Autumn is here, the leaves are turning and in mere moments, the twinkle of festive lights will be visible on every high street. Are you and your marketing plans ready for one of the busiest times of the year?
You’ve loved our Q1, Q2 and Q3 marketing cheat sheets, so for Q4 marketing success, head right this way. 👇
1. Q4 2024 key dates and awareness days
Awareness days are often the quick wins — the ways for your brand to relate to things happening in the world and those events that matter to your audiences.
Of course, it’s not about shoehorning your brand into every single one, but rather looking for organic, relatable opportunities that marry with your service, product or values.
October
1-7 — Anaphylaxis Awareness Week
1-7 — National Vegetarian Week
2–8 — National Arthritis Week
4 — No Disposable Cup Day
7–8 — National Brunch Weekend
7-13 — National Hygiene Week
7-13 — National Curry Week
9–15 — Baby Loss Awareness Week
9–15 — National Porridge Week
14–20 — National Baking Week
14–20 — Chocolate Week
14–20 — Recycle Week
15 — Global Wave of Light (Baby Loss Awareness Week)
18 — Anti-Slavery Day
21–27 — National Adoption Week
25 — Wear it Pink
27 — National Cheese Toastie Day
31 — Halloween
November
1 — World Vegan Day
1–30 — Movember UK
1–30 — National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)
1–30 — Lung Cancer Awareness Month
1–30 — Mouth Cancer Action Month
3 — National Sandwich Day
5 — Bonfire Night
6 — National Stress Awareness Day
11-17 — Anti-Bullying Week
11-17 — Baby Week UK
12 — Odd Socks Day
18–24 — Road Safety Week
December
1 — World AIDS Day
1-31 — Decembeard
2 — Cyber Monday
3 — Giving Tuesday
5 — International Volunteer Day
10 — Human Rights Day
13 — Christmas Jumper Day
25 — Christmas Day
25 — First Day of Hanukkah
26 — Boxing Day
31 — New Year’s Eve
2. The rise of visual search — seeing is believing
Visual search essentially means ‘searching by image’ on Google. The feature has existed since 2011, but it’s been growing hugely in popularity and accuracy of late. Google Lens — giving us the power to scan and shop for that dress straight away, identify a mysterious plant species or get instant translations — is now utilised in an astonishing 12 billion searches a month.
While this tool would have value at all times of the year, the rise of visual search is most crucial in the winter period as shopping begins to gather pace for the holidays, Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
With the tendency for Google to include purchase options from the results themselves, many brands are incorporating visual search considerations into their search engine optimisation strategies. Doing so can lead to a more swift path to purchase. This reduces clicks between finding a product and checking out.
It all means paying greater attention to how you serve these visual searches with your imagery. There are a number of things you can do to optimise your images for visual search:
High-quality images, but with file sizes aren’t too big (think 500kB maximum, to avoid anything that might risk a poor experience for users on slower connections)
Descriptive captions
Descriptive and relevant image file names
Descriptive alt text
Schema markup
Image sitemaps
3. ‘tis the season to get spooky
That’s right, before the big dance, there’s always Halloween. No longer a ‘skipover’ holiday, this spooky little occasion is growing every year — we spent an amazing £1 billion on Halloween in 2023, with no slowdown expected.
Halloween has trickled down from costumes, into decor, food, partyware, clothing and everything in between, so dust off those cobwebs and get your brand into the action wherever you can. It’d be scary to miss out on all that revenue.
Bonfire night spending is also on the rise. Largely the work of consumers aged 16–34, it seems the prediction in our Q2 guide regarding the importance of nostalgia marketing was spot on.
It’s likely these younger consumers are tapping into happy childhood memories — or recreating them for their own families. This desire to look back to simpler times, enjoy past pleasures and feel good is a great way to build genuine connection with consumers.
4. Don’t leave TikTok out in the cold
TikTok has over one billion monthly users, making it a huge pool of opportunity for brands and marketers.
Not only are we hooked on the former dance app-turned-search engine, but 71.2% of users have made a purchase simply after discovering a product in their feed — so there are plenty of reasons to bring TikTok into your marketing strategy.
The app that could has created millions of influencers, sold out recipe ingredients, made clothing viral and launched the music careers of many a starlet.
We’ve talked about how you can harness the power of TikTok depending on your industry in several of our blogs.
- How to succeed on TikTok as a luxury brand
- How to succeed on TikTok as a health and wellbeing brand
- How to succeed on TikTok as a pet brand
- How to succeed on TikTok as a food and drink brand
- How to succeed on TikTok as a home and garden brand
- How to succeed on TikTok as a travel and tourism brand
If your industry isn't covered, give us a shout and we'll see what we can do...
5. Get ready to ditch the blog
OK, not completely. Yes, you should still absolutely be keeping your customers, clients and site users abreast of developments in your brand and company. And yes, you should certainly be creating useful content for them to consume.
But, in its traditional form, the blog could be on its way out.
‘Why?’ we hear you scream. Because when you create content in the traditional chronological format of a blog, your lovingly-crafted content slowly gets buried deeper and deeper on your site. It’s not the optimal way to structure content — for users or search engines.
It’s much better to create a ‘content hub’: a series of connected web pages that address the needs of the target audience at each step of their journey. The articles in the content hub are grouped based on topic or theme, allowing users to discover content that’s immediately relevant to them, without having to scroll endlessly.
This helps to build semantic relationships between pieces of content and improve topic authority, meaning Google sees your site as authoritative when it comes to a particular subject.
So, it’s time to start looking at your content with a more critical eye. It’s time to start creating for the consumer, their questions and their interests. The results of a well-executed content hub can be truly phenomenal.
Does this all sound a little like hard work?
Then maybe we can do some of the heavy lifting for you in 2025. If you could do with a helping hand staying ahead of the curve this coming year, drop us a line today!
Our talented, award-winning team covers all digital marketing specialisms — social media, branding, PPC, SEO, content, PR, email, e-commerce and web development.
Oh, and don’t forget to keep your eyes peeled for next year’s Q1 cheat sheet! 👀
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