Your marketing should be on the ball 365 days of the year. However, in order to boost traffic and conversions, some more important times need to be taken into consideration – Christmas, Valentines, and Halloween; to name a few.
Christmas
To begin, let us take Christmas as an example – the biggest holiday of the year! Itâs a brilliant time to hone in on your marketing efforts and reap the benefits of festive shopping. Plus, what better way to celebrate than encouraging your team of marketers to spread joy to your audience? Check out our post showcasing some of the best examples of brands bringing festive joy through their homepages for some inspiration for next Christmas. You’ll soon notice a gift guide theme going on.
But, Christmas is an obvious one, you might say. Donât worry, weâre just getting warmed up here…
Christmas may seem far away, but the sooner you prep your marketing campaigns, the better. Check out this guide we made 3 years ago and still stick by today. Call it your early Christmas gift from us! đ#marketing #marketingtips #socialmedia #seohttps://t.co/nRw3y0UOP0 pic.twitter.com/3At2wyJg34
— Bulldog Digital Media (@BulldogAgency) July 5, 2018
New Years
Itâs the start of a new beginning! And for businesses, it means the beginning of a new marketing plan. Leading up to New Years, every business should be gathering all their data and reports to start analysing how well the year has been. Once a detailed report has been typed up, it would be time to start nit-picking at all mistakes made during the year.
We all wonder what 2019 is going to be like: what should we expect? What should we be ready for? đ¤ @BulldogAgency asked 22 experts about their 2019 predictions and thatâs what they said đhttps://t.co/RfghorTaMJ by @BulldogBuzz pic.twitter.com/CKxXE2cqGL
— Pitchbox App (@PitchboxApp) December 9, 2018
We wonât bore you with the ins-and-outs of this, but the point here is that each year, you must have an intense new digital marketing plan. One that will not only continue on the great work done last year but will also encourage a broader audience reach and an overall increase in business.
Valentineâs Day
Next up, we have Valentineâs day. Itâs coming up fast so, hopefully, you have already been planning a genius marketing plan that will steal the hearts of any potential new clients you have. Itâs the perfect day to romanticise your business and prove to your audience that yours is the only one worth engaging with. Letâs say youâre a small high street shop. Let everyone know that youâre the shop to go to for gifts that hold meaning and value.
Do you remember The Body Shopâs Valentines marketing campaign last year? #SendingAKiss was a massive hit for The Body Shop and no wonder!
They used a competition to get their social media audience to:
đ Follow their Instagram account (which increased their audience big time).
đ Share a selfie with a friend of them blowing a kiss (marketing a lipstick product of theirs).
đ Include the hashtag #SendingAKiss and their country (building their own hashtag, while of course, increasing their audience).
It truly was a brilliant marketing campaign and one to take note of. Don’t worry – if you’re not in ecommerce, you can still utilise the holidays period to market your brand…
Other holidays
While Christmas, New Yearâs and Valentines are important holidays to note in your marketing diary, you should also remember Easter and Halloween.
Have a look at Carlsbergâs Easter holiday campaign from a few years back. Theyâve since used the hashtag #IfCarlsBergDid to continue making campaigns that draw attention to their brand.
It’s also worth looking at holiday calendars in order to find smaller, but marketing-worthy, days. Mental Health Day has been a huge one in recent years; an extremely important day which encouraged us to spark a conversation about happiness in the workplace.
Your working environment can have a huge impact on your mental health. In light of #WorldMentalHealthDay, we are focusing on what makes us happy here at Bulldog. Have a read & take some tips! đ #happinessintheworkplacehttps://t.co/mgZswmrJZR
— Bulldog Digital Media (@BulldogAgency) October 10, 2018
Big events
Additionally, large events and topics that everyoneâs talking about should be on your radar too. That could be events such as football games, the Olympics, and even topics on the environment.
Letâs take a look at the most recent global environmental topic thatâs taken to social media – the #10YearChallenge. If you havenât heard about it, the #10YearChallenge was originally floating around social media sites for people to post selfies 10 years apart to see the changes.
It has since become a huge hashtag highlighting the negative and positive effects humans have had on the Earths environment in 10 years. It was a genius idea for Greenpeace and other companies to use to spread awareness of the impact we have as a collective, while also marketing their brand.
Arctic 100 years ago vs Today.
This is the truth about the #10YearChallenge. RT if you agree. #climatechange
(Images courtesy of Christian Ă slund and The Norwegian Polar Institute) pic.twitter.com/TrnpbgPUOt
— Greenpeace (@Greenpeace) January 17, 2019
It will be interesting to see what other large topics come around during 2019.
Making your audience feel as though they can relate to you is incredibly important. By using these times of the year, you can do precisely that; reach out and connect to your audience to build a stronger business to client/customer relationship.
Seasonal changes
Next on our list is seasonal changes – which might sound a little strange at first, but stick with us on this one. Changes in weather = changes in mood. Generally speaking, when summer is coming around most of us start to feel a little more motivated and overall, happier. A good marketer can use this to spread awareness of their product/business.
One way to market during the tough winter season is to write a blog post, giving readers a comforting feeling of warmth and togetherness. ASOS wrote a fantastic winter-inspired blog last year on 3 ways to wear winter layers. This was not only relatable for tonnes of readers but cleverly marketed their products.
If youâre unsure how to create seasonal marketing campaigns, have a read through Hubspot’s guide to seasonal marketing or get in touch with us here at Bulldog Digital Media.
Have your say
Now that weâve taken a look at the most important times of the year that your marketing needs to be on point, do tell us about your experience with marketing throughout the year. Weâd love to hear your opinions on what times of the year your marketing efforts work best and why.