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Spring is a time
of rejuvenation. As our bodies warm up from winter's hibernation mode
we begin shedding layers and behaviors, departing from movie-night-every-night
and comfort foods to seek lighter ways of living.
In our personal lives, we
begin a quest for new habits in schedule, diet, exercise, travel, activities
and projects.
Professionally, we might
be more inclined to establish new partnerships, purchase new products,
outsource services in an effort to see more daylight rather than our
office walls. Even while on the job, browsing for vacation planning,
fitness plans, and checking in on investments bring diversion.
Your site should strive to
acknowledge this change and encourage users to make the most of the
season. If your site is not currently dynamic, now's the time to change.
Companies that demonstrate adaptability to the times and the seasons
will experience greater success.
This principle obviously
applies to consumer-oriented sites, but B2B sites can also take the
queue to embrace seasonal changes and societal trends. After all, who
wants to return to a stagnant, starched site? Note the success of online
retailers whose fashions change with the seasons - the allure of what's
new keeps us coming back.
Change Brings
Reward
How can your business adopt
change? Spruce up marketing campaigns with spring-related keyword hints
that reward with discounts. Encourage the philosophy that change brings
reward. Focus on the financial benefits of your product to win customers.
Here are a few ideas:
B2C: •
Keyword advertising: Inject marketing campaigns with keywords that emanate
warmth. Pull them into an interactive exercise with your brand by advertising
relevant keywords that push users to your site's search box to find
out more. This method negates the need for custom landing pages (difficult
for the user to recall), citing keywords that get remembered. Steer
clear of digit-only or keyword and digit combos like first10off - those
just don't stick. Try relevant keywords that will endure. For instance,
if you manage a health portal, assign keywords like "spring cleaning"
to find all the latest home cleaning and body rejuvenating products
for 2003. Kenneth Cole is in the spring spirit; a recent email subject
was: "Spring's Here, Time to Accessorize". Now I don't know
what spring and accessories have to do with each other, but I was intrigued
enough to click through.
B2B:
If you don't sell something directly relating to the warm-weather shift,
try instead to persuade the change-oriented mentality of your customers.
As we say good-bye to winter, we want to jump start our lives in all
areas.
•
Capitalize on the season with communications and marketing that speaks
to the diversion-prone, which is almost everyone. Offer games, humor,
color, imagery that evokes a departure from corporate speak as we know
it. In marketing efforts, catch them off-guard with keywords that invoke
curiosity.
•
Use keyword advertising to push prospects to your site search where
typing in specific keywords yields a substantial time-sensitive discount
that heralds the nature of spring - change brings reward. Hone in on
the financial benefits of your product/service to close the deal.
•
Focus on your unique value proposition in all your communications, reminding
them just why they should do business with you.
•
Bolster email marketing campaigns with warm stimulus - the right colors
and imagery refresh the brain.
