Seasonal campaigning is one of the trickiest tasks for SaaS marketers. Competing against Black Friday’s pay-per-click mania to crafting a summer campaign that stands out from those beach holiday ads. It’s hard to stay ‘on trend’ in a digital world that keeps moving forward.
As we jump out of the festive season and into 2023, it’s time to start rewriting those seasonal strategies for a chance to strike gold this year.
While subscription-based SaaS products might not be a typical seasonal purchase for many, there are still many ways to make sure your product finds its way into your buyer’s basket during all seasonal holidays across the year. Read on as we discuss the tactics to stay clear of and the strategies that can make your campaign shine when the competition rises.
Start creating themed content
It’s no secret that creating content is a key sales booster for SaaS companies in 2023. Whether you let your consumers in on success stories in a case study format or pour focus into SEO-driven site content such as blog posting and key-word centred descriptions. The list is endless, and the payoff is worth the hard work.
When approaching seasonal events throughout the year, why not take your content creation strategy one step further?
As you can see here, SEO-driven content can drive sales up by just under 30%. So, as valentines day rolls around, why not start adding some theme-focused keywords to your strategy? Not only will you be more likely to show up during high-volume seasonal searches, but improving your seasonal SEO can also be fun. Incorporating SEO into your seasonal marketing strategy is an essential component of content marketing success. However, it does take some time to learn SEO – especially when it comes to time-sensitive campaigns like seasonal campaigning.
Start writing keyword-led blog posts that position your product as an irreplaceable solution to a client’s problem. If you’re an SaaS that aims to improve small business success, this is a great time to tell your prospects why your product will drive their revenue through the roof this season!
Prioritise your social strategy
Socials are a must-do for SaaS companies. If you’ve got a strong social media strategy, you’ll be sure to see higher levels of traffic on-site.
Engaging in themed posting is a great way to ensure that you appear high up on a prospect’s social feed. Jumping onto content trends or finding a new way to insert your brand into the public-holiday promotion is a great way to stimulate consumer conversation.
Mail Chimp is a great example of an SaaS that knows how to insert a timely campaign into its strategy. During Pride Month 2023, the email marketing service dropped its Out and About campaign on social media, using its platform to highlight the innovative organisations driving major change in the LGTBQ+ community.
As a campaign that took the focus away from their service but still encouraged consumers to engage in topical conversations, it was a great success. Influencing people to share sensitive social posts and engage in topic discussions is a great way to organically improve brand awareness while also contributing to societal change.
Start a Black-Friday email campaign
Another way to boost your seasonal marketing strategy is to engage in a festive email campaign. We’re talking about Black Friday offers, festive retargeting and seasonal subscription trials.
In fact, offering festive free trials via email, can >boost conversions by 60%, according to experts at Recurly.
There are several approaches you can take when starting a festive email campaign. Whether you opt for a direct strategy that targets all of your subscribes mailers with your seasonal promotions or choose a segmented approach that delivers a customised message. Either way, it’s a great way to capture customers!
CEO of Transformify, Lilia Stoyanov, takes festive emailing one step further by including an option for consumers to reply with a features wishlist.
“In December, we send out a Christmas-theme e-newsletter to engage our customers and freelancers. It contains a summary of recent Transformify software updates, such as fixes for customer issues. We also highlight the features that we have added in Q4.” the HR software provider claims. “This year, we will ask hiring managers what new features they’d like to be included in the features wish list. Our product and tech teams will work on the most requested improvements to be included in our 2020 roadmap. Another plan is to provide an extended free trial.”
The key here is to make sure your emails appear professional rather than promotional. In order to do this, it’s time to steer away from a @gmail.com domain and instead use an email host that matches your site’s domain name. This is a great way to boost credibility and ensure that your festive campaign doesn’t end up in the junk folder!
Reel in those referrals
Last but not least, it’s time to reel in those referrals. Referral marketing encourages loyal consumers to share their experience with your SaaS service in a bid to influence others to invest.
Word-of-mouth marketing may be a traditional method, but it’s proven to be widely successful. In the run-up to any mass-buying event such as Valentine’s, Easter or Christmas, many consumers will look towards peers, colleagues and thought leaders when looking to splurge, so make sure you’re showcasing your reviews.
In fact, a recent study by Nielson revealed that a whopping >92% of consumers say they trust peer reviews over all other forms of advertising.
Slack is great at showcasing its consumer feedback. Using their social platform to their advantage, they are constantly framing feedback as clever Instagram and Facebook posts.
The key here is to give your current customers an incentive to start sharing. Whether it’s a subscription discount or free premium features, spreading the word will significantly boost your chances of success in 2023.
It’s time to get creative
As we jump into 2023, it’s time to start crafting those campaigns, especially if you’re yet to start. From buyer brainstorming to tracking competitor success, your marketing and sales team must combine efforts for a shot at seasonal victory.
Make sure you’re constantly following SaaS competitors and monitoring your site traffic, especially if you want to create a campaign that drives engagement. Whether you want to go viral on socials or send the perfect promotional email, making an effort really does pay off.
In fact, a large proportion of SaaS marketers spent over $28 billion in 2018 on seasonal social campaigns alone, rendering the festive period a time for high investment. With more pressure to succeed amongst commerce giants and software competitors, it’s no surprise that many marketers find themselves planning Christmas campaigns in July!
If you want to be in for a shot as seasonal success, it may be time to already start planning a campaign for Christmas 2023. Staying ahead of the commercial curve is key, especially if you want to keep reeling those consumers onto your site.
Abhay is a Digital Marketing Guru and an accomplished entrepreneur with an experience of a decade working with various businesses varying from startups to established brands. He co-founded many companies like Logicsofts, PrintYo, CrazyRise and more. He is passionate about SEO and Online Data Analytics, which plays a vital role in any business to grow and mutate as per the data results.
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