5 Tips on How to Capitalize on Seasonal Marketing Trends

Ehsan Khodarahmi, Managing Editor of an email marketing software called GetResponse, clears up a common misconception about marketing, stating that “marketing is not about reaching as many customers as possible; but to reach only people who are ready to buy.” With this in mind, seasonal marketing is a tool used to target specific events during the year in order to drive more traffic and attention towards your business. By adjusting your online marketing campaigns to the ongoing events, businesses utilize seasonality to keep consumers engaged and interested in their products or services.

The most important events of the American and European calendar are Christmas, Halloween, Black Friday/Cyber Monday, Halloween, Valentines Day, Saint Patricks Day, Thanksgiving, Easter, July 4th, Labor Day, and so on. National holidays provide the opportunity for consumers to splurge and spend some extra money on their family, friends, or just themselves. Whether this means buying an upscale dress for a Christmas party or a weekend getaway trip for Easter, special occasions like these allow eCommerce and brick and mortar businesses alike to shift their campaigns in order to maximize their profit.

Here are some tips on how to use seasonal marketing trends to advance your business year-round.

1. Understand seasonal SEO trends

While seasonality refers to the different ways consumers use and interact with search engines, seasonal SEO “focuses on optimizing your site for seasonal keywords and their variations in order to get more exposure in SERPs during a specific period of time”. Businesses, especially ones that rely on online consumer activity, apply seasonal SEO to their websites in order to generate more exposure and awareness during holidays and sales. During Valentines Day, Mother’s Day, and Father’s Day, for example, online traffic increases pretty dramatically; businesses can capitalize on these occasions by catering to the people who are shopping for specific items.

2. Think ahead

Planning in advance is critical when using seasonal SEO. If businesses want to receive a lot of attention on Google in order to drive more traffic to their website, they need to prepare ahead. Bidding for a keyword a day or two shy from a holiday will probably not turn out very well; if you want to become a part of the buzz, you need to strategize and act before the big day.

Taking advantage of seasonality from a marketing point of view also means planting ideas in your consumers minds ahead of time. For example, if your business is selling skis, you might start advertising to consumers during the summer months in order to meet a certain sales standard or goal.

The reason behind this is that buying expensive skis takes time; just like purchasing a high-quality suit or a good quality cycling bike, these “big ticket” purchases need time to be mulled over before they’re bought. As a result, businesses give their consumers time to make their decision by advertising early.

3. Learn which keywords work best

E-commerce businesses are well aware of the connection between good SEO strategies and successful marketing. Online tools such as Google Trends allow businesses to track consumer habits over time in order to adjust and improve their search terms in order to generate a greater online impact.

Having a specific yet comprehensive list of keywords that apply to each holiday, event, or sales opportunity will allow your business to stay ahead of the game on search engines. Look at which keywords generated the most traffic in the past, and use and build upon those in order to maximize your business’s online presence.

At the end of the day, good keywords can allow your business to beat the competition on search engines like Google, Bing, or Yelp.

4. Know which holidays are more popular than others

While it’s important to think about all the potential seasonal events your business can utilize, it’s even more important to know which ones to pay the most attention to. Black Friday, for example, is a lot more popular than Valentines Day or Mother’s Day, and businesses realizing that early on will likely lead to better results later. Yet while Black Friday or Cyber Monday are obvious ways to make more money during the year, smaller but still valuable events such as “Graduation Season” or even “Going to Camp Season” can provide businesses with opportunities to establish themselves as pioneers of those niche markets.

5. Remember that it’s not all about keywords

While keywords are a great start to launching a successful marketing campaign, especially during holiday season, knowing your audience is what will ultimately help your business reap the most benefit. Zero in on your users; understand how they think, what they want, and when they want it, and your business will create a larger impact this year and beyond. Put another way, know your audience.

Establishing a strong connection between you and your consumers based on trust is ultimately the most important element of a business.

In the end, understanding and utilizing seasonality can increase your business’s marketing success dramatically. By leveraging opportunities such as national holidays or seasonal marketing trends changes throughout the year, your business can learn how to generate more revenue while increasing its online presence.