Seasonal Campaigns – Are You Already Too Late for Black Friday?

Seasonal campaigns are not just important, for many small businesses, they are the difference between closing up shop and keeping the lights on.

I’ve lost count of the number of clients who make 40%+ of their annual revenue between Black Friday and Christmas.

This is likely not news to you, so why are so many marketers planning and sending their campaigns at the last second?

And how late is too late?

It’s not just resource-starved smaller organisations either, many marketing departments miss vital customer deadlines due to the need for legal and C-level signoffs.

Equally, if you know ahead of time when your slow periods are going to be, why not plan for your important but disruptive rebuild and upgrade work to take place then?

How Late is Too Late?

At the time of writing my wife is selling back-to-school products, even though here in the UK schools go back in September. This is because parents need their kids back to school stuff before the first day of school.

This demonstrates that there are two kinds of campaign deadlines:

• The customer’s use-case deadline – When will the product or service need to be used or finished?
• The buying deadline – When is the optimal time to sell the product or service?

In the case of back-to-school, and many holidays, the purchase is made in anticipation of a future date, so the optimal buying time has a bell curve:

1. Planning ahead
2. The bulk of the purchases
3. Last-minute panic shopping

This is why Easter chocolate and Halloween decorations seem to appear earlier and earlier each year, I guess.

For Black Friday / Cyber Monday, and other sales events, the event itself is the buying period. That does not mean, however, that all the purchases are made without prior consideration! People put off large purchases and carefully consider reviews and buyer’s guides knowing (hoping) that the best prices will be during those sales.

If you look back over your email account you will see many brands simply roll out their standard % off sale with Black Friday motifs. This means they have something ready to go, even if it is not optimised for the season and the audience is not warmed up (there will be of course regular ongoing communication, hopefully).

Maximise Your Black Friday Sales

To maximise your sales for any single buying period, therefore, you need to have all your materials and audience segmentation ready to go, but also you need to have primed the desire for your offer ahead of time.

• Do your customers know they want and need your product or service?
• Are there lingering questions that they need answers to before hitting purchase?
• What alternatives might they also be considering?
• How aware are they that you offer this solution?
• Why are they not already purchasing? Is price even the main objection to buying?

Example Black Friday Marketing Plan

The good news is, if you are reading this in August you are not too late to get a great campaign ready for Black Friday. If you are reading this in October you still have time with some late nights and avoiding any legal or finance sign-offs. Any later … good luck!

Smaller and more agile teams can compress the timeline more easily in terms of getting signoff and buy-in but have to do more work per individual rather than spread the load in parallel.

Where I mention Black Friday here, apply the event or period as appropriate and modify the dates.

3-4 Months Before (July-August)

• Strategy Development and C-Level/Legal/Finance/Developers/Etc Signoff
• Content Planning
• List Segmentation

2-3 Months Before (September)

• Teaser Campaigns
• Testing
• Landing Pages
• Brief Affiliates and Partners

1-2 Months Before (October)

• Final Content Creation
• Automation Setup
• Internal Reviews
• Distribute Campaign Assets (send to partners and affiliates)

2-4 Weeks Before (Early November)

• Warm-Up Emails
• Final Testing

1 Week Before (Mid-November)

• Pre-Launch Emails
• Final Checks and Deployment

Black Friday Week

• Campaign Launch
• Monitor Performance

Last Day

• Last Chance Emails
• Close the Offer (remove/add redirects, close coupons, take down landing pages etc)

Your Promotional Calendar (More Example Seasonal Campaigns)

You will not be surprised to learn that I recommend having a promotional calendar if you want to lean into seasonality in your business.

Even if you are not a direct-to-consumer business, it is still a good idea to keep an eye on seasonality and key dates. Cyber Monday is huge for WordPress plugins and themes, for example.

I have already mentioned two huge buying periods, where consumers are primed and motivated to buy.

Your niche or industry might have particular times of year that you need to be ready for that would not appear on a regular calendar too.

For example, in my wife’s business, there are big yarn-themed events timed so that knitting folks can have their hand-made items finished in time to sell at the appropriate customer buying (and wearing) times.

January

• New Year, New You: Focus on health, fitness, and self-improvement themes. Perfect for gyms, wellness brands, and educational platforms.
• Winter Sales: Clearance campaigns for winter apparel, holiday stock, or year-end inventory.

February

• Valentine’s Day: Ideal for campaigns centered around love, romance, and relationships. Vital for jewelry, florists, and gift shops, but can be used to theme a lot of products.
• Super Bowl (US-based): An obvious choice for anything sports-related but also snacks, drinks, and advertising/marketing topics.

