Since many businesses experience a boost in profits around holidays and special events, it pays to adjust your marketing based on seasonal sales opportunities.

A marketing campaign that capitalises on current trends and upcoming seasons provides businesses with the opportunity to position themselves as an adaptive and quick-to-react business. Campaigns influenced by customer buying patterns help tailor to the specific needs of your target market and can further promote your brand.

Here are some ways to maximise seasonal opportunities:

Pick the right opportunities
Ensure your marketing campaign meets the needs of your target market. Understanding your target market and their purchasing behaviour will help to hone into the festivities that may appeal to them and allows you to design your marketing campaign based around their wants and needs.

Holiday-based strategies
Calendar holidays and occasions such as Christmas, New Year and Valentine’s Day provide businesses with a specific opportunity to market to your target audience. Consider offering special discounts, increasing your availability for appointments if you are a service-based business or offering incentives such as a free gift-wrapping service.

Weather-based strategies
Take advantage of seasonal changes, such as the beginning of summer, to create new marketing campaigns. Identifying the seasons in which your sales peak and decline, is a good starting point to discover where your business may need to increase sales.

Reuse, recycle
As marketing efforts can be relatively expensive, consider reusing past marketing campaigns that were successful. Past campaigns may be recycled if they are still relevant or only need a few minor amendments. When developing a seasonal marketing campaign avoid time-specific references so the content can be used again.

Include a call-to-action
Seasonal campaigns will often have a deadline due to the nature of the campaign and therefore require a call-to-action. Consider encouraging customers to contact your business via email, telephone or social media in your campaign and include deadlines for any special offers to create a sense of urgency. If uptake on promotions is not as expected you may extend offers for additional time.