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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.
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