Seasonal dates: which are worth it and which are traps
Every year a list of two hundred seasonal dates goes around, and every year someone posts on International Coffee Day without selling coffee. The list is not a plan.
Two questions before using a date
The first: does your customer buy more because of it? The second: do you have anything of your own to say about it? If the answer is no to both, the date is not yours.
A generic "happy mother's day" post with a stock photo does not sell and still burns a day of your calendar.
The ones that almost always pay off
Few, and all tied to real buying.
- Dates when your product is a gift: Christmas, Mother's Day, Valentine's.
- The ones from your trade, which the customer already links to you.
- Your business anniversary, once a year.
- Local ones: town festival, back to school, the rainy or hot season in your trade.
Start well before the day
On Mother's Day, buyers order two or three weeks ahead. Posting on the day itself is posting after the decision was made, with the competitor already delivered.
The practical rule: start talking about it twice your production lead time before the date. If you produce in a week, start two weeks ahead.
Four or five a year is plenty
A small business that works four dates well earns more than one posting on twenty. Working it well means: announcing early, opening the diary, showing what can be ordered, and closing when it fills up.
The rest of the calendar is noise. And noise takes room from the content that sells all year round.
Your trade's dates go into ReadyMonth once and come back every year, with the right lead time.