What is Seasonal Marketing? (+Build a Campaign in 5 Steps)

Like it or not, seasonality impacts every small business. Whether it’s the ebbs and flows of changing seasons or the highs and lows of the holidays, seasonal marketing can help you attract new customers and showcase your brand’s personality.

In this post, we’ll teach you how to create an effective seasonal marketing campaign and review examples of other businesses that launched successful ones as well. We’ll also share a handy playbook you can use to navigate the holiday season and take advantage of seasonal marketing trends. 

What is Seasonal marketing?

Seasonal marketing promotes your services or products during specific times of the year.

For example, summer may provide marketing opportunities for warmer weather or time off. You can also focus on holidays like Halloween, Valentine’s Day, and traditional December holidays.

Another option is to concentrate on seasons relevant to your industry. For instance, salons can focus on wedding seasons, while accountants can boost business during tax season. 

In other words, seasonal marketing takes advantage of spikes in demand in your industry. Seasons and holidays often increase buying behavior, which leads to new trends, products, and offers in the market.

Understanding Marketing Seasonality

This chart breaks down monthly retail spending in 2024. As you can see, consumers spend the most in October, November, and December. Why? Because those months feature some of the most popular U.S. holidays. 

While the winter holidays typically drive the most sales for small businesses, the chart above only considers retail sales. Service-based companies are also affected by seasonality, but depending on the holiday, these industries experience either a peak or a lull. 

For example, landscapers typically do less work during the winter and rainy seasons. Holidays like Christmas and Thanksgiving aren’t as busy for these businesses, which is why many of them offer seasonal services. During the slower winter season, they switch to plowing or setting up holiday decor to keep revenue up despite less demand for their most popular services. 

What is seasonal analysis marketing?

Seasonal analysis marketing involves researching your customer base and buying habits throughout the year. By identifying when customers are most likely to make a purchase and the products they buy frequently, you can advertise more effectively during peak seasons and generate more sales for your business.

Here are some questions you might answer for a seasonal marketing campaign:

• When do customers buy the most from my business? When is my peak season?
• Who is buying the most from my business?
• What products are my top sellers, and when are they selling?
• Why does the demand for my product increase or decrease at different times of the year? 

How should small businesses market seasonal products? 

Businesses in retail spaces should market seasonal products. Seasonal products keep customers engaged and give them something to look forward to at different times of the year (who doesn’t get excited about pumpkin spice lattes, am I right?).

The key to seasonal product marketing is simplicity. It’s better to invest in one or two holidays than to spread yourself too thin and try to cover every holiday throughout the year. You likely won’t have the resources to produce good products consistently, and you’ll constantly try to keep up with each release. 

Think about the Hess truck. Its commercials come back (better than ever) every year around Christmas. It’s synonymous with the holiday season and something consumers can look forward to in December.

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A post shared by Hess Toy Truck (@hesstoytruck)

The Hess Corporation started this tradition in the 1960s to thank customers and build brand loyalty. While the company has since sold most of its gas stations, the toy and the tradition help keep the brand alive.

Seasonal Marketing Examples

Hess is just one example of how seasonal marketing can attract more customers to your business. Below is a list of other ideas inspired by real companies. 

1. Build a seasonal gifting program. – Toftegaard Design

Sara Toftegaard is the founder and designer of Toftegaard Design, crafting exterior home and garden design plans that, as she explains, “are rooted in sustainability and wellness.”

While Florida is warm all year round, exterior landscaping and design aren’t necessarily booming in winter. An example of seasonal marketing done right is the “Toftegaard’s Bouquet of Referrals: Planting Seeds of Design” campaign.

Toftegaard told us, “I started at the end of December, and that was to get my friends and family thinking about my business and how they can promote me, but also give them a gift in exchange.”

The campaign was simple. “Any time someone refers me to a friend or family member who hires me for a consultation, I will give them a bouquet from my local florist or a plant from a local vendor.”

What we like about this campaign: 

• Timeliness: Starting this campaign at the end of December aligns well with the following spring season in the U.S., where Toftegaard is based. Many homeowners think about landscaping projects in spring, so it’s a strategic time to plant the seed of awareness – pun intended – for the business before the busy season.
• Customer Incentives: Offering a gift to people who refer friends and family encourages word-of-mouth marketing. Plus, people might be more likely to recommend a business when they know there’s something in it for them.
• Value-Added Service: Providing a gift as a token of appreciation adds value to the customer experience. It’s a way to go above and beyond and show gratitude for their support.

