My Top 10 Autumn Marketing Ideas

1. Create seasonal content – but make sure it’s useful!

Themes like seasons can inspire great content and a plethora of Autumn marketing ideas! A restaurant can write about recipes designed around the best seasonal produce available and the best food to suit the changing weather. A grocer might publish a piece on their blog called ‘5 Special Recipes for Autumn’, featuring tips on making warming soups or pumpkin-based dishes. Similarly, a tool shop might run a feature profiling the best leaf blowers currently in stock. A retail store can use the changing season to explain the new trends for Autumn and what’s in and what’s out. An accountant can write about how to prepare a business in the build up to tax time. Simply put, any type of business can get inspiration from the change of season and use it to provide relevant, up-to-date and interesting content for their business. Just be sure to ensure your seasonal content is of value and use to your target audience, with a clear application in the context of the Autumn months.

Creating quality content can and will pay dividends for your business, if done right, and the changing of the seasons is a fertile time to provide inspiration. There’s lots of space to be creative with your content, but make sure it doesn’t come across as tenuous, opportunistic or, worst of all, useless.

2. Add some Autumn colour – but don’t forget your brand

Adapt your look for the coming season to give your brand a refresh.

Autumn is a season of amazing colours and distinctive hues. Autumnal colours range from luminous reds and deep pinks, luxurious ambers and burnt oranges, radiant yellows and enigmatic shades of black. This gives you a whole colour pallet to use across your marketing inventory and provides you with the opportunity to adapt the look and feel of your marketing materials to fit different themes.

However….

Core elements like your logo, your brand personality, writing style and font, should stay consistent whatever the season. Deviating between visual or verbal identities will only serve to confuse customers and sacrifice your hard-won reputation and brand recognition.

3. Create a marketing calendar around significant dates

Public dates like Easter create the perfect springboard for marketing activities

Autumn has some big dates in the calendar. Easter, International Womens Day, Mothers Day, Anzac day, the federal budget as well as various charity events. Special dates provide the perfect springboard for marketing activities of all types. From time-limited promotional sales to an Autumn specific menu. It could even be something as simple as a Facebook post salute to honour our fallen soldiers or even a happy Autumn Instagram post.

Creating a marketing calendar will help you identify dates you want to work around. It will ensure your Autumn marketing ideas are properly recorded and will give you enough time to plan and implement a campaign designed specifically for this time of year. As a result, it will ensure that you won’t forget a special date that has the potential to be significant to your business.

4. Infuse Autumn energy into your social media channels

Will keep your media channels engaging and fresh

According to a recent sproutsocial survey, nearly 9 out of 10 consumers will buy products from a brand they follow on social media. What this means is it pays to keep your social media channels engaging and up to date.

Keep Autumn in mind when building your social media strategy. A series of Autumn-inspired Instagram stories will add vibrant colour to your posts and is the perfect platform to present images of Autumns. Even if you don’t have specific Autumn products to promote, you could present your products in an Autumn setting. For instance, you could create colourful imagery that will help maintain post engagement, build brand awareness and attract new followers who could turn into future customers.

Remember…

Effective marketing means playing the long game.

5. Get your business in the Autumn spirit

An Autumn themed shopfront is like an open invitation to the community

Businesses with shopfronts have a fantastic opportunity to have fun and create interest with the season. Decorating your business’s window with Autumn colour or Easter knick-knacks is like an open invitation for the community to come in and look around.

You could also consider a chalkboard easel and enlist an artistic employee to style it with decorative messages and art. These little touches can help humanise your brand and make your shop more welcoming.

On-line stores can also get into the Autumn spirit by updating their website with an Autumn themed brochure. You could even create Autumn editions of popular branded merchandise. Items that people are more likely to use in Autumn. Long sleeve T-shirt’s, branded socks, coffee/soup mugs and keep cups can all be produced in Autumn colours and sold online. If you produce branded products, you could give them an Autumn twist. For example, using Autumn colours on your labels and packaging. All of these things can refresh your brand and create renewed interest in your products.

6. Create special Autumn products or services

Setting a limited timeframe around products creates the FOMO effect

We’ve all done it, succumbed to that special buy, the limited time only pack, the closing soon offer. It’s in our nature to be attracted to items that are only available for a limited time or in limited quantities. The fear of missing out is so real, they’ve even create an acronym for it.

Introducing seasonal products or services that are exclusive to this time of year can drive consumer interest if marketed appropriately. It’s a very common practice for businesses to use this concept to create effective limited time only campaigns.

