How to do seasonal content right
Relevance is key when planning and creating seasonal content for B2B
Finding ways to attract and engage audiences is an ongoing process for marketers, who are continually working to create useful, timely and relevant content.
Leveraging seasonal content can help. By planning content based on a specific season, holiday, event or business period, marketers can create content that’s more engaging and relevant to their audience – and often more fun, too.
Creating great seasonal content isn’t just about throwing some spooky adjectives in a Halloween blog or using the Santa emoji in a social media post. It should also be valuable to your audience, especially in the B2B world.
Evergreen vs seasonal
Seasonal content is different from evergreen content in that it’s time-sensitive and dependent on the season or time of year, current events, holidays, or specific business cycles. Basically, if an article or social post’s relevancy is dependent on time of the year it goes out, it’s probably seasonal content.
“Marketing is not a static process; it's cyclical,” says Tanya Decarie, Senior Copywriter at Motum B2B. “As seasons change and events come and go, priorities adjust, and marketing content should reflect that. Seasonal content is a simple and fun way to keep things fresh.”
Most people think about holidays or the changing of seasons when they hear the term “seasonal content,” but there are so many other opportunities where the term applies. Think back-to-school months for office depots and retailers, or wedding season for venues and caterers.
For B2B companies, it could be construction season for manufacturers and suppliers, or the approach of winter for cold-weather chemical formulators. These are times when customers are more likely to be searching for information or products to meet those specific needs and are therefore more likely to come across seasonal content.
Plan it out
Seasonal content should be incorporated in the content marketing strategy right from the planning phase. Most marketing agencies (us included) will create an overarching content calendar, which outlines in detail which content is planned for what dates.
Ideally, seasonal content campaigns should be planned to start just before the peak of the season to position it as a leader and ensure it doesn’t become lost.
Tools like Google Trends and keyword planners can also help determine which topics and keywords should be focused on with each content piece. Using a social holiday date calendar, like this one from Hootsuite, will make it much easier to create a social media calendar and determine which holidays and events to post about.
Getting the team together to brainstorm and bounce ideas can spur creativity and lead to some interesting concepts that may have otherwise been missed.
“The brainstorming process can start with word association games or word bubbles, where you may come up with some words related to the season or the holiday, and then start building on their complexity to arrive at your topic,” says Decarie. “Ultimately you’re working to fuse the seasonal theme with your marketing message.”
Keep it relevant
When planning seasonal content, it’s important to make sure the content will provide value to the audience. It shouldn’t just be evergreen content with a holiday theme tacked on.
“The general principles that apply to any solid marketing plan should still apply to seasonal content,” says Decarie. “Even though it can be lighter in tone, it should still be relevant to your audience. It's up to the content creators to make sure that seasonal content resonates and adds value.”
Although the winter holidays are statistically the most profitable time of year for seasonal content, there’s so many opportunities to find a relevant holiday or event for organizations of all types. For example, did you know there’s an International Mountain Day, or that March is National Nutrition Month?
Using these “holidays” is a great way to engage audiences with content that’s both fun, educational and relevant in their niche or specific industry.
It’s not complicated
At the end of the day, you don’t have to overthink or stretch to come up with great seasonal content ideas. You can keep it simple with a targeted piece of content or a social post that gives value to your audience while incorporating the theme of whatever season or holiday you choose.
Here at Motum B2B, you’ll notice our seasonal content, like this Valentine’s Day quiz, keeps things light and fun while still teaching our audience something new about marketing.
“If content marketing is something that's new to your marketing tool belt, there may be a tendency to come up with these epic, blue-sky ideas,” says Decarie. “I find that starting small or editing down your ideas is actually a good way to go, because it tends to be more effective, more focused and more targeted. My advice would just be to keep it simple.”