Today’s consumers expect to receive special deals and offers year round. Seasonal events drive consumer buying patterns. That’s why marketers around the world take advantage of changes in season to create marketing campaigns that increase their revenues. But, with everyone targeting promotions at the same time, how can you make sure your campaigns get the attention they deserve?

Campaign Strategy Do’s and Don’ts

Once you’ve selected events for your seasonal campaigns, keep in mind various online AND offline campaign strategies for achieving maximum results.

The rule is simple: Connect your theme to whatever is going on out there in real life. Doing so will rapidly increase the level of individualization and relevancy.

Here are 10 essential tips for seasonal sale success.

1. From Online to Offline

Customers rarely abandon Main Street shopping completely, and a high percentage of mobile users are reluctant to make purchases online for many reasons. Encourage in-store visits via email, text messaging and social media but make sure your in-store experience backs it up.

2. Be Selective

Each month brings opportunities for special deals. That doesn’t mean you have to grab them all. Be selective. Collect data on when your industry’s customers are most likely to shop. Then choose events that in some way relate to your business.

3. Not Just Sell, Sell, Sell

Apart from exceptional discounts and gifts, your audiences also expect an occasional “heart-warmer”—a noncommercial message aimed at building relationships. It’s worthwhile to thank your customers for their loyalty and enthusiasm once in a while.

4. Segment and Treat Every Customer Individually

Although most of your contacts expect to receive more email and print deals immediately before events and celebrations, that doesn’t mean they’ll open and/or click through anything that drops into their mailbox.

Highly targeted messages are your chance to stand out in the crowd. However, they require a long-term strategy because you’ll need some time and effort to collect personal and behavioral data. So don’t wait until the last minute for planning; invest in preference centers and website-behavior tracking throughout the year.

5. Let Them Share

Studies repeatedly show that Social-share icons can increase email click-through rates (CTRs) up to 114%. Just imagine how much buzz a single message can create during holidays and times of celebration, when the human tendency to share reaches its peak. Make your offer a “friends and family event,” ensuring it resonates throughout the network.

6. Plan in Advance

Manage the timing, frequency, and overlapping of your messages carefully. Plan your top offers far enough in advance, allowing for your customers to receive delivery within standard shipping dates. If you’ve got some other follow-up cycles going, it might be worth deactivating them during the hottest periods.

7. Testing Makes Perfect

Take your time. Don’t leave the success of your campaigns to luck if you want to avoid mistakes. Preview how messages render in various inboxes, review them with an objective eye, conduct split tests before sending your messages to all. Chunk or segment your lists, and send messages to each, in turn, to minimize the damage. Those simple procedures will help you sleep well—and they’ll improve your results.

8. List Boosters

Use customers’ festive moods and enthusiasm during holidays to help build your lists. Reward subscriptions during celebration periods—via blogs, Facebook, site Web forms, in-store checkout, and events.

9. Pre-plan

Events are self-propelled selling opportunities. Still, to maximize your success, carefully plan for events. You should know—in advance—what, when, and to whom you want to sell.

10. Review and Repurpose

Document your campaign results carefully, and treat them as points of reference for future campaigns. Try to not only repurpose the successful elements but also identify the weak sides of your promotions so you can eliminate them next time.

At CrossCap, we help you plan, execute and analyze your campaigns via our marketing management and collaboration platform. Using CrossCap’s Promotion Management, marketers can easily and accurately plan promotions, incorporate their impact into the overall retail planning process, and evaluate their effectiveness – across all channels and in a centralized system. The result is advertising that attracts new and existing customers, increases revenues, and reduces marketing cost. Contact us to request a demo.