A few marketing strategies to consider before summer ends & fall begins…

Your business changes with the seasons, and so should your marketing. Restaurants remove the summer cocktails and add warmed and spiced beverages to their menus, and stores start pushing back-to-school sales. Marketing at the beginning of summer features people outside, eating ice cream, or swimming. While the end of summer/beginning of fall will include imagery involving pumpkins, changing leaves, coffee shops, and school supplies.

You know your business best, so let’s start building that flawless marketing campaign now! Before it’s too late. I hate to admit that we should start thinking about the fall, but it will be here before we know it.

Let’s tell your customers exactly how your business is changing with the seasons. For me fall = routine! Back to school, back to daily routines, back on “track”. Whatever your track is, it changes along with the seasons.

Start Early and Read the Room

Marketing is all about timing and knowing your audience. Timing is crucial, you want to get your company’s fall products in front of customers as summer is ending. Marketing your fall products too late, means your competitors already put their new fall products in front of your customers.

Take stock of the current perspective of the world. People like companies that know or at least act like they know what they’re going through. COVID-19 is an example of marketers reading the room. Through subtle acknowledges in your marketing, you can let your customers know you are there for them during trying times. For example, putting face masks on your graphic design characters is a subtle way to acknowledge your customers struggles during the pandemic.

Check out this marketing example from McDonald’s. Locally, Nibbles Woodaway (the Big Blue Bug) made the news wearing his mask!

Stay Up to Date on What’s Trending

Social Media has given the world a lot, but it has also given companies like yours the ability to see what people are watching.

And what better way to do that than through social media? Be Authentic. According to the Sprout Social Index, transparency and engagement with the audience are the top two factors that make a brand’s social best in class. Consumers want brands to get real. That means maintaining authenticity and transparency about your products and operations. If you want people to trust you, you need to be honest with them.

74% of respondents in a Twitter survey want brands to showcase acts of kindness.

Focus on What Has Worked

Past successes should not become filed away in a cabinet. When launching a new campaign, you should reference successful ones to isolate what worked and learn how to apply it to the new campaign. Part of using completed plans should also be identifying the audiences used. Seasonal advertisements rarely convert new customers. They more often inform your most loyal customers of upcoming business changes following the season change. By analyzing older campaigns, you can find the audiences that where the most receptive. If you can identify key aspects of previous campaigns that worked and apply them to new ones that target your loyal brand followers, you are likely to have a successful fall season.

I hope these tips will help you adjust your website and graphic design marketing needs for the upcoming season change. Just keep in mind that everyone’s company is different. You may focus on one of these tips more than your neighbor. If you start planning early, examine perspectives, and know your audience, you should create a marketing plan that gets your customers excited for what your business will have to offer in the fall.