Snow and winter are coming soon! You know what that means: cozy sweaters, hot cocoa, twinkling lights, and new marketing campaigns. This is one of the busiest seasons for shopping and gifting, so in today’s blog, we’ll be giving you a few ideas to help ramp up your fall and winter marketing.
Get Out and Get Involved with Local Community Events
Getting out and engaging with your community is one of the best things about fall and winter. Locally based marketing can help you implement an excellent and effective seasonal strategy. The best part, besides warming up with a cup of cider and meeting new people, is that you don’t have to plan the events yourself – it’s already been done for you by the organizations!
Another thing you can do is take it one step further and actually sponsor a local event. This is highly effective at increasing your exposure before, during, and after the event is done. You can also advertise your involvement through print or digital ads, social media, or your newsletter.
Add Fall or Winter Slogans and Colours
This can be done during any season, but fall and winter marketing have some of the most beautiful themes of the year. Add a touch of autumn leaves, snow, sparkle and cheer to your ads with phrases and puns like “bundle up with these deals,” “let it snow savings,” “warm up your winter,” “chill out with us,” or “’tis the season for great offers,” etc. Update your visuals by including cool tones, soft whites, festive lights, winter greenery, and cozy indoor scenes. Winter may feel long, but the holiday energy doesn’t last forever (sadly)! Take advantage of all the play on words and rich seasonal palettes that are available.
You can also hashtag your social media posts with winter-themed tags, such as #winterwonderland, #cozyvibes, #letitsnow – you get the idea.
Run a Fall or Winter Holiday Contest or Promotion
Who doesn’t love entering a contest and winning free stuff? Whether you’re promoting a special event or trying to increase your engagement and follower count, contests and sweepstakes are an excellent way to achieve your goals.
Don’t forget to have fun with it! Use this opportunity to connect with and collaborate with local markets, skating rinks, cultural centres, or holiday fairs – anything that aligns with your brand and vision. This example isn’t winter-themed, but my dad once took us to a Toronto Raptors game and since they scored over 100 points, we were able to get free slices of pizza with a purchase of pop at Pizza Pizza. Not a bad idea!
You can add a winter twist to this by offering a promotion or percentage off goods and services when the temperature drops below a certain number, or when your local hockey team wins a big game.
Take Advantage of Winter Holidays
Of course, this list of fall and winter marketing ideas wouldn’t be complete without mentioning Thanksgiving (over for us, but not for our American friends!), Christmas, Hanukkah, and New Year’s Eve (or National Homemade Bread Day… just saying). This time of year is filled with friends, family, celebration, and reflection, and there is a wealth of marketing ideas and approaches that can help you reach new audiences and promote your business. Take advantage of these holidays: offer a promotion or change your ad colours – it’s a good way to refresh your copy and creative to keep things dynamic.
As if winter wasn’t already festive enough for marketing inspiration, you can round it off by promoting Valentine’s Day and, you guessed it, the start of spring planning!
New Year, New Goals
This is arguably one of the biggest motivation-fueled shopping events of the year, even if it comes with a bit of pressure to start fresh.
There are a lot of angles you can play with the New Year, and it all depends on your business and what you offer. When I was in university, there was a GoodLife Fitness close to campus that always offered a “new year, new you” special that discounted personal training services for people looking to get back into shape. If you’re a coffee chain, you can offer $1 off coffee for anyone working on their resolutions, or you can give a special discount for teachers returning from winter break. There is so much room for creativity with this time of year, so get brainstorming and have fun!
Speaking of the new year, check out our Top 5 Most Valuable Marketing Skills In 2026. If you want to take this time to give your workspace another seasonal clean, see our blog on Cleaning Your Workspace!