Who doesn’t love a good pumpkin spice latte and some leaves changing colors? It’s basically everyone’s favorite time of year. But let’s be honest, when it comes to branding around fall, a lot of businesses tend to do the same thing. 

If you want to lean into the season changing, but still be authentically you, try a few of these tips for incorporating autumn without FALLing for cliche trends. 

 

Seasonal Needs In Content

 

With the changing of the season comes a change in direction for your customers. It’s back to school season. Fashion takes on a new look. What we eat, what we watch and how we entertain changes. Whatever your business may be, there is likely an impact on your customers’ needs.

Think about how the time your audience is spending is different now that it’s fall by asking yourself these questions:

  • How is my audience spending their time? 
  • What do they need now that they didn’t need in summer?
  • What are some of the pain points that come with this time of year? (As it relates to your product/service.)
  • What are some of the joys that come with this time of year?

For example, if you sell essential oils you might answer the questions like this:

  • My audience is sending kids back to school or setting up their homeschool space. They will be needing calming/focus-based concoctions. 
  • In summer, they need bug repellants. In fall they might need something for dry skin. 
  • Flu season, sore throats and runny noses abound this time of year, I have recipes for that!
  • Hosting a big gathering means they’ll want a pleasant, spicy, warm blend diffusing at all times and kids might need an oil that helps with digestion during those big eating months.

You don’t have to place your essential oil bottles next to a pumpkin to make them seasonal. Instead, go a layer deeper and discover ways to meet your audience where they are already at this time of year. 

Vibrant Visuals

We’re all going to take a picture of our coffee mug in front of the fireplace. That is a given. And we’re okay with that. But there is a lot of the same when it comes to fall-inspired images. Standing out this time of year might just mean stepping back from recreating the tempting, but too-often-seen + fall decor shot.

Cooler Editing

Instead of jumping from watermelons to gords, you might just find that an editing change up gives you the tonal shift you’re looking for on photo-focused platforms. Using presets or your own editing skills, you can add an orange-y hue or lean into the cool blue tones for a subtle, but distinctive transition into the new season. 

Get Natural

Nature gives us some of the most beautiful backdrops for seasonal change. And while we too love candy corn scattered on a tabletop, you can use the dark moody clouds and the barren trees as a prop as well. The commercialized elements of fall are what corporate enterprises tend to lean on. So go against the grain… and maybe find some harvested grain fields!

Fun Filters

If you’re all about the IG stories, you know there are just too many seasonal ways to play. We think being the first to some of these fun little additions can make a big splash to your live video.

Gorgeous Graphics

For your design needs, we can stay away from the leaf stickers and lean into the abstract shapes, drawing on the colors that make us feel fall-ish without throwing it in the audiences’ faces. Plum, amber, chocolate, maroon, gold, mustard… let the colors do the talking. 

 

Seasonal Products

 

Instead of talking about PSL’s, draw on what Starbucks does best… create annual anticipation. There is something just too tempting about those items that only come about once a year for a limited time. Oktoberfest brews, cinnamon-scented candles, witch-shaped cookies. Sure, we know these things will be back, but we have to get as much of them as we can while they are here!

So find a way to bring it to your business. And you don’t have to be a product-based business to do it. Maybe you just have a fall sale every year on your coaching services, or like Rachel Hollis and her 90-day challenge or National Novel Writing Month in November, you hold an annual event that rallies your squad. 

Giving your audience something to look forward to that has an expiration date is a great way to create urgency and excitement. 

This fall, we can leaf outdated cliches behind and come to the (thanksgiving) table with a fresh (apple pie) perspective that (pumpkin) spices up our brands. Who needs all those fall platitudes anyways?

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