How agencies can turn seasonal moments into revenue: A playbook for ecommerce clients

Reading Time: 4 minutes

The holiday season comes and goes faster than most marketing teams would like to admit. One minute you’re planning Black Friday, and the next your clients are already asking, “So… what’s our next big campaign?” The brands that scramble after the fact are always playing catch-up — while the smart ones prepare early.

That’s exactly where smart seasonal and reactive marketing can become your agency’s unfair advantage. Instead of shouting louder, you help brands show up where attention already is — in seasonal moments, cultural trends, and the conversations customers are actually having.

This article distills key ideas from Omnisend director of brand Pija’s webinar into a practical playbook for agencies.

Start with the 3 Es: A simple filter for better campaigns

Before you think about calendars or trends, pressure-test every idea through three questions:

• Does it Engage? Does this subject line, visual, or hook grab attention in a crowded feed? Would you stop scrolling for it?
• Does it Educate? Does it help your client’s audience understand something better — a product use case, a problem, a comparison, a “why now”?
• Does it Entertain? Does it add a bit of delight, relevance, or personality? It doesn’t have to be laugh-out-loud funny, just human.

Inside an agency, the 3 Es can become a shared review tool. When you’re looking at a draft campaign for a client, ask: “Where exactly is this engaging? What’s the educational takeaway? What’s the entertaining element?” If the answer is unclear, the seasonal hook or clever reference won’t be enough to carry performance.

Seasonal vs. reactive: Two lanes of relevance

Think of relevance in two lanes your agency can use:

1. Seasonal marketing (predictable, planned)

These are the moments you know are coming every year — especially in Q1:

• New Year resolutions and “reset” themes
• Valentine’s Day
• International Women’s Day
• Local cultural days, sports events, and niche “holidays”

For agencies, seasonal marketing is where you can be most proactive:

• Calendar-first planning. Build a quarterly seasonal calendar for each client: major global events + local moments + 2–3 niche days that fit the brand (e.g., International Coffee Day for a DTC mug brand).
• Themed offers and bundles. Instead of “20% off everything” every time, tie offers to the story of the season:
  • Valentine’s: bundles for “self-love”, “best friends”, not just couples
  • New Year: “reset” sets, habit-building kits, starter packs
• Creative alignment across channels. Use the seasonal story in email, SMS, and onsite: subject lines, hero images, countdown timers, and last-chance reminders.
• Co-marketing when fit is not obvious. If your client’s products don’t naturally align with a holiday, partner them with a brand that does. Co-branded giveaways, joint bundles, or shared newsletters can still let them “borrow” the moment.

Your value as an agency: you’re not just “doing a Valentine’s campaign”. You’re designing a repeatable seasonal system that your clients can rely on every year.

2. Reactive marketing (unpredictable, improvised)

Reactive marketing is when your client taps into something that’s trending right now:

• A viral TV show or meme
• A news story with strong cultural traction
• A social media challenge
• A surprising brand moment

This can be powerful, but it comes with two big constraints: timing and fit.

Ask yourself:

• “If we launch this in two weeks, will anyone still care?”
• “Does this trend genuinely connect to the client’s product, audience, or brand voice?”

Sometimes the smartest move is to skip a trend entirely rather than arrive late or force it.

Building a reactive marketing muscle inside your agency

You can’t predict the next viral moment, but you can build a process that lets you respond when it makes sense.

Here’s how to turn reactive ideas into something operational:

• Assign “trend watchers”. Have 1–2 people on your team responsible for monitoring cultural and industry topics — not just in marketing, but in entertainment, gaming, sports, and local news.
• Set a weekly “trend check” slot. 20–30 minutes once a week, where you ask:
  • What are people in our feeds talking about?
  • What’s come up at the office, in client calls, or in Slack chats?
  • Could any of this connect naturally to one of our clients?
• Create simple greenlight criteria. Before pitching a reactive idea, sanity-check:
  • Brand fit: Does this align with the client’s tone and values?
  • Audience: Will their customers get the reference, or is it too niche?
  • Timing: Can we design, approve, and launch in days, not weeks?
  • Sensitivity: Is there any risk of being tone-deaf or trivializing something serious?
• Have “quick-launch” assets ready. Use Omnisend to prepare flexible templates your team can adapt fast:
  • A meme-style announcement layout
  • A simple “special drop” product email
  • A minimal SMS template to support a viral push

This way, when a perfect cultural moment appears, you’re not starting from zero — you’re just plugging a fresh idea into an existing system.

Avoid these common seasonal campaign mistakes

From the webinar Q&A, a few patterns emerged — especially for brands that remain stuck in the same seasonal routine each year. You can help clients avoid them:

• Repeating last year’s formula without evolving. If every Black Friday and Valentine’s look identical, performance will decay. Keep the underlying structure, but refresh the angle, visuals, and offer mechanics.
• Making the campaign all about the brand, not the moment. Strong seasonal campaigns start from what people are already thinking about during that time – stress, celebration, gifts, resolutions – and then bring the brand into that story.
• Jumping on every trend just to be seen as “fun”. Being “always on trend” is less important than being consistently relevant. Pick fewer moments and do them well.
• Being late to the party. If a viral show or event peaked three weeks ago, a fresh reference today can feel like an inside joke someone missed. Better to skip and wait for the next moment than look out of touch.

Turning this into agency revenue

Seasonal and reactive marketing isn’t just a creative exercise — it can become a clear line in your agency offering:

• Seasonal planning as a packaged service. Offer quarterly or yearly “seasonal roadmaps” that include a campaign calendar, proposed themes, and rough offer concepts for each client.
• Reactive “sprints” on retainers. Build in a set number of “reactive slots” per quarter, so clients know you can jump on relevant trends when they appear – without renegotiating scope every time.
• Execution powered by Omnisend. Use Omnisend to:
  • Clone and adapt seasonal workflows quickly
  • Test different angles (3 Es) with A/B subject lines or content blocks
  • Segment by behavior and engagement to make each seasonal push smarter, not just louder

For agency partners, the opportunity is simple: brands are hungry for campaigns that feel alive and connected to the real world. You can bring that structure, discipline, and creativity — and tools like Omnisend make it fast to execute.

If this sparked ideas for your clients, consider building your own seasonal calendar and a simple reactive process this week. The next “perfect moment” is already on its way — and your agency can be the one that helps brands make the most of it. You might take a look at our other educational webinars while you’re at it!