If you’re a business owner or digital marketer, you probably pore over your website analytics frequently. If so, have you noticed that your traffic and sales fluctuate with certain seasons or holidays? Trends such as these are called seasonality. Seasonality refers to periodic fluctuations in certain business and marketing cycles, based on the seasons in one calendar year starting the first of January.
Seasonality is one of the biggest factors that impacts digital marketing. For example, florists and candy makers usually experience a boost in traffic around Valentine’s Day. A company that sells sunscreen and tanning products might experience a sales surge in the summer. And of course, events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday are two of the biggest sales days of the year across industries.
Seasonal digital marketing is about more than tracking seasonal trends for business, however. It can be used to drive more customers to your business, and keep them engaged in your products or services. It can also be an opportunity to experiment with creative marketing and ecommerce advertising.
What you need to know first
Understanding seasonal SEO trends is key to generating more exposure during peak calendar periods and events. Marketers can use Google Trends to analyze the popularity of top search queries and keywords, and how they perform alongside seasonal business trends. This can be helpful for running paid search campaigns or maximizing exposure in SERPs. Google Trends also helps you adjust and improve your search term strategy in order to generate a greater online impact.
Seasonal SEO is also about planning ahead. For example, if your business sells ski equipment, you should start advertising during the summer in order to meet your sales goals. Customers need time to think about their purchases, and marketing should start a few weeks before the holiday or season hits.
Online advertising rates cycle seasonally as well. If you want to pay for an ad placement on a major online portal, you’ll have to pay more during the holiday season. Online retail activity increases during the holidays, and companies compete for attention in a very crowded space. This ultimately means you need to factor in higher click costs and more expensive ad spending.
No matter which creative marketing strategies you use, it’s important not to restrict yourself to one kind of media. You want to create an online presence with the widest reach. Instead, consider how you can integrate seasonal advertising across multiple channels and platforms.
Make each year better than the last
While it helps to learn which keywords work best, knowing your audience will ultimately help you boost holiday sales, create word of mouth, and get referrals and repeat customers.
Keeping up with seasonal advertising trends can be challenging, especially when you’re running your own online campaign. Caroff Communications can help. We empower businesses to optimize their advertising intelligence, drive their SEO performance, and make their PPC marketing funnels work for them. Contact us today to learn more.
