We’ve spoken before about how relevance is essential to engaging that target audience and keeping them engaged with your content. If you haven’t already picked up our free guide to the shifting face of public relations, grab it now and learn why it’s necessary to keep ahead of the competition with potent online communication.
For those of you who have, it’s time to extend on some of what has already been explored.
By now it’s understood that being relevant to your audience is paramount alongside quality and engaging material. One way for any business or brand to engage with audiences in their present frame of mind is to acknowledge the changing of seasons and the anticipation and excitement that this transition often evokes.
There is a reason that the fashion industry has moved from introducing new lines two times, then four times to sometimes eight or more times each year. Simply put, it is ‘newsworthy’ to communicate new products or services that are introduced in correlation with a seasonal shift.
It may seem too obvious at first, but the change in season is indeed news. Acknowledging the seasonal changes that occur around and effect the entire population allows your message to break through the typical hype-filled and sales-heavy marketing messages that now flood the online space.
We are about to enter spring, the season that signifies new beginnings, hope and positive change. For peoples around the world spring is a time of growth and colour, exploration, learning and new opportunity.
Whether you are a chiropractor, a plumber, accountant or transport logistics company, the move into spring offers your content marketing strategy a chance to tap into these positive psychological states and communicate your brand or services to a more receptive audience, an audience filled with notions of possibility.
Unlike the fashion industry, the change in season may not have obvious links with your business or brand. It doesn’t matter what your products or services are, working the seasons into your content is simple with some careful consideration and a little creativity.
Here are some tips that we employ daily.
Marketing to a localised audience? Use the weather. One of our clients is a large plumbing outfit that services a specific region of New South Wales. During a very wet period in that area, the high rates of rainfall were used to highlight the importance of having drains cleared and repaired to handle the water.
During dry times, the focus changed to clearing drain maintenance—clearing drains of water-craving roots that inch their way into drains and cause blockages and leaks in pipes. It’s all about choosing a relevant angle.
When cold, we have themed competitions and newsletters to reflect the fact, instantly increasing audience engagement. Whether it be a ‘Winter Warmer Competition’ or some ‘Frosty Facts’ in a newsletter, the relevance immediately generates audience interest and translates to higher levels of participation.
Seasons change, people grow; use it to your advantage. Content marketing is all about giving your brand or business a face—making your business more human in the eyes of the consumer. One of the best ways to do this is to acknowledge the change in season. Empathise with your target audience and remain relevant to them.
If it’s coming into winter and you’re a chiropractor, write a blog on the relationship between joint pain and the cold. A transport logistics company, on the other hand, could Tweet about ‘5 chilling facts about ice-covered roads’ or include ‘Safer driving tips for winter’ in their June newsletter.
Yum. It’s the sure-fire way to their heart. We may all have different priorities in life, different wants and needs. That’s why research firms exist. What is a given, however, is every consumer’s very human love of food. Food is seasonal and acknowledging the value of a cold beer in summer or a nice hot soup in winter is a great way to engage with your audience.
Tax time is winter time for us here in Australia and including a recipe for a hearty chicken soup in a Facebook post or blog could pose as a great way for an accountant to engage with his or her target audience on a different level.
Listing some tips for completing a BAS statement while attaching a grilled fish recipe could be another option—your imagination, creativity and tolerance for puns are your only boundaries.
Relevance is expertise, expertise is relevant. Position yourself as an expert. The aim of content marketing strategy is to position yourself, your brand or business a leader in your field. In order to remain recognised by your target consumer as an expert, you must remain relevant and consistently so.
Using the change in seasons to communicate your products, services or brand is only one way to remain relevant, but this strategy alone is not enough to maintain strong engagement and drive future sales. An integrated communications strategy is best, harnessing the power and reach of a number of media platforms and communications channels.
If you wish to learn more about content marketing, modern public relations techniques and what a communications agency can do to promote you and your business further, please contact Infodec Communications today.
