Macdonald Design, Inc. - Afresh | Seasonal Marketing
October 2005, Vol. 1.5
Click here to for the Project Spotlight
Seasonal Marketing: It's Not Too Early to Start Planning Now
 Oh, no! Not another fruitcake! How
many times have you given or received one? Imagine if your products became as ubiquitous as the fruitcake, which is practically
synonymous with the holidays. You might not be able to reach those heights, but you can certainly profit from seasonal marketing. And that means targeting opportunities
to promote your products or services during every season of the year like Easter, the Fourth of July, and Back-to-School as well as the winter holidays. Most retail
businesses already understand the value of seasonal marketing. All it takes is some creativity, planning, preparation, and a budget.
Here are 10 tips that are sure to help you launch a successful marketing campaign for this holiday season and beyond.
- Give yourself plenty of time to prepare your seasonal marketing campaigns. You'll want to start at least 60 days before the frenzy of any holiday. For example,
October is not too early to start for the Christmas holidays. Plan your Halloween promotion in August. This way, you'll have plenty of time to make sure you have
all of your resources in place—personnel, inventory, design agencies, marketing materials, promotional pages on your website, ads, etc. to help you generate your
own ideas.
- Create a marketing timeline working backwards. Develop a seasonal marketing calendar with milestones for the completion of your marketing materials and the
launch of your promotions. You'll be able to schedule pre-holiday marketing tasks in advance and have plenty of time to complete them. It's like doing your
Christmas shopping now to avoid the rush. You might even consider mapping out a strategy for the entire year in January, 2006. If you see the big picture, you can determine
ways in which you can reuse or adapt a campaign for one holiday over again. This approach will not only save you time but valuable marketing dollars as well.
- Determine
and allocate your marketing budget. Calculate what you're willing to spend on your holiday campaigns and estimate your desired return on investment.
You may also want to try low-cost marketing strategies that you've never tried before like e-mail blasts, leaflet distribution, in-store celebrations and events,
and personalized services like gift wrapping or gift consultation.
- Leverage previous successful promotions. If your Fourth of July promotion was successful, put a new
spin on it and try it again. If it was profitable once, it may very well be profitable again, but make sure you dress it up appropriately for each holiday.
- Run tests
to see what works best. You might want to try several themes or concepts for a commercial or an e-mail blast. Which has greater pull? You'll find
out what works and what doesn't, which will save you a great deal of time and money in the future.
- Last minute discounts can help you unload inventory and create
a sense of urgency in the buyer, especially last-minute shoppers.
- Make sure you're ready to handle a large influx of orders. Ask yourself whether you have enough
inventory or can easily obtain it from your distributors. Is your staff equipped to deal with order processing, shipping, and customer service calls. You might consider
an automated system or additional temporary personnel.
- Take advantage of opt-in targeted email blasts. It's an inexpensive way to announce promotions and stay in front of your customers on a regular basis. Make
sure your email blasts have an attention-getting but not in-your-face subject line that gets recipients to open them. The email itself should clearly state a call to
action, catch the reader's eye, and give them somewhere to go where they can buy your products or services.
- Keep an up-to-date database of customers and prospects,
and continually add new ones. A mailing list all your own is invaluable. It's your pot of gold, your
equity. Reward the loyal customers on your list with extra discounts or special gifts during the holidays. They'll remember that and keep coming back for more.
And offer promotions to prospects who've dipped their big toe in the water more than once. They're obviously interested and probably just need an extra
push.
- Make it easy on customers to buy. Give them choices, suggestions, and a simple purchasing process. Gift-buying can be stressful for some people. Take the heartache
and headache out of shopping for someone special by feeding your customers ideas and handholding them through the process. Offering gift certificates is a great way
to ease the burden of shopping. And, the cost of preparation is minimal. Not only will harried shoppers buy, they'll be eternally grateful and loyal.
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Project Spotlight:
Wireless Cables, Inc.
 URL: www.AIRcable.net
Wireless Cables, Inc., a high-tech startup company offering innovative
Bluetooth wireless products needed to take its marketing to the next level to grow their customer base—consumers, corporations, and OEMs. Their overall image
and their website were in dire need of updating. Plus, the company was poised to launch a revolutionary new wireless Bluetooth headset targeted at enterprise professionals
as well as anyone addicted to streaming music. However, being a startup, they lacked an in-house marketing team. Wireless Cables, Inc.'s president looked at a number of alternatives
and decided to engage Macdonald Design on a long-term basis to assist the company with all aspects of their marketing—web redesign, press releases, commercials,
and more.
Macdonald Design began by giving the AIRcable website a facelift and by making the product section more product-specific rather than customer specific for greater
ease of use. Macdonald Design also helped Wireless Cables, Inc. launch its unique wireless headset with a press release that was distributed (along with product information) to
online PR agencies, gadget sites, and newspapers. The press release substantially increased the hit rate for the website and even resulted in some orders. Macdonald
Design already has plans in place to get the headset reviewed on popular Web venues such as E-pinions and CNET reviews. And, in anticipation of the New York holiday
shopping season, Macdonald Design is currently producing a commercial that will be aired on the Jumbotron in Time Square during the Thanksgiving weekend. The commercial
will complement other localized marketing efforts to maximize the exposure opportunity. Macdonald Designs is also strategizing other seasonal marketing ideas to reach
the broader consumer audience. By continually reinforcing the brand through efforts like these, Macdonald Designs aims to help Wireless Cables, Inc. establish a strong market presence
and increase revenues.
Wireless Cables, Inc. appreciates the highly collaborative, harmonious partnership it has with Macdonald Design and values the design firm not only for its ability to implement
marketing programs, but also for its expertise in strategic planning.
"The designers at Macdonald Design are really fantastic graphic designers, paired with the technical knowledge of html and back end technology
to make the design work on the web. That makes them unique."
Juergen Kienhoefer
President
Wireless Cables, Inc.
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