Now’s the time for you to use it

Take a close look at your products and services to see where you might add some unique Autumn offerings. Some examples are;

• an Easter chocolate themed pack,
• a mothers day plant and pot gift set
• a special offer centered around the latest initiative introduced in the federal budget, or
• A special service offer to women in honour of International Women’s Day.

There are opportunities for any type of business to use the seasons and the events within the season as a marketing tool to run a successful sales campaign.

7. Autumn contests and giveaways

An Autumn themed raffle that donates a portion of the proceeds to an armed forces related charity ties perfectly into Anzac day

Autumn contests and events are designed to engage your audience. If you have a physical space, hosting an Autumn-themed event could be an effective way for customers to get to know your business. A raffle of some of your products or services. Giving the proceeds to a specific charity event held during Autumn, could be used to jumpstart your business into gaining new customers.

Your social media channels are ideal platforms for hosting Autumn contests and giveaways. A great way to gain new followers is to prompt potential customers to follow your account or tag a friend in order to participate. For example, an Autumn inspired Instagram photo contest. A competition for the best pumpkin soup recipe. Even an interactive Facebook Live event can all be used to increase your audience, and in turn, increase your customer base.

Just be sure to publicly call out the winner.

8. Autumn themed direct mail campaign

Do it the old fashioned way and direct mail. Add value by including a coupon

With the onset of digital marketing, sending things by mail is somewhat a lost art these days. As a result, it could a great Autumn marketing idea and a fantastic opportunity to put yourself front and centre in your customers mind . Most people, when receiving a brightly coloured mail pack from a brand they have used in the past, will open and read it just to see what is on offer. Add value to your mail pack by including a coupon that’s only valid for a limited time. Alternatively, you could simply highlight an Autumn-themed sale your business is running.

Don’t forget to give the design of your pack enough Autumn flair to draw your customers attention.

9. Put an Autumn spin on your loyalty program

Offer additional incentives for signing up during the Autumn season or give your existing members the chance to earn more rewards over the season.

Creating customer loyalty is one of the most important things that you can do for your business. Creating a loyalty program brings your customers back into your store. As a result, it gives you the opportunity to find out a little more about them. In addition, it will allow you to build sales campaigns, events and offers around your loyal customer base.

When it comes to Autumn marketing ideas, your company’s loyalty program provides your business with a fantastic opportunity. Whether your program is based on punch cards, a mobile app, on-line membership programs or scanable membership cards, you could offer additional incentives for signing up during the Autumn season. The same goes for giving existing members the chance to earn more rewards over the season.

Those who shop during a special Autumn promotion could gain additional reward points, special discounts or gifts with purchase. Changing the specials each week or month will ensure your customer will return again and again to your store. In turn, it should build customer loyalty to your brand and give customers a great reason to visit your business more frequently.

10.Cross-promote with Autumn in mind

Involving other businesses in your vicinity can help introduce your brand to a whole new audience

Joining with another small business in their Autumn marketing efforts will benefit you both. The business you team up with can be within the same sector or in another industry altogether. What is most important is coordinating your messaging and sharing your resources. This can reduce marketing costs through shared campaigns and ultimately help introduce your brand to a new set of customers.

Some cross-promotion opportunities may include bundling your Autumn products or services together for special events like mothers day. For example, a women’s clothing store could join with a gift shop and offer a set long sleeve pyjamas and candle set. Alternatively, a flower shop could work together with a beauty salon and produce a pamper pack containing a bouquet of flowers and massage voucher. Similarly, an accountant could offer a local restaurant voucher and in turn the restaurant could offer a coupon for tax services. Exchanging Autumn-inspired guest blog posts or promoting each other on social media are some other options. Co-hosting an Autumn event or charity fundraiser together is also another effective way to get in front of a new audience and help support your community at the same time.

In conclusion

Don’t be afraid to think outside the box.

When it comes down to it, Autumn is a fantastic time to breathe some new life into your marketing plan. Autumn marketing ideas are all around you! It gives you themes, events and colours to help inspire both you and your customers.

Always lead with authenticity so that your efforts don’t feel like a seasonal gimmick and, remember the end game…

To attract new customers and retain your current base by sharing in the Autumn fun.

Article sources

https://www.fundera.com/blog/fall-marketing-ideashttps://www.jpimedialocal.co.uk/articles/

https://www.jpimedialocal.co.uk/articles/step-1-make-yourself-heard/4-autumn-marketing-ideas-for-your-small-business/

https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2020/05/05/2027374/0/en/New-Data-Reinforces-Social-Media-s-Role-in-Driving-Bottom-Line-Growth-as-More-Consumers-Plan-to-Increase-Spending-on-Brands-they-Follow-on-Social.html