In addition to growing her business and providing value to her customers, this campaign matched Toftegaard’s ethos. “I always want to promote local. So, it’s a way to promote my business and keep people thinking about other local businesses they can support.”

2. Offer a seasonal savings event – Nissan

If your business experiences high and low seasons, you may want to launch a sale that capitalizes on additional foot traffic or reignites interest in your business. 

Car dealerships do this in the summer. Brands like Nissan launch “Summer of Savings” events that discount different cars or offer special financing options. They promote these deals via social media, paid search campaigns, and TV commercials, drumming up attention during their busiest months of the year.

Car dealerships use seasonal marketing to compete with other brands during peak seasons. These deals incentivize customers to shop with local dealers because price is a key factor during car-buying decisions. If two dealerships sell the same car at different prices, the cheaper car will be sold faster.

What we like about this campaign: 

• Customer Research: These deals work because dealerships understand customer behavior. They know people prefer to buy in the summer and price is a key factor in their decision.
• Simplicity: This seasonal campaign is easy for small business owners to follow and replicate. You create a sale, then find the best times and channels to promote it. 

3. Host a social media giveaway – MONAT GEAR

It doesn’t matter if it’s St. Patrick’s Day, Valentine’s Day, or Taco Tuesday, giveaways are a great way to draw attention to your business. Offer a free product or service and use social media to share the details of your contest. It could be as simple as giving away free swag to the first people commenting or adding them to a lottery for a grand prize when they share your post. 

Here’s an example of a social media giveaway for St. Patrick’s Day. This clothing brand entered followers into a contest when they liked the post and shared it with three friends.

seasonal marketing campaign from monat

What we like about this campaign:

• Customer Value: Participating in this campaign is easy. Customers just have to like and comment on the post. 
• Exclusivity: The prize includes exclusive items that are not offered online. That’s very enticing if you follow or like this brand.

4. Sponsor a local event – Krogh’s Annual Turkey Trot

Events go hand in hand with holidays; where there are events, there are sponsorship opportunities. 

Sponsoring an event improves brand visibility. That’s particularly important for small businesses that must stay relevant in local markets. Events help you connect directly with a community, present networking opportunities, and strengthen your brand’s reputation. 

One event that small businesses can sponsor is road races. Many communities host races throughout the year, often coinciding with holidays like Thanksgiving and Independence Day. Here’s an example from Krogh’s Annual Turkey Trot, which offers sponsorships ranging from goodie bags to grandstand sponsorships. 

The goodie bags are a great idea for small businesses because participants are handed them after the race. That means dozens, if not hundreds, of people get a sample of your product hand-delivered to them with nothing else to focus on but your goodie bag. If you’ve ever run a road race, you know racers love those bags and look at everything inside. 

What we like about this campaign:

• Customer Engagement: Events like these are a great way to connect with customers. You can meet them face to face, build relationships, and have meaningful conversations unrelated to your business. 
• Experiential Marketing: Goodie bags are a subtle but effective way to reach customers. They put your product in front of them without distractions.

5. Re-engage customers via email – Sharon Timlin Memorial 5K

Email marketing is effective because it can be automated. You can schedule an email for a specific day and time and use marketing automation to follow up with customers without writing another message. It’s efficient and ensures you stay in constant contact with your customers. 

Email is great for reconnecting with customers around seasons and holidays because it’s less intrusive than a phone call but more direct than an advertisement or social media post. Emails can be personalized for each recipient on your contact list, and you can choose exactly when to send your message. That helps maximize your open rates, ensuring customers see your message and engage with your promotion.

Here’s a brand that should (and does) use email marketing effectively. This event is held each spring, and the company emails participants in March and April to remind them to sign up. 

This timely message utilizes seasonal messages to re-engage customers and encourage repeat purchases. 

What we like about this campaign:

• Personalization: This email uses marketing automation to personalize the message for my inbox. It includes my name and past donations from previous years.
• Additional Value: The email doesn’t just remind me to donate or sign up. It includes training tips and things to know about this year’s race. 

6. Update your website – Home Depot

If you have an online store, consider updating it each season to keep your content fresh. It will keep customers engaged because there are constantly new items to shop for.

For example, Home Depot devotes a section of its website to different holidays each season. It updates these pages throughout the year and features special promos leading to each holiday. Customers can access these pages year-round and monitor them for updates. 

This seasonal marketing campaign effectively leverages SEO (search engine optimization). Since these pages are available year-round, they’re more likely to appear when people Google terms like “Memorial Day deals.” Google knows these pages are active, so they’re more likely to appear at the top of search results. 

