How to Drive Blog Traffic Using Seasonality

Guest article written by Derek Vaughan.
Derek Vaughan is a web hosting industry veteran, marketing consultant and writer. Mr. Vaughan has architected the marketing growth of several prominent web hosting success stories leading to acquisition including Affinity Internet, Inc., Aplus.Net and HostMySite. Prior to his entry into the web hosting industry, Mr. Vaughan was responsible for online marketing at The Walt Disney Company where he marketed ecommerce for the ESPN.com and NASCAR.com brands. Mr. Vaughan received his M.B.A. from Vanderbilt University and currently serves on the HostingCon Advisory Board.

Internet marketers and bloggers are often called upon to create excitement for products and market demand out of nothing more than thin air. One tactic in promoting your products and services in a new and interesting light is to use seasonality or ”hot markets” in your marketing mix. I was reminded of the power in these tactics recently while creating some promotional ideas for a UK company which sells dedicated servers around the World Cup. You may find this tactic suits your blog well – here’s how it works.

Seasonality and ‘Hot Markets’

Most online marketers are already quite familiar with seasonality. In online retail, the prime selling season is the month of December – traditionally the season of giving. Similarly, any business selling items related to love and relationships will make strategic use of the February Valentine’s Day season to promote their goods and services. There is also a similar marketing technique related to ”hot markets”. So what exactly are hot markets? Let’s look at the example of a retailer that sells sporting goods and apparel. Whenever there is a championship match for a particular sport, a hot market is created. The most obvious example in the U.S. may be the Super Bowl. If a retailer sells team jerseys or football equipment, they can leverage the excitement around the Super Bowl to sell items related to the teams and the sport itself.

Leveraging ‘Hot Markets’

Some may ask how hot markets apply to their business when they sell products unrelated to the hot market events themselves. There are two ways – tangentially related promotions, and unrelated promotions. To again use the example of the Super Bowl – a tangentially related promotion would be sales of televisions to watch the game. While televisions are not featured in the sport of football, the excitement surrounding the event reminds consumers that they have been intending to purchase a new television. The date of the game creates a built-in deadline for purchase, and yields a fantastic call to action for the television vendor. Unrelated promotions are those promotions which feature products that truly have nothing all to do with the hot market event.

Selling Unrelated Items Into a ‘Hot Market’

The key to leveraging hot markets for most businesses is to generate a creative marketing idea which use the hot market event as a springboard for the promotion. Here is an example based on the World Cup promotion mentioned previously. If you have an unrelated product, why not offer a progressive discount based on the performance of your home team in the World Cup? For example in the U.S. – one could offer 10 percent off for each goal that the U.S. team scores in each game. One goal means a 10 percent discount, 2 goals is a 20 percent discount. This rewards the customer for a hot market event that they are already excited about. An alternative idea may be to have a promotion entitled, ”If the U.S. wins, you win!”. This promotion could offer the customer a free item (free shipping?) if the U.S. wins the match. The permutations of these promotions are practically endless.

Seasonality and ‘Hot Market’ Ideas
So what are the various seasons and hot markets that can be used to create special promotions? Here is a short list to give you a few ideas.

Seasons
Beginning of the Year – New Year’s
Valentine’s Day
President’s Day
Summer
Back to School
Halloween
Thanksgiving
Winter Holidays (Christmas, Hanukah)

Here are a few ideas to consider as well.
Any major sporting events (Super Bowl, World Series, NBA Finals, etc.)
Special events that recur (The Oscars, American Idol, Movie launches)
Trade shows, conferences or events (Comic Con, CES, any trade event in your industry)

Getting Started

It’s really quite easy to get started thinking about promotions for seasonality or hot markets. Use a calendar program and begin to enter events that you think might appeal to your customer demographic. When you have a few hot market events on your calendar, consider promotions that you could roll out to coincide with the events or season. You’ll be armed with plenty of great promotions in no time. Good luck using seasonality and hot markets to your best advantage in promoting your blog.