Seasonal campaign planning is a written marketing calendar for your business: twelve months, each with a budget, a message, a target list of towns and a clear reason. It's the service we recommend first to most Simcoe County trades, because the region's demand swings are steep and most marketing ignores them. Without a plan, owners tend to spend evenly all year, which overpays in peak weeks and under-invests in the shoulder months where an extra job matters most.
As with everything we do, this is marketing and advice. We're not a contractor and we don't perform the work you sell.
What the calendar actually contains
The plan is one document, short enough to keep on the office wall. For each month it answers five questions.
- What are we selling? For example, cottage openings and well checks in April, closings and winterization in September, furnace maintenance in October.
- Who is it for? Year-round homeowners in Barrie and the commuter towns, absentee shoreline owners, property managers, or commercial accounts.
- Where? A specific list of municipalities and neighbourhoods, chosen by your drive times and margins.
- Through which channels? Search ads, your Google profile, emails and texts to people who have already done business with you, or a seasonal landing page.
- How much? A monthly spending ceiling based on your job value and how many jobs the crew can absorb.
We also mark the two or three "pre-sell" windows each year: the weeks when you should be booking work for the next season while customers are still thinking about you.
Who this service suits
The plan works best for owners whose year has obvious peaks. In Simcoe County that covers a wide range of trades:
- dock, marine and shoreline contractors whose season starts at ice-out
- septic, well and water-treatment firms serving rural Oro-Medonte, Springwater, Tiny and Ramara
- heating, propane and furnace companies, whose fall rush can be planned months ahead
- roofers and exterior renovators with a limited building season
- landscapers and property-maintenance firms who add snow work in winter
It also helps businesses in steady markets such as south Barrie or Bradford that simply want a more deliberate rhythm instead of reacting to slow weeks after they arrive.
What's included and how long it takes
The first plan takes about two to three weeks. After that, the work is a monthly review that keeps the calendar honest.
| Stage | What happens | Typical timing |
|---|---|---|
| Job history review | We read your last 12–24 months of jobs by month, town and job type | Week 1 |
| Capacity check | We agree how many jobs per week the crew can take in each season | Week 1 |
| Draft calendar | Offers, towns, channels and monthly budgets, in writing | Week 2 |
| Messages and pages | Seasonal ad text, landing pages and past-customer reminders | Weeks 2–3 |
| Monthly review | Compare plan to results and move budget if demand shifted | Every month |
If you're on one of our monthly plans, the calendar is part of the work, not an extra.
How we measure whether it's working
The honest measure is booked jobs per month against capacity, not clicks or impressions. We track three things.
- Utilisation: how close each month came to the number of jobs your crew could handle.
- Cost per booked job by month: if it climbs sharply in peak weeks, we're overspending when you're already full.
- Pre-sold work: how many fall or winter jobs were booked before the season started.
A worked example: if your crew can take 30 jobs a month and last March you did 12, filling even 6 more at an average ticket of $600 is $3,600 in revenue from a month that used to lose money. That is the sort of gap the plan is built to close.
Mistakes we see Simcoe County trades make
Most seasonal waste comes from a handful of habits. Avoiding them costs nothing.
- Same budget every month. Spending as much in your busiest week as in your quietest buys calls you can't answer.
- Advertising the season you're in. By the time cottage closing season starts, the organised owners have already booked someone. Promote it in August.
- Ignoring past customers. A homeowner who used you in May is the cheapest possible lead for their October closing, yet many trades never contact them again.
- Pausing everything in winter. Turning off your Google profile updates and ads entirely can make the spring restart slower and more expensive.
- Planning around the calendar, not the weather. A late spring moves ice-out and opening dates; the plan should flex.
Where to go from here
Seasonal planning works on its own, but it pairs naturally with Google Ads with seasonal budgets and with cottage and seasonal-owner marketing, which turns the calendar into repeat bookings. Our guide to the Simcoe County trades marketing calendar walks through a sample year month by month if you want to try a version yourself first.
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take to build the calendar?
About two to three weeks from the day we get your job history. Most of that time goes into reading your past year by month and by town, not into writing the document.
What if I don't have clean job records?
Invoices, a calendar export or even a rough memory of your busy and quiet months is enough to start. The first plan is a draft; it gets sharper after one full season of tracking.
Do you change the plan during the year?
Yes. An early spring, a late freeze or a sudden staffing gap changes demand. We review the calendar monthly and move budget when the weather or your capacity moves.
Is this only for cottage-country businesses?
No. Any trade with an uneven year benefits, including furnace and AC firms in Barrie's subdivisions and roofers working the commuter towns. The shoreline trades just feel the swings more sharply.