The summer is here and this is a fantastic time for affiliates to jump on seasonal marketing trends to direct more traffic to their sites and also drill deeper into event based marketing. We all know next month brings some of the biggest sporting events to the front of your content marketing calendar but will seasonal changes really delivery new opportunities for growth? We think so – and If you’re not leveraging these good summer vibes across your website, then you’re missing out!
Does seasonal marketing really work?
Seasonal marketing trends are great opportunities for affiliates that want to turn the tables on their competitors and take advantage of monthly trends. This is a great niche for affiliates that want to fill their schedule with events that will bring in pockets of new traffic. If you’re savvy and create an interesting CRM output, you’ll profit from the opportunity by reaching a stronger audience segment and increase your traffic alongside.
If you’re facing off against established brands that have more to spend on their advertising, then you have to use these seasonal content opportunities to chip away at the peripheral edges of where they focus high value spends wherever possible. Seasonal trends give you the chance to jump on the immediate events we’re all talking about and use them to push your brand.
Seasonal marketing can be used to bring in more traffic from social media and from search. Creating a calendar of events, from the summer through to Christmas allows you to get your ducks in a row. If you want to make the most of these trends then you have to be prepared.
These trends tend to be cyclical, so a campaign that works well once can be repurposed the next year. Within the context of summer and the affiliate marketing industry, it’s all about creating a summer vibe that makes users want to convert.
Finding your seasonal trends
There are loads of tools out there that will help you out with finding trends that will appeal to your users. The first thing that you want to do is look at historic Analytics data to figure out when you get influxes of users and where they come from. Use Search Console to assess which terms brought them to you and then capitalise on this.
Google Trends will show you when these topics begin to be searched more often. This will help you with the search side of things and with research for other campaigns too. For example, if you wanted to run a campaign around winning a holiday, you could schedule mailers to go out around the time people begin to search for holiday related keywords.
These will allow you to hit your user at exactly the right time, which will create a higher relevancy. If you send people a mailer about winning a summer holiday in January, they’re not as likely to be interested. If you time it right around April or May, they’ll be more likely to want to find out more.
Creating campaigns and content that works
Now that you’re armed with all of that knowledge, it’s time to use it effectively. You have your notable dates ready, so create content that lands with your audience at the right time. For organic traffic, you’ll need to time this slightly before, so that your page can build authority and be found.
Creating a cohesive campaign that targets your user over search, social media and in their email inbox will bring your brand the best possible results. This will allow you to grow your brand visibility too, which can bring you greater returns further down the line.
With this kind of multi-faceted campaign, your user will be nudged to return to your site and convert with content that resonates with them. This kind of campaign can seriously boost your revenue for the month, so try doing so and work to figure out what your users want. Segment this data further for an even larger ROI.
