5 Marketing Campaign Tactics to Put in Place before Q3

The business world works in quarters, as you’re probably aware — Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4 — dividing the 12 months of the year into 4 parts. Organizations typically take stock of and process financial reports quarterly and often use them as a basis for setting appropriate goals (or reworking existing ones) for the upcoming three months.

This also applies to marketing. Typically, organizations have an overarching long-term, multi-year marketing strategy (applicable for initiatives that take time, like SEO) as well as a short-term quarterly one.

It’s usually a good idea to have a marketing strategy for the quarter if you don’t have one already. It can help you generate extra immediate interest, dovetail nicely into your strategy for the next quarter, and also help you to achieve your long-term marketing goals. 

In this mini-guide, IdeaCafe.com takes a look at 5 marketing campaign tactics that you should put in place before Q3 (July to September) – which covers the optimistic summer season months.

Consider the link between consumer behavior and the seasons

Traditionally, marketers (and other people) have long believed there to be a link between consumer behavior and the seasons. ResearchGate confirms this — as the exposure to sunlight increases, so does consumer spending. That means consumers are likely to spend a great deal of money during Q3, which comprises the height of sunny summer.

According to LendEDU, that does seem to be the case. On average, people spend $2,229 in summer – only spending about $100 more during winter (and the related holiday seasons and New Year). Q3 is when people have weddings, go on outdoor vacations, have parties, and, generally, do fun activities. Furthermore, Q3 also covers the 4^th of July as well as back-to-school dates, where people buy supplies for their kids

5 Q3 marketing tactics to consider

With some savvy marketing tactics, you could position your brand to take advantage of all the heightened spending – both to raise your profile and benefit your bottom line. Here are some tactics that may offer better-than-average results during Q3:

1. Influencer marketing

Influencer marketing is partnering up with a social-media star that has a following and can introduce your brand to them. That may involve featuring your brand on their profile, in their videos, and other content. This type of marketing is extremely effective because a lot of people have recently begun basing their purchase decisions on their favorite influencer.

2. Feature sunny pictures on Instagram and other social media

Instagram and other social media can be extremely effective tools to generate interest in your brand. For example, you could put up a summer-centric photo about your product or service on Instagram, something attractive, sunny, and in keeping with the season. You may have to resize your photo to fit the platform’s upload requirements. Use an appropriate image resize tool — it works online and generates high-quality snapshots. Simply upload your image, choose an Instagram image type, resize it, and then download it for use.

3. Back-to-school offers and deals 

Summer break ends around July, and kids typically head back to school in August. This typically involves a ton of school-related shopping, from clothes to comfort-related items. You could create a back-to-school deal (if you can’t target the kids, you could target the parents). A discount for parents of school-going kids on a subscription is a good example of an appropriate deal.

4. Offer personalized, useful content

High-quality, personalized content can generate significant interest in your brand and is a tried-and-tested strategy that almost always generates results. Content can be anything from personalized videos to blog content in your niche. Videos are engaging, accessible, and convey information quickly. Blog content tends to be more informative and offers in-depth information.

5. Consider data-driven initiatives

Data-driven marketing refers to using data about your customers to create specific marketing strategies or tactics to capture their attention and keep them engaged. Suggestions include utilizing user preferences to craft a personalized video or using data about user pain points to offer your product or service as a solution. Triggerbee offers several examples of real-world data-driven marketing examples that you could take some inspiration from.

As you exchange and share marketing ideas with your team, you likely reach points where you want to finalize a given document. In that case it can be useful to convert Word to PDF documents to prevent further editing and limit confusion. This is easy to accomplish online with a drag-and-drop tool.

Conclusion

Keep in mind that not all the marketing tactics above may apply to your brand or niche. Use the tactic — or combination — that offers a good ROI, based on your market research and past experiences, if applicable. Also, for the best results, try to create a strategy that would keep customers engaged for the succeeding quarter. Good marketing requires time and testing, so don’t be afraid to experiment. For more helpful ideas for your small business, visit IdeaCafe.com!