March

• Spring Forward: Campaigns celebrating the start of spring, emphasizing renewal and fresh starts. Excellent for productivity, gardening, home improvement, and fashion.
• St. Patrick’s Day: Promotions (respectfully) tied to the holiday, focusing on Irish themes, green products, and celebrations.
• Mother’s Day (UK, Russia, Egypt, etc): A key campaign opportunity for products related to mothers and families, such as gifts, flowers, and experiences.
• International Women’s Day: A celebration of women celebrated on March 8th. This day honors women’s achievements and promotes gender equality. Ideal for campaigns that support women’s rights, empowerment, and their contributions to society. Increasingly this is a key time for anyone in STEM subjects to encourage young girls and to teach young boys how to be more accepting.

April

• Easter: Perfect for campaigns around family gatherings, chocolates, and spring fashion.
• Earth Day: Environmental and sustainability-themed promotions. Ideal for eco-friendly brands, outdoor gear, and energy-efficient products.

May

• Mother’s Day (North America, New Zealand, Germany, etc): A key campaign opportunity for products related to mothers and families, such as gifts, flowers, and experiences.
• Spring Sales: Focus on products for spring cleaning, gardening, and outdoor activities.

June

• Father’s Day: Similar to Mother’s Day, but focused on products for men, from tools to tech gadgets.
• Summer Kickoff: Campaigns related to the start of summer, targeting vacation gear, outdoor furniture, and summer fashion.

July

• Independence Day (US-based): Promotions centered around patriotic themes, BBQs, and summer sales.
• Summer Sales: Mid-summer deals on seasonal products, especially clothing, outdoor gear, and travel.

August

• Back to School: Ideal for retailers offering school supplies, clothing, and tech. Also suitable for educational services and online courses.
• End of Summer Sales: Clearing out summer stock to make way for fall products.

September

• Labor Day (US-based): End of summer sales, particularly for outdoor products, appliances, and mattresses.
• Fall Preview: Campaigns introducing new fall collections in fashion, home décor, and beauty products.

October

• Halloween: Promotions around costumes, decorations, candy, and spooky-themed events.
• Harvest: Ideal for food-related brands, emphasizing autumn flavors and seasonal produce.

November

• Black Friday/Cyber Monday: Massive retail events focusing on significant discounts across various products, both online and in-store.
• Thanksgiving (US-based): Campaigns centered around family, food, and gratitude. Good for food brands, home goods, and travel services.

December

• Christmas/Holiday Season: Major campaigns focusing on gifts, festive decorations, and holiday sales across all industries.
• New Year’s Eve: Promotions related to celebrations, party supplies, and resolutions for the coming year.

Dates to Avoid

When planning campaigns, it’s also important to be sensitive to certain dates that could risk offending or upsetting customers due to their significance.

Now, of course, every day has some significance to someone out there, you can’t be aware of absolutely everything, but you can be mindful and at least attempt to pick the times with the least negative connotation.

Here are some examples to consider in your planning in case your campaign could be perceived as insensitive or in poor taste:

January

• Holocaust Remembrance Day: A solemn day of remembrance for the victims of the Holocaust. Avoid launching celebratory or overly commercial campaigns.

February

• Ash Wednesday: Some Christian audiences observe this day with fasting and penance.

March/April

• Good Friday: A Christian day of mourning.
• Passover: A significant Jewish holiday lasting seven or eight days.
• Ramadan: A holy month of fasting for Muslims.

May/June

• Yom HaShoah: A solemn Jewish day of remembrance.

July

• Anniversary of the July 7th London Bombings: A day of remembrance in the UK.

August

• Anniversary of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki Bombings: These are days of remembrance for the victims of the atomic bombings.

September

• September 11th Attacks Anniversary: A day of mourning in the U.S.

October

• Yom Kippur: The holiest day in Judaism.

November

• Remembrance Day (Armistice Day): A day to honor military service members who died in the line of duty.
• Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead): A Mexican holiday celebrating deceased loved ones.

December

• Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day: A day of remembrance in the U.S.

Bottom Line

There is a lot more to say about this whole subject, so do let me know if you have any areas that you would like more detail on or related topics you would like me to write about.

For now, suffice to say “Failure to plan is planning to fail”. It’s not quite that bad, but most people who do their campaigns at the last minute know they could have performed better so instead look ahead and make sure you do everything you can!