When summer comes, most people spend time on anything other than shopping. However – as summer draws to an end and autumn kicks in, it is time for you to kick your digital marketing campaigns up a notch.
Autumn is a joyous season that presents numerous opportunities for businesses. It is the perfect time to improve your digital presence and attract new customers to your business in time for the busy winter season.
Here is a helpful autumn checklist that will make autumn marketing a breeze for any digital marketer.
Research and Understand Current Trends
Basing your marketing on what people are interested in for any season allows your business to remain relevant. You can learn about what is in trend by researching online for autumn-related trends.
You can also look at which posts and ideas people engage with on your own social media channels to learn about your audience’s current wants or needs.
You need to be ready to tweak your campaigns in response to emerging trends too. To ensure you capture the attention of as much of your target audience as possible, keep an eye on what your competitors and doing, and what your audience is talking about.
For seasonal marketing campaigns, things are ever-evolving to meet market demands. What worked a week ago may not be of much use in your campaign the next week, depending on what is happening in the market around you. As an agile marketer, you need to ensure your campaign is flexible enough to change with the times.
Audit Your Engagement and Profiles
As mentioned above, your social media pages carry a wealth of data that can be used to inform your autumn campaigns. Autumn presents the perfect opportunity to audit your socials to get insight into the best-performing posts and messaging styles over the last two seasons. This can inspire your content creation strategies for the season.
It also helps to go through last autumn’s best-performing content to see what worked then and can be used for this season too. With this data, you can craft your messaging in a way that you are sure will reach your intended audience.
You also need to pay attention to which channels you should use to reach the largest percentage of your target audience. Don’t just look at reach – look at engagement levels too to see where they are paying the most attention.
Knowing which platforms perform best and what messaging works will help gear up for a successful fall season.
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Consider Major Holidays of the Season
The fall season can present significant opportunities your business can benefit from. If there are any major holidays expected in the season, your marketing strategy should include ideas on making the most of them.
There are multiple “awareness days” each autumn as well as famous holidays such as Halloween and thanksgiving, which are synonymous with fall. Autumn also falls on the third quarter of the year, meaning you can also plan for holidays in the fourth quarter such as Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, Christmas, New Year’s, and any other important holiday to your community.
Planning in advance will ensure you are set for business even after Autumn. Autumn is also the perfect season to work on your digital marketing plan for the beginning of the new year, since you may not get the time to do this through the busy Christmas season.
Fall is also a huge season for sporting events. It kicks off different events in different parts of the world, like the basketball season, NFL season, hockey season, rally season, and cricket, among many other global sporting events. You can include marketing strategies that can appeal to sports enthusiasts to make the most of the season. If you are in the healthcare industry, fall is also synonymous with flu season.
Your business digital marketing plan should include strategies on how you can make the most of these events throughout fall before the season draws to an end.
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Advertise Your Fall Deals
If you plan to have deals for the autumn season, it is important to start advertising them towards the end of summer. You need to ensure the deals are communicated in the different digital marketing methods you use instead of waiting for clients to notice the deals from your website.
Some of the avenues you can use to attract the most attention to your autumn deals include your social media pages, paid searches, and ads. It is also essential to ensure that the deals are easy to find on your website.
Consider including links to the deals page from your ads and social media posts to make it easy for your visitors to find them.
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Show Gratitude
As mentioned earlier, autumn is the season for thanksgiving. Even as you plan your campaigns to take advantage of the season, it is also essential to take time and appreciate your customers.
Since fall ushers in the holidays, you can keep your customers happy using giveaways, discounts, sweepstakes, and lotteries. Apart from making your customers feel appreciated, it is also a fantastic way of reaching potential customers.
You can run social media contests and giveaways to place your brand in front of your target audience. Mixing traditional marketing and contesting is an ideal way of winning over new customers for your business just in time for the Christmas rush.
Conduct Email Campaigns
Autumn presents the perfect opportunity for your business to attract new customers while ensuring your current ones are reminded about your brand. Email campaigns are the best way to reach your customer base.
Segment your recipients for targeted campaigns. You can do this by using tools that segment email recipients based on common parameters and conditions.
Plan for profiling surveys and forms to acquire accurate information from your contacts. Generally, the more information you have, the more relevant your campaign proposals will be.
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Make Your Content More Personal
Like you do for other seasons, it is important to ensure that your autumn marketing content is highly personalized. The time of year is part of that personalization. Autumn brings a back-to-work feeling combined with a cosy idea of big jumpers and falling leaves. Make your content reflect where people are at mentally.
And don’t forget to aim for authenticity. For example, if you are running a back-to-school campaign, you should partner with real parents with real back-to-school needs to ensure you get the right message to the right audience.
Free Images by Deborah Hudson (license)
Prepare for a Bountiful Harvest
Once you have the information you need to create the perfect autumn digital marketing strategy, you need to set goals for the remaining part of the year to ensure you reap the most reward. Consider milestones from the year-to-date that you did not reach and whether you should now aim to complete them in autumn.
You should also consider which projects are your priority for the rest of the year to ensure you complete them in the season. The only way you will reap a bountiful harvest by the end of the autumn season is to plan ahead.
Determining your KPIs for the season and creating a plan to meet them is the best way to guarantee success by the end of the autumn season.
Conclusion
The beginning of autumn is a paramount time for online businesses. It’s time to take stock and build your audience (and plans) for the busy winter period. With the tips highlighted in this article, you can create the perfect digital marketing campaign to guarantee success throughout the season.
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