Whether you are in charge of the marketing efforts for a large global business or you are a one-woman band doing your own advertising, marketing and sales, how you approach festive occasions like Halloween, Easter, and Christmas can be more important than you may initially think. Did you know that Halloween is now the second most profitable trading event after Christmas? Not leveraging this holiday could be the difference between making a profitable year and a loss-making one.
Although you may be striving to avoid any gimmicky marketing tactics, incorporating the holidays into your marketing campaigns do not have to be tacky and repetitive. There are countless psychological reasons why staying on ‘seasonal trend’ can have its merits.
Reactance Theory
The nature of seasonal holidays is that they will inevitably come to an end and are only a brief deviation from the structure of our usual day to day schedules. For this reason, the so-called “reactance theory” comes into play here. As all seasonal holidays do not last all year around, the limited nature of them mean a majority of people will react immediately to prevent missing out. Although you can simulate this limited edition sensation with other offers at other times of the year, nothing will work as well as universal seasonal occasions which have a defined ‘expiration date’.
More Active Prospective Shoppers
Everybody knows and can see that there are more people shopping in the run up to Christmas than any other time of the year. This is true with online traffic too. A perfect demonstration of this influx in shoppers is that the combined total time for online browsing across Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day hit 44.3 million hours in 2015. Furthermore, one in every 88 searches made in the UK on Christmas Day included the world ‘sale’ or ‘sales’. As there are more people actively looking for your goods or services it is vital that you utilise this uplift in traffic online and in physical stores. You can do this with offering enticing deals, increased Christmas staff; all making it that much easier for a buyer to purchase from your company.
Cost and Time Effective
The dependable nature of seasonal campaigns marketing means that you will be guaranteed the same occasion year after year. In effect, any time and resource you spend brainstorming and building on your Christmas marketing campaigns will become sustainable for the next year as well. What is more, any print material or visual props for any physical store can easily be recycled too, allowing you to save on costs every year.
Already in the Mindset
The amazing thing around the holiday season is that on the whole, moods are lifted, so people are more inclined to part with their money and less likely to overthink spending. Ecommerce sales were predicted to rise to £126bn in 2016, this is an 11% increase on 2015. These stats demonstrate that people are now even more comfortable to spend money online than ever before. Directly talking to these willing shoppers online and in your store front with your marketing copy and brand can help them make their decision a little easier. A great example of a company who do this is Pick it Pack it. Although this company sells something unrelated to the Halloween period, their marketing team created branded graphics which were suited to the season to attract traffic to their website.
Feel a Part of Something
Although the holidays are a joyous time, a large majority of us still need to go to work every day, sometimes up until the very day before Christmas; UK employees receive an average of 26 days of annual leave every year. This means many of us will spend the majority of the festive season in the workplace. So, bringing the holiday season to the social media experience that day, or to their email inbox can remind your prospective customers that the festivities are still very much in full swing. With your seasonal marketing campaign you’re telling your prospective customers and returning customers that by visiting your website, you are guaranteeing them some festive cheer and great deals which will fill the need to their festive needs.
