Nail your seasonal event campaigns with a foolproof SEO strategy

Search data allows you to spot patterns as well as shifts in your market, giving you the chance to better understand your customers. Doing so means you can anticipate your customer’s needs and create actionable strategies.

The key formula for planning and implementing your seasonal events strategy

Search trend data can provide you with an opportunity to forecast, make informed repeat decisions and formulate a proactive digital strategy. At Pi, we’ve formulated the PIPR strategy that uses search trend data to inform your long-term seasonal event strategies:

Plan early
Plan, optimise and publish content when there is a dip in demand.

Influence at the right time
Take advantage of customers researching your product. Execute your paid media strategy well in advance of peak purchase to avoid expensive CPC costs, and still capitalise on high traffic.

Peak at the right time
Excel in owned media campaigns when demand is highest, including social, re-targeting, and email campaigns.

Repeat
Review whether this trend is likely to adopt the same pattern again in the future, and re-plan against this potential opportunity.

If you’re in the gifting industry, seasonal trends will no doubt form a large part of your digital strategy. We outline an example of how you can use our PIPR strategy below.

Using Pi’s Market Intelligence platform we chose 8 topics based on the highest searched gift occasions in Google UK to explore the search landscape.

The chart below clearly displays the annual peaks and YoY growth in search volume in line with seasonal events.

Search volume over time | Gifts by occasion landscape

Image source: Pi Market Intelligence

You can see how searches for Valentine’s Day gifts begin as early as December and appear to be increasing year on year.

Searches for Mother’s Day gifts also appear to be growing year on year. In March 2020 there were 17.5 million searches compared to 26.2 million searches in March 2021. A huge jump in comparison to previous years.

When you have a few years of data it’s a lot easier to make intelligent predictions for each trend line in your market. And looking at the gifting landscape, it’s clear there will be plenty of opportunity for retailers throughout 2022.

Download our eCommerce SEO Strategy guide below for key takeaways on how to utilise behaviour data when planning your seasonal event campaigns.

How can the SERP feature landscape influence your seasonal event campaigns?

Google is always trying to surface the most relevant information to the user. And by paying close attention to the changing SERP landscape you will have a good indication of customer intent to inform your efforts for upcoming campaigns.

Pi’s SERP Radar showcases which features are most commonly appearing for topics within a given sector. By analysing which SERP features are returning for your most valuable search terms, you can see which content types are likely to be most effective.

UK SERP landscape | Mother’s Day | 21st Feb – 14th Mar 2021

Image source: Pi SEO PlatformSERP Radar

The SERP Radar for Mother’s Day indicates there were opportunities to gain visibility through the People Also Ask feature in 2021, while a presence with Classic Links was essential.

In 2021, Mother’s Day fell on Sunday 14th. The image below shows which SERP features appeared when users searched for ‘Mother’s Day gift ideas’ throughout March.

UK SERP landscape | ‘Mother’s Day gift ideas’

Image source: Pi’s SEO Platform SERP Matrix

Classic links were the most prominent search result type. However, based on the SERP Matrix, there were opportunities for retailers to gain some extra visibility through Top Stories and People Also Ask content too.

The People Also Ask feature displays the top questions people were asking Google last year. A great insight to inform your content strategy for Mother’s Day in 2022:

Don’t forget to check in on competitors too

Not only does share of voice data allow you to keep track of your performance in the lead up to seasonal events, but it’s also a great tool to check in on your competitors too. You might even discover competitors you weren’t aware of before.

Gifting landscape | Share of voice for ‘Occasions’ | Google UK

Image source: Pi Market Intelligence

What’s more, share of voice data is a great way to establish publisher partnerships ahead of specific seasonal events. And with Mother’s Day just around the corner, we’ve taken a look at the top performers in the Mother’s Day gift category across a range of gifting terms.

Gifting landscape | Share of voice for ‘Mother’s Day’ | Google UK

Image source: Pi Market Intelligence

Based on the current top performers, some online retailers might be wise to look towards Good Housekeeping for those key publisher relationships.

For further insights and key takeaways on how to plan your seasonal event campaigns, don’t forget to download our comprehensive eCommerce SEO strategy guide below.