Springing To Life Your Spring Advertising Campaigns

Your Spring Advertising Campaigns Needs to Spring to Life!

opens IMAGE file Snow may still be in the forecast but it’s time to start thinking about birds chirping and grass growing!  Second quarter sales on home improvement products are the largest of the year, and you need to have a strategy as to how you will benefit from this trend!

A Few Things You Must Do For Your Advertising Campaigns!

  1. Know your geographics! Different parts of the country have different needs when it comes to home improvement and yard projects!  Some places have spring all year long, but others have a small window of time before frost starts coming around again.  Understanding these regional differences will help you target the timing and language of your ads appropriately.  Also, be aware of advertising compliance mandates in different markets – (and see point #5 below!)
  2. Know your income demographics. Are you targeting new homeowners, or empty-nesters?  There are different projects that will appeal to people at different stages in home ownership.  Doing a study of the local community is crucial to know how many new builds are in your community vs. fixer uppers vs. established neighborhoods.  Then, you can tailor your message to those various groups of homeowners.  Also, make sure you version your ads based on income demographics you’ve identified.
  3. Know your customer behavior!  If you’re not using IP/ID data tracking and mobile ad ID (MAID) data to identify your customers and then understand their interests and behaviors, you aren’t using data in a smart way!  With today’s technology, you can truly know who you are targeting down to the individual.  With that kind of data at your fingertips, why wouldn’t you use it?
  4. Maximize on your small window!  Home and yard improvement sales spike in Q2, but only last for a couple months.  As it gets hotter in the summer, you’ll see a drop in the heavy sales on yard and home equipment.  However, many people don’t think ahead to outside projects until the snow finally melts.  Before they know it, it’s time to plant grass!  That is why it is so important to plan accordingly to have your marketing campaign roll out at the right time so that you can catch this small window!
  5. Know you compliance obligations!  The California Consumer Privacy Act or CCPA goes into effect on January 1, 2020 – less than 11 months away.  Be aware of your obligations to consumers and the requirements for adhering to this legislation including:  a) individual consumers having the right to know what information large corporations are collecting along with, b) consumers having the right to tell businesses not to share or sell personal information, and c) protections afforded to consumers against businesses that do not uphold the value of an individual’s privacy…  More to come on this topic in future blogs!

Any advertising campaign for the spring season should focus on a few crucial aspects:

  • Omni-channel Marketing – Any advertising campaign you create should include a mix of multiple types of digital marketing.  By doing so, you capture your audience’s attention in different ways in different places. You might include multiple ad sends on email marketing, display and banner ads, social media ads, mobile ads, and traditional marketing.  There are so many options you could choose from, but the important thing here is that you change things up.  Don’t let people become numb to the same ad in the same place over and over again.
  • Retarget your audience – Retargeting is one way to make a BIG impact on your spring marketing campaigns. Employ the power of IP address tracking and Mobile Device ID tracking to truly close the loop on your customers.  Use data to retarget your customers strategically!
  • Geotarget your audience – Local businesses would do well to utilize geofencing to advertise to local consumers.  By utilizing geographic locations of people, you can send advertisements for your business that just so happens (Coincidence?  We think not!) to be right near them.  It’s an offer that is too good to pass up because of physical convenience and perceived savings!

Whatever you do this spring, don’t miss out on the huge spike in outdoor projects that homeowners do in the second quarter.  Businesses that sell anything related to the warmer weather can bank on an increase by advertising well during this season of projects!