When it comes to B2C marketing, seasons and holiday campaigns bombard us from all angles. Oftentimes, we’ll find winter merchandise and advertisements even before the weather starts to change. Seasonal marketing is trendy, urgent and predictable—three words not often associated with the counterpart B2B marketing. However, does that mean there’s no place for seasonal marketing in the B2B space? Absolutely not!

Connect Emotionally

B2B buying decisions can involve long sales cycles with complex budget processes and multiple stakeholder involvement. However, when it comes down to it, buyers are still people. Connecting with buyers on an emotional level is as critical in B2B marketing as it is in the B2C space. It builds trust and rapport. Seasons and holidays are nostalgic and harness emotion with ease. Highlighting the season in your company’s messaging and outreach is a great way to connect on a human level. Consider partnering with a charitable organization that shares the same values as your organization. Incorporate nostalgia into your campaigns. In B2C, marketing can feel like it exploits the season or goes over the top. In B2B, all it takes a subtle (and brand-aligned) hint, theme or greeting. It shows your prospects and customers that your company is made up of people too, not just a plethora of web pages or anonymous customer service lines.

Think Outside the Box With Seasonal Marketing

The holiday season is heavy with marketing messages. Therefore, it’s important to stand out in a unique way. Depending on what your business has to offer, you can use holidays, events and themes to create a new twist on a traditional season. Share what you are doing to celebrate. Create holiday-specific blogs. Consider seasonal themes, such as spring cleaning, back to school, football and online shopping.

Beyond the traditional winter holidays, there are year-round events that can drive your marketing efforts. Look for unusual holidays that offer opportunities to connect with your customers and prospects throughout the year. The National Day Calendar can be a source of not-so-obvious seasonal opportunities that have the power to connect with your audience.

Take Advantage of Annual Patterns

Aside from the holidays and weather patterns of the year, there are a number of other seasonal rhythms to consider in your marketing strategy. Think about messaging that focuses on new beginnings. Whether it’s the fiscal year, start of a new quarter, change in leadership, or customer conferences or events, there are many opportunities to showcase your brand and your product or service offerings.

Certain patterns and rhythms in life are collective and harnessing those patterns is a natural social response. Tradition and nostalgia have strong ties with our culture for a reason. The emotion that builds over yearly celebration is hard to imitate. Tie that powerful force into your marketing efforts to highlight the human element and watch engagement flourish.

Become Sharable

Sharability is a reality of content today. Between all our devices, we like, share and comment throughout the entire day, via email, social media and more. Sharing is a vital part of any content strategy. To stay top of mind, engage readers with timely and relevant topics. Seasonality is a predictable and reliable trend that resonates with audiences at all levels. Take advantage of these known trends by producing content such as blogs, newsletters or articles that embrace the season. Show how your team is celebrating in the office. Share messages of gratitude. Create interactive or video greeting cards. While this type of content will not remain evergreen, trending topics are far more likely to be shared and will increase SEO and visibility for the time being. Seasonal topics are a great way to reach prospects, so use calls to action and link building to ensure they find your related products and services. While you are at it, add a little holiday flair to your Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn banners.

Make It Personal

As we prepare for the onslaught of Black Friday and Cyber Monday emails, consider how you can incorporate holiday themes in your marketing efforts. Remember to make it personal, appropriate and relevant, especially when your clients are already overwhelmed with holiday ads and messages coming from every angle. Create campaigns that evoke emotions, encourage sharing and connect with your audience in a meaningful and memorable way. Through careful planning and a creative approach, companies can keep clients engaged throughout the year.