This month’s theme is Seasonal Marketing…
You knew this was coming, planning. I will try to make this part as painless as possible, I promise.
One of the biggest hurdles in doing a new product or project is that you may be thinking, “Man, I don’t want to have to create something new with a holiday theme just so I can do seasonal marketing.”
Totally get that! And trust me, no one is probably lazier than me. I repurpose things all. the. time.
Today’s quick video is going to show you how you can use your evergreen content in your seasonal marketing so that you can save time and whip right through and get your campaign up and going.
Planning is everything – how to mesh evergreen content with seasonal marketing
You knew this was coming, planning. I will try to make this part as painless as possible, I promise.
One of the biggest hurdles in doing a new product or project is that you may be thinking, “Man, I don’t want to have to create something new with a holiday theme just so I can do seasonal marketing.”
Totally get that. And trust me, no one is probably lazier than me. I repurpose things all the time. So today’s quick video is going to show you how you can do this so that you can save time and whip right through and get your campaign up and going.
The first example is taking what you normally do and just adding in an offer that’s focused on the season or the event.
Let’s say you are a social media virtual assistant (VA) and your target market is mommy bloggers. An example of a seasonal offering might be as follows:
Limited Time Holiday Offer
Too busy to write during the holidays? Take December off!
30 Blog Posts in your niche, written, formatted, loaded and scheduled before December 1st!
Sign up today for this limited-time offer. Only five spots!
This offering is seasonally focused, and limited in both time offered and number of spaces so you’re both offering something seasonally focused, and offering something limited. There’s really nothing new here, just that you are honing in on your target market and solving a problem for them. Their kids are home for the holiday break and they would probably want to spend time with them rather than working.
Remember that seasons do not always mean the typical holidays that people celebrate, they can also mean the seasons of your product cycle or a special cause.
And these you can keep evergreen by not mentioning a specific date or year in the URL, but rather a topic and keywords that will be just as good next year. Such as “Tax Day Special Offer” or “Christmas Crafts for Homeschoolers” or “Turkey Day Two for One” or “Labor Day Content Special.” Then each year update the content but keep the URL the same.
If you are a digital marketer who sells information via your website, in other words, you don’t sell toys or physical products, you can still participate in seasonal marketing. One of the best tools we have as marketers is using the Free Report. Holidays and other events that tie into your seasonal marketing plans are great times to release free reports to help and inform your customers and attract new ones. You can offer a free report as an incentive to subscribe to a mailing list.
For holiday marketing, a free report might be as simple as a compilation of your grandmother’s favorite Christmas recipes. You might publish a
decorating guide for those on a budget, or even a helpful report about getting through the holidays with difficult relatives.
Virtually any type of business can lend itself to an evergreen free report about a holiday-themed topic while making little changes:
- Wedding-planning checklists
- Spring cleaning with environmentally friendly tools
- Summer vacation boredom chasing activities for kids
- Easy and inexpensive Halloween costumes
- Romantic getaways for Valentine’s Day
All of these subjects (and literally dozens more) naturally tie themselves to specific times of the year and can make your seasonal marketing efforts easier. Chances are you even have pre-existing content that can be reworked and repurposed to fit into different seasons. In fact, some topics – with just a few tweaks – can lend themselves to many different seasons.
For example, the topic of seasonal marketing which, as a digital marketer, I could create a product any time of the year, but a simple tweak and I have a timely seasonal product.
Shameless plug, I just added a product called Marketing & Promotions Planning templates but just by adding in New Year, it’s a great item to promote for the new year. See what I did there?
I’ve given you plenty of ideas and we brainstormed a lot and you have your idea for a seasonal marketing campaign, now what?
The first step in coordinating your content marketing with your seasonal marketing plan is to keep an editorial calendar. This can be as simple as a desk calendar you jot notes in, to an electronic calendar with reminders built-in. Whatever method you choose, it’s important that you maintain it and pay attention to it.
Some of you will print out all 12 months and have a full year of calendar to fill. Some are cyclical and will go maybe out to a quarter. And some of you, like me, will praise themselves for having the next month planned out.
Now, begin filling in your editorial calendar on a monthly level. What topics or special events will you want to address for each month?
For example, if your business is coaching couples to have a better relationship, and you want to have a campaign around Valentine’s Day, February is obviously going to be a big month for you. Make a note on your editorial calendar of the dates you want to begin talking about Valentine’s Day. Remember, you need to plan ahead. Blogging about Valentine’s Day on February 12 isn’t going to do you a lot of good. You need to start early, so mark Valentine’s Day on your calendar in December.
Catch up on other Seasonal Marketing episodes:
Did you enjoy this episode and want to put it into action? Grab this kit!
New Year Marketing and Promotion Planning
$29.00
At the end of every year, most businesses take stock of how well they have done and also look forward to the future. One of the most important tasks you can do in conjunction with this evaluation is to start planning your marketing and promotions for the new year.
Planning ahead in this way is the best way to help take your business to the next level. It will serve as a roadmap of what you need to do, and when. If you are working with other people, such as colleagues or joint venture partners, it keeps everyone on the same page.
It also helps you manage your 4 main marketing areas:
- Your website or blog (content marketing)
- Email marketing
- Social media marketing
- Special sales and promotions, including important events like product creation and launch
These work together to drive traffic, generate leads (get subscribers), and make sales. All marketing is content marketing. It’s just a question of the format of the content.
I’ve made it super easy for you to plan your next product with these templates.
Here’s what you get:
- Insider’s Guide with quick tips on product creation, seasonal marketing, and holiday promotions, etc.
- 15 Done for You Templates, Calendars, Worksheets, and Planners (all in .docx format for easy editing)
- Year At-A-Glance Marketing Calendar
- Monthly Promo and Marketing Calendar
- Daily Promo and Marketing Planner
- Marketing and Promo Goal Setting Worksheet
- Promo and Marketing Goal-Focused To-Do List
- Product Brainstorming Worksheet
- Content Creation Checklist & Planner
- Content Creation Worksheet
- Product Planning Checklist & Product Creation Planner
- Product Planning Worksheet
- Product Promotion Checklist & Planner
- Product Promotion Worksheet
As you can see, everything included in the New Year Marketing and Promotions Planning Templates will make it easy for you to plan out your next product and promotion.
0 Comments