The B2B Guide to Seasonal Marketing

There’s an interesting conundrum in marketing: on the one hand, messages need to be repeated to remain active in a customer’s mind. On the other hand, if you just keep repeating the same message in the same way, it probably won’t be too long before customers start to tune out.

There’s an interesting conundrum in marketing: on the one hand, messages need to be repeated to remain active in a customer’s mind. On the other hand, if you just keep repeating the same message in the same way, it probably won’t be too long before customers start to tune out.

This is why it’s important to keep “changing up” marketing material so that it stays fresh. Fortunately, seasonal marketing offers a way to do this which can be both cohesive and creative.

You can use seasonal marketing even outside the holiday periods

Seasonal just means changing with the seasons, rather than being specific to holidays. So, for example, seasonal marketing could be something as simple as using imagery which reflects the time of year and what people are likely to be doing.

As a result, seasonal marketing could actually be a great way of getting in front of businesses throughout the year.  Whether it’s the beginning of summer, end of the school holidays, Black Friday or even an national awareness day, showing your involvement or relevant product for that ‘time of year’ can prove to be effective marketing.

Of course, taking advantage of more notable holidays such as; Valentine’s Day, Easter, Halloween and Christmas, will ensure your marketing is unique and valuable all year round.

Order any seasonal promotional merchandise well in advance

If you’re using seasonal marketing tactics, then you’ll want to ensure that this is reflected in any promotional merchandise you offer.

For example, you might want to provide customers and staff with personalized Easter eggs. It’s understandable that you might not consider ordering them until February, but most printing businesses will likely end the production for these products around this time, so thinking about these products in December (although very early) will ensure you get your promotional materials. Obviously, if you’re buying food items, you’ll need to consider shelf life, so you don’t want to order too far ahead, but you certainly don’t want to leave it to the last minute either.

Confectionery manufacturers in particular create seasonal products (or more accurately seasonal packaging) because there’s a high demand for it at certain times of the year and you want to be at the head of the queue for them rather than at the back. The best way to make sure this happens is to plan well in advance and then ask the vendor when they suggest you place your order.

Customize your content formats to suit different times of the year

Think about what people are likely to be doing at specific times of the year and, in particular, how much time and energy they’re likely to have, then adjust your content to reflect that.

For example, just after New Year people may be full of good intentions, but they’re probably also going to be gently easing themselves back into work after their break, plus it’s still very much winter so short and light-hearted is probably the way to go.

However, by the time spring arrives, people are more likely to be much energized and ready to crack on with the year, so this could be a good time for longer-form, more in-depth content which is still inspirational.