What we like about this campaign: 

• User-Friendly: These landing pages include built-in navigation, so it’s easy to find specific products or deals. 

7. Bring back a customer favorite – McDonald’s

Whether you like McDonald’s or not, there’s no denying the popularity of the McRib. But people don’t just love it because it’s “boneless pork dipped in a tangy BBQ sauce;” They love it because it’s not something you can’t get every day. When the McRib is back, it’s an event, and McDonald’s lets people know about it. 

Seasonal marketing campaigns like this don’t just attract customers; they create loyal fans for your business. Customers get involved in your marketing campaigns, getting other people interested in your products. For example, did you know there’s a McRib locator? That’s right; a free app shows you where the most recent McRib sighting was. 

This is effective for two reasons. First, it demonstrates brand loyalty. Your customers have to really love the McRib to build a whole website for it. The other benefit is repeat purchases. People can use this tool to find restaurants that sell the McRib. It’s like a customer referral program built by McDonald’s customers. 

What we like about this campaign: 

• Spontaneity: McRib season changes constantly, which is part of why it’s so successful. People don’t know when it will be back and for how long.
• Branding: There’s only one McRib. Competitors can make similar sandwiches, but it will take time to create the same branding effect as McDonald’s. 

8. Launch a new product or service – Harpoon Brewery

Another example of a seasonal marketing campaign is launching a new product. It could be a new version of an existing product or an extension of your product line. Launching it during peak seasons will help you attract customers eager to buy from your business. 

For example, most breweries offer a seasonal product line because different types of beer are more appealing at different times of year. Most people crave a lighter beer in the summer, while an IPA or stout is typically more satisfying in the winter.

Brands like Harpoon craft different beers for different times of the year. This increases customer loyalty because people look forward to new products or the return of past recipes. They have a reason to keep buying Harpoon and will look specifically for it in stores.

What we like about this campaign: 

• Flexibility: Harpoon can create new recipes for different seasons or repeat past favorites. There are plenty of directions you can take with this campaign. 

9. Bundle offers together – Farmette Co.

Bundles are a great idea for almost any seasonal marketing campaign. They help you sell more products and offload old inventory. It’s a win for your customers and for your business. 

The best bundles include products or services that relate to each other. For example, a barber might offer discounted hair care products with each haircut you get at their business. Or, a pet sitter might provide grooming services as an additional offer. It works because it’s convenient for the customer and fulfills two needs simultaneously.

Here’s an example from a company called Farmette Co. It sells handmade greeting cards in bundles, so you don’t have to keep going to stores for birthdays, anniversaries, and other occasions.

This campaign is effective because not many people would buy individual cards online. Bundling them together makes it a better deal because customers get ten cards instead of one.

What we like about this campaign: 

• Customer Testimonials: The product page features testimonials from satisfied customers who purchased this product. 
• Brand Persona: Below the product is a detailed explanation of how these cards are made, with interesting pictures and descriptions of each step.

How to Create a Seasonal Marketing Campaign 

Now that you’ve seen seasonal marketing strategies in action, let’s break down five steps to building your campaign.

1. Understand your customers.

Research your customers’ needs, challenges, and questions to effectively tailor your campaign. The more you understand your customers, the more effective your content will be. Use tools like Google Analytics, Google Trends, and your CRM to research consumer behavior in your industry. 

2. Choose the right seasonal focus.

Select a seasonal opportunity or holiday that resonates with your brand and target audience. Remember, that might change depending on your industry. For example, if business slows during the summer, you might avoid a Memorial Day marketing campaign. Look for peak seasons and holidays, and create campaigns that maximize your return on investment.

3. Create compelling content.

Craft captivating content that highlights your unique offerings, addresses customer needs, and delivers genuine value through storytelling and visuals. Remember to include a strong call to action.

4. Start early and promote on various channels.

Launch your campaign before the season or holiday starts to build anticipation and momentum. That ensures you’re not coming in late to the seasonal party. Plus, sharing your content across various marketing channels like social media, email, and your website will allow maximum reach and engagement.

5. Monitor and adjust your strategy.

Keep track of key performance indicators like website traffic, sales, and any feedback customers might share to assess your campaign’s effectiveness. Make necessary adjustments in real time to optimize results and enhance future campaigns.

Marketing Seasonality for Small Businesses

Seasonal marketing may seem daunting, but it’s a huge opportunity for small business owners. You can attract new leads and re-engage existing customers who haven’t shopped at your business in a while. With these seasonal tips and tricks, you can make a splash in your industry and leave a lasting impression on your audience.