The Importance Of Timing In Your Digital Marketing Strategy

Timing is often overlooked by many organisations and businesses, especially those with small teams and even smaller budgets. Many business owners fail to see the importance of marketing for specific times of the year, instead deciding they should just push their marketing efforts throughout the entire year, and while this can work in some instances, it can also lead to little ROI for their efforts. 

Targeting specific times of the year allows businesses and marketers to appeal to an audience at a time when they are paying the most attention, increasing engagement, leads and sales. 

A perfect example of how important timing is to marketing is Christmas! 

An ad for the most in-demand toy of the year isn’t going to be as effective in February as it is in November and December time, this is because it’s unlikely that audiences will be looking to buy this product in February unless it’s for a birthday or special treat. By releasing an ad for the toy in late October and running it until Christmas, it’s much more likely to reach audiences who are looking for Christmas gifts, either in advance or even last minute. 

Getting the timing of marketing can be difficult, especially for businesses that can’t latch onto more typical times of the year such as Halloween, Christmas or Easter. However there’s no reason they should miss out, there’s plenty of opportunities out there, from days of the year, seasonal events, industry-specific days and even changes in aspects of popular culture. 

But how do businesses owners and marketers take advantage of timing?

– Awareness 
In order to launch campaigns at a sensible, relevant time, you need to be paying attention to current talking points and trends, failing to do so could mean missing out on a number of huge opportunities. By tuning into major events, monitoring trending topics and keeping up to date with things your audience are likely to be also paying attention to, you can become more aware of what’s happening and potentially use this to give you an idea of when to launch marketing campaigns. 

For example, monitoring weather reports for news about a heatwave or hot weather is great for businesses who provide cold drinks or ice cream, as it allows them to launch their marketing campaigns based around and in time for the hot weather to hit. 

– An Instant Response
What’s popular this week might not be popular next week! The problem with popularity is that it can often be fleeting, which is why an instant response is often needed. Once you’ve become aware of what’s going on in the world and how you can market around this, it needs to be implemented pretty much straight away in order to not miss out on a huge opportunity.

There’s nothing worse than when a brand tries to take advantage of a meme or popular culture reference too late, it makes brands look outdated and behind the times, something you don’t want to do. 

– A Relevant Platform
Being able to keep track of what’s going on in the world is all good, but you also need to consider how you’re going to get your message out there. Social media is ideal for posting content that is relevant to specific trending topics, memes or pop culture topics as it’s likely there’ll be plenty of others posting and sharing content about the same thing, increasing views and engagement. Social media and even blogs are great for events or trends that are deemed more entertaining or fun, as it’s easy for more serious topics to be misunderstood with limited characters as seen on social.

You can also think about launching email marketing campaigns that are relevant to certain events, such as an email mid-November that talks about getting the ‘perfect Christmas gift.’ This allows brands to launch a campaign centred around Christmas in a much more sales driven way. 

Timing is everything, especially in the advertising and marketing industry – if you post too early, nobody cares and if you post too late you can miss out. With Google Trends, Twitter Trending Topics and even by looking through your marketing data and history you can know exactly what works and more importantly when!