How to use special days and occasions to help drum up sales

They can give you a wonderful hook for a marketing campaign and offer the opportunity to engage with customers at times of the year they are ready to spend money.

For example, if you can drum up some excitement for your restaurant ahead of Mother’s Day, you can help ensure that your tables are booked for lunch or dinner. The good news is that digital marketing tools can enable you to be quick, clever and efficient in the way you reach the market with seasonal promotions and campaigns.

Image source: Gallo/Getty

Here are some tips about how you can make a success of seasonal marketing campaigns throughout the year.

Plan your content marketing calendar

It can be helpful to start each year by drawing up a calendar of the seasonal events that are important for your business so you can plan your campaigns for Back to School, Christmas, Easter, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, the Rugby World Cup and so on. You should start thinking about the content and execution of the digital marketing strategy for a special day at least six weeks to two months before the time.

Start with the concept

What’s the hook for your Mother’s Day promotion? Will you have any special products or deals to promote? What will resonate with your customers? Drawing up a set of goals and aligning it with a creative concept can help you be more strategic and feed the content you create for the duration of your campaign.

Blogging

Writing some blog posts themed around a special day can be a great way to show your personality to customers, drive web traffic and subtly promote your offerings. Your blog posts shouldn’t be a sales overkill; the goal should be to engage and inform your audience. If you’re a florist, you could, for example, write a post about traditional flowers for Mother’s Day and how the tradition of giving flowers came about.

E-mail marketing

You should start your e-mail marketing campaign for a special day a month or two before the time. Use your e-mail database to send customers relevant and personalised offers. Don’t send too many e-mails, but rather make sure each one has something compelling to offer the customer. You can use your blog content in a newsletter format, promote deals or suggest gift ideas.

Social media

Your social media tools are a great way to build your business profile for a special event or day. You should have a well-planned calendar of social media content to highlight your blog posts, promotions and other relevant content ahead of the big day. Social media can also be great for tactical marketing. Watch the conversation and hop on board the hashtags and memes if they are relevant for your business.

Keep things fluid and conversational. Daily deals, flash sales, polls and user-generated content can be a great way to drive engagement. Prepare visual content ahead of the time, such as attractive product shots to go with deal promotions, for example.

Search ads

If you’re looking for more of an edge than you’re getting from organic search and social media, you may want to consider some online ad placements for your seasonal promotions. Your text ad could appear alongside search results when someone conducts a relevant search on a search engine tool.

Make sure your website is ready

If a particular event is a big deal for your business, it can be worth the effort to create a special section, landing page or customised look-and-feel for the day. You can refresh your website with visuals, copy and calls-to-action that reflect the season or special day. You don’t need to revamp your entire website – perhaps just add a sprig of holly in the corner of the page for Christmas, use a holiday-themed wallpaper in the background or add some copy and photos for the gifs you are promoting.