There are so many fall marketing ideas for you to capitalize on this season. Between the official dates of September, 22 and December, 21, there are major national holidays, the biggest retail weekend of the year, and multiple relevant social media days to celebrate.
Use these fall marketing ideas to make the most of the final months of the year and fill your content calendar with seasonal, targeted content.
Fall Marketing Calendar
Mark your social media and content calendar with the appropriate dates, holidays, and celebrations happening this fall so you can weave them into your social media and content plans. The most important dates to consider, include:
- September 22: First day of fall
- September 23: National Women’s Health and Fitness Day, #FitnessDay
- September 27: World Tourism Day, #WTD2020
- September 30: International Podcast Day, #InternationalPodcastDay
- October 1: International Coffee Day, #InternationalCoffeeDay
- October 10: World Mental Health Day, #WorldMentalHealthDay
- October 11: International Day of the Girl #DayoftheGirl
- October 16: Bosses Day #BossesDay
- October 31: Halloween
- November 8: Science, Technology, Engineering, and Medicine (STEM) Day #STEMDay
- November 11: Veterans Day, #VeteransDay
- November 19: National Entrepreneurs Day, #EntrepreneursDay
- November 25: Thanksgiving Day, #Thanksgiving
- November 28: Small Business Saturday, #ShopSmall
- November 30: Cyber Monday, #CyberMonday
- December 1: Giving Tuesday, #GivingTuesday
- December 21: First day of winter
Fall Marketing Guide Creative
The harvest season brings leaf-inspired tones and includes nods to our favorite fall activities like apple picking, leaf-peeping, and brisk fall walks. To evoke those crisp and cozy fall vibes, bring the following creative fall marketing ideas in your campaigns.
Accent with Pumpkin Spice
Thanks to the brilliant marketing campaign for Starbucks’ PSL, the “pumpkin-spiced-everything” attitude is a cultural phenomenon-turned trend that everyone loves to hate. Whether you choose to jump on that band-wagon or not, you can’t deny that fall is still synonymous with pumpkin.
While you may want to avoid the hue altogether, so you’re not drowned out in a sea of pumpkin, you can use it sparingly to accent a complementary palette. Causebox’s illustration is the perfect example of bringing this color into your marketing design.
Go Bold With a Dark and Lush Palette
You don’t have to stick with the traditional leaf-inspired colors, like red, orange, yellow, brown, especially because they can be hard to work into an existing brand color palette. Like the autumn days, you’ll notice a lot of marketing and promotions turn dark and rich. Leave orange at the door and instead find distinctive and bold shades to make your creative assets more appropriately seasonal.
Use Adobe Spark’s guide to find an unconventional fall color to make your graphics pop, like the deep forest green color of “Shaded Spruce” or the rich “Navy Peony.”
Fall Marketing Ideas for Your Content
Everyone’s eye is on the prize as we head towards year-end, and businesses aim to hit annual goals while making the most of the holiday season. That doesn’t mean your marketing can fall short. It’s critical this time of year, more than ever, that you maintain your branding and campaigns to keep customers engaged and excited. Here are a few ways to keep the momentum during a busy season.
Keep Reading: 5 Steps to a Festive Holiday Content Marketing Plan
Cater to a New Niche Audience
Think outside the box and celebrate some of the days that cater to your target audience or potential leads. For example, #STEMDay might not make sense for digital marketing agencies. But, if you target B2B tech clients, that type of content could appeal to their interests.
Alternatively, if you’re looking to branch out to more veteran or military-owned companies, Veteran’s Day can be the perfect time to launch a campaign to highlight their interests. Look at the fall calendar and find the new opportunities to engage with audiences that would benefit from your product or service.
Celebrate Business
Yes, Halloween and Thanksgiving are the start of the holiday season, a time dominated by family-centered themes—it’s also the perfect time to celebrate business. With multiple business-related holidays, there’s plenty of opportunities to celebrate your fellow entrepreneurs and comrades in business. Try these unique and stand-out fall marketing ideas:
- Small Biz Saturday: Spotlight the rewards of owning a business on Small Business Saturday. You could also highlight your local partners or vendors and tag them in a post; this pays it forward and cross-promotes on social.
- Entrepreneur’s Day: For all those solopreneurs out there, use Entrepreneur’s Day to talk about why you love being your own boss, either in an authentic blog post or shorter social format.
- Day of the Girl: If you’re a lady boss, embrace Day of the Girl to inspire future female leaders. Share your story to motivate young women and tell them they can do the same!
- Podcast Day: If you run a podcast, use Podcast Day to celebrate other podcasters in your industry.
Embrace Thanksgiving Weekend
Last year, 189 million U.S. consumers shopped on Thanksgiving weekend, a 14 percent increase from the previous year, spending an average of $361.90 per shopper, according to the NRF. What’s more, with COVID-19 still a threat, major retailers are opting to close on Thanksgiving, shifting even more traffic online.
How can you make the most of retail-dominated holidays like Black Friday or Cyber Monday as a service-based business? Schedule a limited promotion for your service or product over Thanksgiving weekend. For example, discount your monthly pricing or subscription for the rest of 2020 to push new prospects into your sales funnel. Or offer a discount for classes or coaching programs.
Fall Marketing Ideas to Leverage The Best of the Season
One of the silver linings of this crazy year is increased digital traffic and purchasing for consumers and businesses alike. Even demographics like boomers—typically wary of online shopping—have shifted to digital. This all equates to even more opportunities for businesses and brands to leverage digital and content marketing. Use these fall marketing ideas to optimize your digital presence, increase awareness and boost sales during harvest season.