Seasonal Marketing - Utilizing What Every Season Has to Offer

Seasonal Offers - Are they worth promoting for??

• Let’s take a look at statistics:
• In 2016, U.S. and UK online retailers alike saw their traffic explode on Black Friday, with 220% more sessions than a normal day. With significant discounts, Black Friday sales totaled $3.34 billion spent online (a 21.6% increase year over year)
• Cyber Monday sales in 2016 also smashed records, bringing in $3.25 billion and a 155% traffic boom to become the biggest day in the history of U.S. ecommerce
• Shopify merchants saw 3+% more orders than usual over BFCM weekend in 2016, and at its peak, the Shopify platform processed a whopping $555,716 in transactions in a single minute
• Additionally, research shows that more than 50% of holiday shoppers start researching gift ideas in October or earlier, so it’s important to plan ahead and start your holiday campaigns early

Promote the ‘Special Offers’ Online:

SEASONAL DEALS KNOW_HOW

Every season has something different to offer for a traveler – So. we definitely need to take advantage of these opportunities

Spring, summer, winter and fall are more than just seasons, they're opportunities for businesses to thrive.

With each season comes unique holidays, events and activities, which cause OTA’s to behave differently.

Good business knows that customers respond best to brands that reach out to them in a meaningful way. The trick comes in figuring out the winning combination of content, timing, and method of delivery that makes the engagement mean something. One of the most important factors in that equation is seasonality, or “the tendency of consumer expenditure on a good or services to vary in some pattern over the course of a year” (Ideas in Marketing, Kubacki 2013) 

WHY PROMOTE SEASONAL DEALS??

The significance of these seasonal promotions is to attract attention to the business at an opportune time and increase revenue in an otherwise quiet period. In some cases, these seasons are critical to revenue because they represent a time when a substantial amount of sales takes place. Additionally, increasing interest at unique times of the year offers you various chances of converting one-time customers into loyal patrons. You can provide an experience that is memorable to consumers, boosting your brand and delivering quality results.

Long term Vs. Short term seasonal offers

Long term, as the name suggests is created for special promotions, offers & deals around an ongoing/ long-lasting seasonal event. Short term is best for one-off &/or fast-ending events that happen during a season. 

Long term offer is all about building relationships & using subtle low risk campaigns to do so but a short-term marketing can afford to be more heavy handed and in customer’s face, as they have less time to engage people before losing novelty or relevance.

As the Seasons Turn, Turn, Turn: Seasonal Sales Strategies for Online Stores

Promote Your ‘Special Offers’ Online - A strategic approach can be to build out a calendar of observances that are relevant to your industry in advance. Regardless of what works best for you, adjusting your strategy accordingly is an important step in fostering long-term relationships with your loyal customer base.

Are you geared up for the seasonal treat??

Has COVID-19 changed the way you will travel?

I remember going to my hometown on every holiday as it took only 4 hours by trains and 1 hr by air. Also, when you have a kid with you these does of transport become easy. But since the COVID epidemic, things have changed a lot. The common modes of transport like - air/ rail or cabs look bit challenging when going with a kid - who understand no hygiene norms and can touch anything making the trip difficult till it ends.

As the world faces this epidemic, most of the airlines and Govt. organizations have made hygienic as #1 factor for traveling. Diff. initiatives have been take to ensure safe journey for travels. But the question remains are travelers actually feeling safe while traveling?

There have been a lot of new trends adopted by airlines or hotels to help ensure safe travels:

• IOT has been utilized to help us in these critical times. Use of robots at airports for thermal screening has been observed, seamless integration with reservations systems & camera vision. The physical contact has been reduced and online web check-in, self baggage drops / abrading passes, baggage info via SMS are the ‘new’ norms for today’s travel
• Apps like Aarogya Setu have to be enabled by passengers to ensure they are safe while traveling. Also, the traditional methods seem gone with new measures being tested
• Health checks are conducted, social distancing, PPE / hygienic kits are provided at boarding, in flight sanitation & sanitizers are here to stay.
• Regular use of masks to prevent virus spread will be a continuous practice for a longer period
• Blocking middle seats have been done by most of the USA airlines like Delta, American Airlines or United Airlines to maintain social distancing
• Flexible booking option has also been introduces to entrust travelers in buying air tickets
• Also, Hotels have added hygienic measures to ensure safety of travelers by providing cleanliness measures, sanitizers, thermal checks, additional room cleaning services etc.
• Though the corrective measures have been taken but it looks that domestic travel will stay against international travel for a year or so
• According to a U.S. Travel Association survey, people feel more comfortable traveling in personal vehicles & staying in vacation rentals than they do taking flights or cruises & staying in hotels.
• These all considerations have also highly impacted the economies and business across the travelers industry - enhancing layoffs and lower budget availability with travelers

Hence, it will be also important to observe if people would like to travel and when in midst of lower salaries or economical budget constraints.