Although we as consumers might scoff at some attempts by businesses to cash in on any Holiday, the truth as a business owner is that it can actually work. It doesn’t matter if what you’re selling a physical product or a service, adding a holiday flare to your brand can help in more ways than one.
Many stores and businesses see a massive increase in activity and sales during the holiday season. People love holidays, be it Halloween, Thanksgiving or Christmas, and so they are more likely to visit a website floored with holiday themes.
The value of seasonal branding for your business.
Seasonal branding is no different than your typical marketing or advertising tactics.
It’s active and responsive. You will always be updating and changing your brand through seasonal branding. It also shows that your company is still dynamic, which makes it favorable to your clients. Your company will look like it cares more about being fun and human than just selling, and that’s something clients (or future clients) can relate to.
It helps with search engine optimization. With the help of seasonal branding, your website will become more active online and therefore increase your relevance in the search engine. If you don’t update your site regularly, it will become less relevant and will be placed on the lower search. So keep updating to remain on top of people’s search engines.
Some of the more common examples of seasonal branding include:
- Holiday-themed events
- Website design or visual updates
- Special deals and promotions
- Holiday newsletters
- Holiday item arrangements, such as skulls and witches
- Holiday music on the radio or media channels
- Seasonal images incorporated into print materials or on your website
- Holiday packaging or labels for physical products
- Social media content with a festive theme
It’s not always as easy as hitting a few cartoony witches across your store and site, though. There are lots of stuff you can do to get in the holiday spirit, but just as many things you shouldn’t do.
Before you launch your Halloween branding campaign, let’s take a look at some of those points you should consider. What are the do’s and don’ts of marketing your business for Halloween and the proceeding holidays?
The Do’s:
Stay true to you
Don’t sacrifice the core value or message of your business when you’re adding a seasonal touch to your branding. When it comes to effective seasonal branding, it still retains your integrity with a little something extra to tie in with the time of the year.
With the sense of familiarity, your loyal customers will be satisfied, which will prevent your image from becoming too different or confusing. You should find the balance between seasonal elements and your core brand message for successful branding.
Keep your logo recognizable
This method goes along with the concept of keeping your business’ essence. Just add a color, flourish or two, and that’s it. If your logo is somewhat intricate or has many elements, it might be easier to add and modify it without it being unrecognizable, but be careful if your logo is a minimalist one and can easily be changed too much.
And if you don’t yet have a logo for your business, you should!.
Plan ahead
Seasonal branding demands you to think ahead to maximize the campaign. You don’t want to get stuck in the current season, don’t you? By planning a few months beforehand, it gives you time to put together a branding campaign for each holiday or season in mind. Make it simple, relevant and as comprehensive as it needs to be in order for it to work properly. This means using social media, traditional media or any platform necessary.
Create consistent branding
You don’t want customers to see your site full of Halloween references but your store devoid of them, or vice versa. The same for everything your brand manages, from social media to blogs. Consistency across those channels makes a stronger impact when incorporating a seasonal twist.
Set a goal in mind
What do you want to accomplish with the Halloween theme? Is it a season product, special? Or just trying to stay relevant? You need to have all of this in mind during the planning process.
Think about your target audience
When it comes to seasonal branding, you don’t need to go over-the-top and cheesy. You should always consider your audience. To incorporate the types of seasonal elements, you must decide how much seasonality you must use and how large your target audience is. Having a well defined profile of your target audience will help you choose what kind of branding will work and what won’t.
The Don’ts:
Don’t recycle content
You can always come up with fresh content appropriate for the season. If a deal or discount did excellent last year, then great. But don’t use it over and over again. It will look like you don’t have any bright ideas about the holiday. People are attracted to new deals and campaigns, so you should always be prepared and do some brainstorming.
Make sure that your content is separate from other brands and away from competition. You must show your customers that they matter by creating something exclusive and unique. You should remind yourself that people’s taste change over time, so don’t run the same promotions and campaign every year.
Don’t overdo it
When it’s holiday-themed content, you might want to change something here, there, or every where. Yes, it seems remarkable, but you don’t to overdo it. For example, bright orange fonts may end up being tough to read and might look terrible on mobile devices.
You don’t want to frustrate your customers with animated characters on every page that causes to hinder the performance of your site. Don’t ignore the concept of a website. It needs to be reliable, accessible and convenient.
Don’t estrange your audience
You should always think of everyone and consider how every single person will feel or react. You should check the entire segment of your audience or customer base. Some of them may not even celebrate Halloween, while others may observe an entirely different holiday.
Do what you can to celebrate the full spectrum of your audience and customer base. The point is, be sure to analyze your audience before doing anything, and that involves understanding how something will affect them. This is a time where data analytics and customer touch points come in handy.
Once you deliver your seasonal branding appropriately, can open opportunities for your business. It’s an incredibly powerful medium that has the potential to transform your company for the entire year ahead. Is your business ready for a seasonal update? It’s never too early to start, so hire a professional digital marketing agency to develop your next seasonal branding campaign.
