How to Make a Seasonal Marketing Planner

A seasonal marketing planner is a necessary tool for any business. It acts as a guide to creating marketing content for distribution throughout the year. Marketing planners can be structured to plan out a year, or five years, of business promotions and brand recognition. A seasonal is based on holidays, seasonal events, or another significant day.

The easiest way to build your marketing planner is to start by sitting down with a desk calendar and writing down all the holidays you will want to use in your marketing campaigns. If you are all about keeping things digital, you can also use an excel or google docs document to build it as well. Depending on the type of business you have, some holidays will be more beneficial than others. Focus on the ones for your industry first. Later on, if you decide to add in a few others to test them out, that is ok too.

Next, you will want to add in seasonal events such as local functions, community events, trade shows, and holiday parties. Take into consideration you can also use other activities such as the super bowl and Cyber Monday. Think about monthly themes such as wedding season in the month of July, or graduation month in May.

Another fun thing to add to your marketing planner is the currently trending national or world days; or, hashtag holidays. By keeping up with the current days theme as well as using their associated hashtags; you have a unique way to keep your posts out in front of everyone. There are over a hundred of these, and on some dates, there are even multiples on the same day. You can use the lists that are put out across the internet to help you to choose which ones you would like to add. Some fun examples include:

National Tequila Day                      World Sea Turtle Day

International Cat Day                     National Ice Cream Day

National Goof Off Day                   World Photo Day

Take a Hike Day                              International Yoga Day

May the 4th be with You               Dress up Your Pet Day

Now that you have written out all of your holidays and events think about what type of services or products that would go well with each of them. Don’t forget to include marketing you already do to promote your brands such as newsletters, webinars, blogs, and e-books. You can choose additional marketing to coincide with what you already have in place.

Next, decide which promotional methods you will use for each product. Take into consideration the timing of events and holidays when choosing which method to use as not all methods work for every season. Your preferred method should not only correspond with your holiday or event, but with the product or service, as well as the other marketing you are already doing.

 Remember to add in extra promotions to your marketing planner during your peak season, when you have the most business. You will want to ensure that you are doing the most advertising during that time. However, don’t forget the non-peak seasons as well. While you will not want to push as many promotions during this period, you will still want to make sure you are promoting brand awareness by keeping your business out in front of everyone.

Take your time when making your marketing plan. Don’t rush, and make sure to be realistic about how much time you need to get it all set up. Remember to be flexible as even the best-laid plans need to change or be sometimes adjusted. Building a seasonal marketing calendar takes time, however, if you are willing to put in the work for it, it will pay off in the long run.