888.989.7771 The MarketingSavant Group
www.marketingsavant.com 888.989.7771 The MarketingSavant Group
10 Seasonal Social Media Marketing Ideas 1. Write a series of blog posts about your best seasonal products & services
or tips to get through the season or holiday 2. Hold a Facebook contest or sweepstakes in honor of the holiday or event 3. Create a Pinterest board dedicated to your new product line 4. Create a Pinterest board for followers to pin their favorite seasonal items 5. Send a targeted email announcing your seasonal promotion and include
a discount code 6. Launch a series of holiday-themed YouTube videos – entertaining or
informative 7. Offer 20% off or a free drink to all dads who check in at your place of
business on Foursquare on Father’s day 8. Create your own holiday-themed hashtag on Twitter to build a buzz
surrounding your marketing campaign during the weeks leading up to it 9. Have your designer tweak your logo to incorporate the season and use it
as your avatar on the social networks 10. Create a special seasonal/holiday landing page on your Facebook page or
your website
www.marketingsavant.com 888.989.7771 The MarketingSavant Group
www.marketingsavant.com 888.989.7771 The MarketingSavant Group
Seasonal Marketing Success Story – Starbucks • Offer popular seasonal
drinks – available for a limited time only!
• Cup Magic Mobile App – Customers can “collect”
seasonal cups
– Allows consumers to send e-gifts to their friends and family
– Informs customers of seasonal specials and promotions
www.marketingsavant.com 888.989.7771 The MarketingSavant Group
www.marketingsavant.com 888.989.7771 The MarketingSavant Group
Seasonal Marketing Success Story – OfficeMax • OfficeMax wins the
creativity prize with their customer-created “Elf Yourself” videos
• Customers can transpose pictures of their friends and family onto the heads of elves to create custom holiday dance videos
• Doesn’t have anything to do with office supplies but gets people excited about the season and talking about their campaign
www.marketingsavant.com 888.989.7771 The MarketingSavant Group
www.marketingsavant.com 888.989.7771 The MarketingSavant Group
Seasonal Marketing Success Story – Kohl’s
• Kohl’s rode on the viral coat-tails of the YouTube sensation “Friday” by Rebecca Black
• Created a spinoff of the video to promote their Black Friday sale
• Takes advantage of the popularity of the original song
• The video makes people laugh and informs consumers about their biggest sale of the year
www.marketingsavant.com 888.989.7771 The MarketingSavant Group
www.marketingsavant.com 888.989.7771 The MarketingSavant Group
Integrate Seasonal Marketing Into Your Regular Marketing Strategy
• Download the Seasonal Marketing infographic and use it to map out seasons, holidays, events, trade shows and historical anniversaries to promote throughout the year
• Incorporate these promotional dates into your editorial calendar
• Work 2 months in advance – look ahead to make sure you are ready to roll out an organized seasonal campaign a month prior to the actual season or event
• Leverage your social networks, email contacts and the media to promote your seasonal marketing campaigns
Seasonal Planning Infographic
www.marketingsavant.com 888.989.7771 The MarketingSavant Group
www.marketingsavant.com 888.989.7771 The MarketingSavant Group
Post-Webinar Resources
www.marketingsavant.com 888.989.7771 The MarketingSavant Group
The MarketingSavant Group
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The MarketingSavant Group
www.marketingsavant.com
888.989.7771
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www.marketingsavant.com 888.989.7771 The MarketingSavant Group
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