Five seasonal marketing mistakes to avoid

It’s always crucial for any brand to ramp up their marketing efforts when a big event, holiday or a new season is upcoming. It’s a perfect opportunity to promote deals, offers, products and services to increase revenue. And, of course, when done correctly, the efforts can yield positive results; traffic, leads, and conversions etc. But too often, brands lose themselves over the frenzy of the potential results and immerse themselves so deep into the theme around the holiday, event or season that their marketing falls short of the very essence of their business. This, in turn, can hurt their business even though they may be using decent digital marketing techniques.

So, if you’re looking to get an edge and avoid pitfalls that can hurt your business, keep reading to learn about seasonal digital marketing mistakes to avoid. First, let’s briefly discuss the importance of seasonal marketing.

Why use seasonal marketing?

Holidays, events and seasons have sentimental value, and consumers are aware of this. That’s why, during this time, they’re more than willing to spend their hard-earned money on products or services that bring value to their lives or the lives of their loved ones. For example, during the festive season or what many call Christmas season, many consumers are looking to buy gifts for the people in their lives. So, if you don’t market your brand’s products or services, holiday promotions and deals, you’re simply not getting in front of customers. That is the easiest way to drive customers to your competitor and lose out on seasonal marketing benefits. 

Last-minute planning

Launching a successful campaign takes proper planning and preparedness. When you do things last minute, you will likely miss out on critical details, leading to poor execution of the campaign. Your digital strategist has to work a seasonal marketing calendar into your overall digital marketing strategy to avoid this. That way, your company is more equipped to handle all of the variables you might encounter during the planning and the execution stages.

Single strategy focus

While having a strategy is good, focusing on a single approach can be detrimental to your goal. The quicker you understand that different platforms require different approaches, the more you’re able to develop a holistic strategy that uses each platform’s strengths to your advantage. For example, you can communicate the same message on your email marketing strategy as you would on your social media marketing; however, the approach needs to be different. You have to consider that customers on social media do not respond to campaigns the same way they do on email or any other platform. Social media marketing in South Africa continues to evolve, and with the rise of influencer marketing, you have plenty of opportunities to develop a social media campaign that reaches a wider audience.

And, this will differ from the holiday campaigns you’ll drive via SMS or PPC. Reach out to a social media agency in Cape Town to discuss social media options that will work for your business and help you meet your goals.

Steering away from your brand’s identity

Your customers will easily pick up an inconsistency in your communication. If you switch up and use a different language and tone to how you’ve positioned your brand, they will notice and have questions. It will impact how they navigate their relationship with your brand. Put simply, if you’re known as a serious brand with a professional and ambitious tone of voice, don’t switch up to a friendly and humorous tone of voice simply because it’s holiday-related marketing content. Any of the leading content creation agencies in South Africa that offer content creation services can ace this without much effort. At Rogerwilco, we offer content marketing services tailored to work for you, not against you, no matter the season.

Overdoing your marketing efforts

While you want to get in front of customers on platforms and channels that they use daily, be mindful of suffocating them with your marketing tactics. Sending them several emails, social posts and SMSes in one day could do more harm than good. There’s a huge difference between a cross-platform approach and stalker-like behaviour, so steer clear. Build an effective seasonal digital marketing strategy that delivers the message without overdoing it. 

Forgetting your competitor

Focusing on your strategy is good, but you shouldn’t forget to check in on your competition to learn about the type of seasonal marketing content they’re putting out there and, more importantly, how customers receive it. This will help you create an even better strategy for your seasonal marketing and potentially lead you to generate sales and meet other goals.

Final thoughts

Your golden ticket to rewarding seasonal marketing efforts lies in your planning of effective, inclusive and diversified marketing campaigns. So, avoid the above pitfalls and watch your brand reap the benefits. We’re only a phone call or email away, whenever you require the assistance of a qualified and experienced digital marketing agency. Connect with us!