What is Seasonal Marketing?

Seasonal marketing occurs when marketing strategies change based on the time of year or holiday season. It can provide fantastic opportunities to increase sales for many businesses. There are three major types of seasonal marketing:

The first type of seasonal marketing occurs when a business is built entirely on a specific season or time period.  These businesses only sell their products during this time period, so this window has to have enough sales to support the business annually. Spirit Halloween and Christmas tree farms are two examples of this type of seasonally supported business. While marketing efforts may run year-round, they are particularly active during the time frame aligning with sales.

The second type of seasonal marketing occurs when a business sells their products throughout the year, but sees the majority of sales during a particular season or window of time. For many businesses, particularly toy retailers, this selling season occurs between Black Friday and Christmas. For other businesses, like flower shops, the primary selling season is different. These businesses will generally market year-round, but ramp it up or run additional marketing campaigns during this primary selling season. 

The third and final type of seasonal marketing is rotational. This occurs when businesses rotate products seasonally to reflect changing trends and seasonal needs. Clothing retailers provide a great example of this, with sweaters and winter coats shifting to swimsuits. The majority of businesses that utilize seasonal marketing follow this strategy, as it helps them stay relevant and appealing to customers year-round. One valuable but often overlooked benefit of this final type of marketing is that change draws attention and additional sales. Rotating products seasonally and then marketing them accordingly gives your business excellent opportunities to keep your business top of mind among your target audience.

How Can I Increase Sales Using Seasonal Marketing?

Seasonal marketing and themed products are extremely effective strategies for staying relevant and bringing in new customers. From pumpkin carving tools to cookie cutters, rotating through different seasonal promotions and holiday specials is a great way to attract customers. When done right, seasonal marketing can be a massive boon to your business. However, because these seasonal specials are exactly that – seasonal – it can be difficult to figure out the best ways to take advantage of seasonal marketing opportunities.

This is especially true during Q1. At the beginning of the year, holidays like Valentine’s Day, Mardi Gras, and St. Patrick’s Day occur in quick succession. While these holidays have much faster turnaround times than those at the end of the year, like Halloween and Christmas, they continue to have a widespread consumer appeal and can provide great selling opportunities for your business. Whether you’re selling bouquets of roses or chocolate bunnies, keeping your business and branding up-to-date will help attract new customers and turn previous customers into regulars. 

Want to increase your sales and keep your customers engaged year-round? Try the following strategies:

Strategy #1: Launch Seasonal Product or Services (if possible)

Coffee shops provide a great example of this rotating seasonal marketing strategy. Just think of pumpkin spice lattes turning to peppermint hot chocolates and flavored iced coffee. However, even bigger purchases like mattresses or appliances can utilize seasonally targeted advertising and sales. Simply rebranding a service to fit the time of year can also be an effective strategy. Changing your messaging from "Couples' Massages" to "Mother's Day Massages" is one example, yielding results but requiring little effort. 

Strategy #2: Use Illuminated Signs to Capture Attention and Sales

Although print signage can be less expensive, illuminated signage is much more effective at advertising your business. This is because lighted signs are much more visible to potential customers than print for more hours of the day. If you have a physical storefront, consider investing in an illuminated sign system you can change, as the simple fact of making changes draws even more attention. Whether this is a video display board (which can run $20,000+) or a SpellBrite click-together sign (which typically runs about $200 for a 7 character sign to $525 for a 20 character sign), illuminated signage is an excellent tool to ensure that existing customers and local traffic can see your promotions and messages. Especially when you’re targeting seasonal or viral trends, utilizing changeable lighted signage can provide an added boost to your bottom line by drawing new curious customers inside.

Strategy #3: Highlight Holiday Specials on Social Media

It’s important to identify which platforms your intended audience use most and to target your messages to them. When posting, you'll also want to show off your brand identity and post often enough to keep your name top of mind. However, don't be afraid to experiment with different ideas or ways of framing your products within these limitations. You never know what message will stand out to a potential customer, and social media provides a way to spread news about your business and any seasonal specials. Jump onto holiday hashtags and trends, or tailor your posts to a specific time frame or holiday to increase your visibility even more, whether organically or through advertising. 

Strategy #4: Stay Up-To-Date Online

Make sure all of your information is up to date online. This includes your website, Google My Business, and other third party sites like Yelp (if applicable). While this is especially important if your hours are changing for particular holidays, even rotating through updated menu photos and responding to customer inquiries and reviews will both help boost your SEO scores and build trust in your local customer base.

Strategy #5: Build Loyalty Programs or Participate in Local Events

For businesses that operate locally out of a physical brick and mortar storefront, it can be easy to grow organically and engage with the locals by building loyalty programs and by participating in community events. Does your city host an annual Restaurant Week (our home town of Chicago hosts theirs in late January) or an industry-specific convention? Take advantage of these local monthly or annual events to help spread the news about your business.

Strategy #6: Use Print Mailers

Digital marketing has become extremely important in this age of technology. However, while it is no longer as heavily discussed, running direct mail campaign remains an effective seasonal marketing strategy. Although this strategy works better for some businesses than others, it is particularly effective when catering toward an immediate need. For example, advertising flowers in a campaign that arrives the week before Valentine's Day could work extremely well. Consider including a seasonal offer or limited use coupon code to achieve even better results.

Strategy #7: Be Aware of Social Media Trends in Your Industry

TikTok and Instagram Reels are powerful tools for turning formerly obscure products and services into trends people want to try. Being at the forefront of these trends (which are often short-lived) can positively impact your bottom line. While not all products will fit into your industry or business model, keeping an eye out for viral products like the negroni sbagliato with prosecco, butter boards, large hair claws, or popular “beautytok” products will help you be ahead of the curve and take advantage of sales trends and an online audience.

Strategy #8: Offer Seasonal Gift Wrapping

Do you sell a product that is difficult to change out seasonally? One easy way to take advantage of seasonal or holiday trends in your marketing is by offering a gift wrap option or add-on that you can easily change. Use pink hearts for Valentine’s Day, black and orange cats for Halloween, and snowflakes through the winter, or rotate through different themed gift bags, bows, or certificates. This is both a way to increase your revenue and to allow your brand identity to shine through.

Strategy #9: Host Themed Events

Themed events are a great way to engage with potential customers and attract new ones into your business. These events are a particularly good seasonal marketing strategy for bars, restaurants, cafes, diners, and more. They can bring new customers into your business and turn them into regulars. However, it is important to consider ways of advertising these special one-time or weekly events. A variety of methods, including word of mouth, social media, changeable signs, and placing flyers throughout your business can help bring visibility to these events. Using multiple strategies in conjunction with each other can be even more effective.

Still Not Sure How to Increase Your Sales? We’re Here to Help.

Our customers have been very pleased with the sales growth SpellBrite has helped them achieve. When looking for a new sign that will increase sales, however, it can be daunting to choose the right message. We can help you with that.

After years of working with businesses across various industries, we're experts in choosing sign messages tailored to your needs. We are happy to assist you, and we guarantee results. If your SpellBrite sign doesn’t immediately increase your sales or if you don’t love it for any reason, simply return it within 30 days for a full and prompt refund. We’ll even pay the cost of return shipping.

For assistance with your sign message or any other questions, or call (312-575-9620) or email ([email protected]) us. We’d be happy to help.