Planting seeds for seasonal marketing

How does your marketing grow? The core should always be made up of a plan for the long-term view with evergreen and perennial content. Annuals should only be added as needed to meet current trends.

That sales and marketing should be aligned is indisputable. But that the sales department should dictate marketing is definitely disputable. 

My experience an SaaS startup for eCommerce businesses crystalized that recognition for me.  Initially, I worked on content planned with the CEO and produced some solid, evergreen pieces. However, when  a VP of marketing whose background was in sales and not in marketing came in, she pushed everything into a short term perspective.

This was manifested in constantly pushing content around coupons and discount codes to drive customers to purchase. Pushing promotions is the ultimate short-term marketing effort designed for immediate sales alone.

While discounts are definitely a big part of retail sales, they should not be the sole strategy used by sellers who want to cultivate long term relationships with customers. The goal of marketing is not just to convert customers based on sales for the week or occasion but to win loyal customers with a high customer lifetime value (CLV) who have your brand top-of-mind when they're ready to purchase even without a coupon as part of the deal. 

Perennial vs. annual planting 

Building a relationship with customers on the basis of marketing is like planting a garden. You can go for the quick wins of instant color and results for the season by planting annuals. That's the marketing done from the perspective of people who come from sales who always favor immediate results. 

But for real value, you plan perennials, which will deliver blooms of color year after year. That's what a true marketing perspective takes into account.

 
A perennial perspective doesn't mean ignoring seasonal opportunities. On the contrary, it sees the value of planning for repeated returns in all seasons with marketing messages and content that are relevant for that time of year and that occasion that will recur. 

Yearly holiday vs. pandemic holiday

Notice that I referred to an occasion that will recur as forming the core of your marketing. That doesn't mean that you ignore current trends altogether but that you recognize that they are transient. That means they they won't deliver the same bang for your marketing bucks as the perennial marketing you plan.

 Nothing illustrates that better than the mistake many businesses made in going all-in on pandemic messaging while ignoring their need for evergreen content. 

This is particularly striking in the content of the content marketing that the startup I worked for decided to feature for Halloween. There was no pre-existing content for that holiday's importance to the world of eCommerce on the site, so I created an evergreen holiday piece on different  possible approaches to fall and Halloween marking. 

Thinking only of the short-term, though, the VP demanded a different piece that explicitly centered around the pandemic's impact on Halloween. That's what was put on the site, and that bit of annual color is of  no interest to anyone today. 

For a business that already had created core content, including standard seasonal and holiday content, it would have been a strategic move to some pieces that centered around the impact of the pandemic on the industry and its customers in 2020-2021. In fact, it would have been smart to use some of that to link to their more traditional content to point out the need to adapt to the times with new strategies and approaches.

However, for businesses that were just building out their content, devoting all resources to pandemic-centered content with only masked people shown on their site was a mistake. If they failed to move that content off the main pages of their sites in the past year or two they were showing their own failure to adapt to the changing needs of the time. 
 

Pick a Pumpkin for Perfectly Personalized October Marketing

  Pick a Pumpkin for Perfectly Personalized October Marketing

by Ariella Brown

We in the 2020s, and it's time for marketers to take a more inclusive approach for their messaging this season. Not everyone celebrates Halloween, and even those who do are likely to be scaling it back  this year.

Halloween is a major occasion for sales in a normal year as close to 70% of Americans, according to Statista,  celebrate. Ever think about the 30% that don’t? 

This is a good year to take them into consideration.

A combination of outright restrictions and individual choices are  taking parades, traditional trick-or-treating and big bashes  off the table for October 31. Consequently, even people who normally do shell out the NRF’s estimated average of  $86 and change  for the day are expected to spend less this year, reports Market Watch.

But that doesn’t mean that October is a bust for marketing. On the contrary, there are opportunities to effectively target customers by understanding what this point in the calendar means to them. 

That means identifying what kind of pumpkin resonates with your customer: Is it  a jack-o’-lantern, an ordinary gourd, or pumpkin spice flavor? 

Jack-o’-lantern marketing

https://p0.pikrepo.com/preview/471/304/jack-o-lantern-on-brown-surface-thumbnail.jpg

These customers are the prime target for straight-up, over-the-top Halloween marketing. Even among them, though, there are still distinct segments, and marketing should be targeted accordingly. 

You have your customers who think of it as a celebration centered around children and who want the products and imagery to reflect that. Think cartoon-style ghosts and witches to go with your classic or plastic jack-o’-lantern.

For those at a different stage of life, Halloween may be about adult parties where alcohol is served and where the spookiness rating goes from G to R. Imagery for that is more realistic and possibly more risque. 

How to know which witch to go with for your messaging? Segment your communication.

Plain pumpkin marketing

The picture above is from the Bed Bath & Beyond site. The classic harvest setup is the one that was chosen for the cover of the catalogue it sent me with the “let’s get this fall rolling” emblazoned on it.

The decor is about celebrating Fall rather than Halloween, though even that can come with different vibes, according to one’s particular taste. It makes sense for Bed Bath & Beyond to target the plain pumpkin type of customers because they make up the general Fall market.

That market is far-reaching, extending from food to fashion, cosmetics to decor, even blankets needed for cooler nights. Bed Bath & Beyond carries items from all of those categories.

For those who want a particular date to which to tie their purchases, this year there is 10/10. As Bloomberg reported, the designated shopping day is inspired by China’s Singles’ Day, which sparks record levels of shopping every year on 11/11.

This new October shopping event is the brainchild of Deborah Weinswig, a retail consultant. She told Bloomberg that she has been pressing for it for years, though this year retailers finally embraced it in the hopes of starting December shopping earlier to make sure inventory and delivery can keep up with demand.

Pumpkin spice marketing mystique

For some, ordinary pumpkins just don’t cut it. But pumpkin spice is another matter, particularly the latte associated with the flavor that owns the acronym, PSL.

The pumpkin spice mystique is not just about the flavor; it’s about building a connection with customers based on anticipation and engagement. Starbucks does it brilliantly.

Beginning in August, Starbucks kicks up the buzz as speculation about when the first one of the new season will be poured builds. Starbucks deliberately switches the date of release each year to maintain the mystery and increase anticipation.

Even brands that don’t sell anything associated with pumpkin spice directly can apply this marketing approach. When you want to build up to the launch of a new product, a special event, or even a return of a seasonal item, you can let your customers know to look out for it and build their excitement.

A similar approach can work for just about any retailer who can deliver the right message to connect with customers. It’s all about finding what they will find relevant to them and segmenting accordingly.

This season, the marketers that show they really know their customers are the ones who will deliver the inclusive and on target communication. They know that one pumpkin does not fit all.

 

For a literary connection for pumpkin spice marketing, see 

From Shakespeare to Starbucks: Pumpkin spice marketing mystique