In this blog post I’ll share with you a range of seasonal marketing dates you can use in Autumn to grow your business. There are so many opportunities throughout the year to use seasonal events in this way; every month has a wide range of ‘days’ or ‘events’ you could take advantage of. Of course you don’t need to do something for all of them! Just pick one or two, or a small handful of the ones that excite you the most or that you feel you’ll be able to leverage best.
Many of these are fun and lighthearted, but some are more serious – the more serious ones you might not want to use for marketing or sales, but instead as a prompt to reach out to others by share something that’s close to your heart, either to bring more awareness to it, or to help other people who might also be in a similar situation. Either way, whether fun or serious, seasonal marketing dates are a fantastic way to connect in a genuine and deeper way with your ‘people’ by talking about things other than photography that are important to you personally. It’s all about meaningful connection.
Keep your ideal client in mind when you choose your seasonal marketing dates as some of these will have more impact on some people than others, and some will be more relevant to certain types of photography than others. Choose ones that you know will resonate with your own unique ideal client for the specific type of photography that you offer. If you offer more than one type, ideally concentrate on just one specific type of photography at a time so your messaging has more clarity.
There are 3 main ways you can utilise seasonal events in your business:
1) CONTENT MARKETING
Using seasonal marketing dates doesn’t have to mean running special offers! Content marketing is the simplest way to use these days/events to your advantage. Are there any blog posts you could write relating to this that your ideal client would find interesting and helpful/useful? If at all possible it’s great to tie it in with your services or industry – if there’s a photography-related slant to the article then perfect! However, it also doesn’t matter if it’s not tied directly to your photography. For example, I have a ‘festivals with kids‘ article – I’ve added a lot of likeminded families and clients to my audience and mailing list through this blog post even though it’s got nothing to do with my photography.
If it interests your ideal client then articles like this will help them to grow to know, like and trust you – all of which will encourage future bookings. Plus, if they are already on your blog reading this then there is a significant chance they will also have a look around to see what else you do. Content marketing like this also gives you the opportunity to create content and offers that are easily searchable with hashtags and SEO related to that event – so they are a great way to draw new people into your orbit as you’re giving them a new way to find out about you, even if they’re not directly searching for photography at this time.
2) SEASONAL SERVICES
You might actually create a whole new ‘pop-up’ service purely relating to that seasonal event – e.g. Autumn or Christmas mini-sessions – something you never usually offer but is available for a limited time and/or for a limited number of people. Similarly, you might choose to offer gift vouchers for a limited time for a specific thing.
3) SPECIAL OFFERS
Instead of creating content on your blog or creating a new seasonal service, you might just choose to use seasonal marketing dates to run some kind of special offer on your existing services, for example:
- Competitions / giveaways
- Flash sales (substantial discounts for a very short period of time)
- Discounts
- Limited number available
- Bonus items (prints etc)
- 2 for the price of 1
- Package deals for booking multiple shoots
- Better payment terms e.g. spreading the cost if bought before x date
Be wary of these though – if you have too many seasonal promotions or offers then it will dilute your main offering. If you do too many or make them too predictable then people are likely to just wait for these rather than booking during ‘normal’ times. You may want to reuse some of these each year, which is of course absolutely fine – wedding photographers may always want to do something for Valentine’s Day, and family photographers may always want to do something for Mother’s/Father’s Day for example. However, for the reasons above, where you can, it’s a great idea to vary exactly what you offer for these each year, and where possible vary the days/events you use too.
AUTUMN DAYS/EVENTS
Here are a list of some Autumn dates that you might connect with – there are heaps more than this (just search for ‘awareness days’ and you’ll find millions!) but I’ve curated a list of the few that I feel are most relevant to people photographers (weddings / families / pets / personal branding), listed roughly in the order that they tend to appear within that month. Just Google any you’re interested in for the exact date(s) in the current year, as some can vary slightly year to year. Apart from the international ones, these are UK dates, so if you’re overseas then do double check that they correlate to your own location too.
SEPTEMBER
Back to school
International Day of Charity
Read A Book Day
World Suicide Prevention Day
Roald Dahl Day
Wife Appreciation Day
International Day Of Peace
World Gratitude Day
First day of Autumn
European Day Of Languages
World Tourism Day
Good Neighbour Day
World Heart Day
International Podcast Day
OCTOBER
Breast Cancer Awareness Month
World Vegetarian Day
International Coffee Day
Grandparents Day
National Boyfriend Day
World Animal Day
World Teacher’s Day
World Smile Day
World Mental Health Day
National Adoption Week
World Food Day
Make A Difference Day
Diwali
National Dog Adoption Day
Mischief Night
World Checklist Day
Hallowe’en
NOVEMBER
World Vegan Day
Day Of The Dead
Bonfire Night
Remembrance Day
Singles Day
World Kindness Day
Entrepreneurs Day
International Student’s Day
International Men’s Day
Universal Children’s Day
World Hello Day
Black Friday
Small Business Saturday
Cyber Monday
Giving Tuesday
I’ve also made handy lists of Spring, Summer and Winter dates for you.
I hope you find these useful! Which of these are you planning to use as seasonal marketing dates?
Anna 🙂
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