With July 4th, the celebration of the United States’ foundation, practically upon us, marketers are actively working to turn the fervor around the holiday into increased sales. With 89 percent of consumers using search to research purchases and 63 percent reporting that they use search every day, some companies have done a standout job of taking advantage of this by creating website content that focuses on the event as it’s becoming a hot search topic as we approach the event.
In fact, a look at Google Insights shows the phrases “July 4” and “July 4th” have reached their historical search peak levels as of today (July 3). Notably, the density of searches in the U.S. indicates July 4th has stronger search activity across the nation.
Creating industry-related website content with a focus on current events can be tricky. It’s not enough just to talk about the event or topic. If it isn’t related to your industry, your readers and search engines will likely find the content irrelevant. Without making the tie between big search trends and your niche, you won’t successfully engage ideal audiences or see SEO benefits. At that point, it’s unlikely that the articles and larger campaign, no matter how strong the content is, will help drive sales.
It’s not enough just to talk about the event or topic. If it isn’t related to your industry, your readers and search engines will likely find the content irrelevant.
Whether it’s a nationally recognized brand or a local business, the key to improving SEO and web conversions by pairing content marketing with trending topics is the same. Create relevant content that isa equally engaging and the traffic and leads will come.Finding the right element of any trending topic to focus on for your content marketing campaign is the key to its success. The retail industry has provided several strong examples of brands using high-quality website content that hits the upcoming fourth festivities and is relevant for their audiences.
In this blog, we’ll dissect what’s working about some brands’ July 4th website content and also take a look at businesses have succeeded with a slightly different but similar concept. Rather than creating in-depth content directly related to the Fourth of July, they maintain a general content marketing campaign that keeps their site in strong search position at all times, and simply market their sales around the holiday to catch holiday clicks around content that already has strong search standing. Their existing search presence helps ensure that their July 4th sale will receive the publicity it needs simply by following best practices for organic search and audience-centric content marketing.
No matter which avenue you opt to pursue, doing it properly can help provide quality traffic and visibility for your sale.
Macy’s interactive July 4th content marketing initiative brings fireworks
On its homepage, Macy’s is aggressively marketing its July 4th Sale. Like most retailers, it’s opted to provi
de a sale on a day where most of its target audience won’t be at work. However, the company also has a separate series of pages dedicated to its annual Macy’s Fourth of July Fireworks in New York.
For both the sale and its event on the Hudson River, Macy’s has created unique, holiday-focused content to help inform those interested.
As part of its July 4th celebration, a series of musical artists will perform for those in attendance and the national TV audience. Given the company’s position as an internationally recognized brand, it likely would’ve seen a search boost without the dedicated content. However, on its site, it created a detailed program providing information about those performing and other attractions, which serves as a reminder that marketers for even well-known companies should use content creation best practices to maximize their website traffic.
Any high-quality web page will help a company’s SEO campaign. However, Macy’s content was created solely to help inform those interested in attending or watching the event. Google’s Matt Cutts and others at the company have made it clear that content aimed at helping site visitors will be rewarded with strong search standing.
Family Video’s existing site content puts July 4th sale front and center
Family Video is an ecommerce DVD and video game vendor. The company has a dedicated content marketing strategy focusing on entertainment and movie star news. Its news content marketing campaign positions it well in search, and its frequent updates ensure that readers receive timely, well-written articles about its available films and games – or the celebrities that star in them.
Like many B2C vendors, Family Video has opted to offer a July 4th sale. However, its site content doesn’t focus specifically on July 4th-themed videos to boost the sale (though that would have been a good strategy, as well!) Instead, the sale is highlighted by a banner on its home page, borrowing from its sites existing SEO value rooted in content. Family Video has a spot in search results for “July 4th sale” solely because of its existing search marketing strategy that focuses more on informing and entertaining its readers with high-quality articles.
Brafton recently reported that 87 percent of companies have opted to make content marketing part of their effort to build a strong web presence. Using news content provides a different dimension to a site in that users often come to view it as reliable resource for industry news.
As such, when July 4th Sales or other events related to popular holidays or topics come around, these organizations can be sure that their site will receive some additional attention through search.
Guitar Center turns to video to market its July 4th Sale
A search for “July 4th sale” doesn’t just yield SERPs with links to websites. As has been the case for some time, images and video are also included quite frequently. Guitar Center is leveraging this with a video content marketing campaign hyping its own July 4th Sale. Creating themed videos gives the company a special edge, as SEOmoz has reported that eyes move toward visuals giving video thumbnails an edge over even No.1 search results.
The company maintains a YouTube channel that contains both advertisements for its products, as well as entertaining clips of famous guitarists and instructional content. July 4th aside, this is a smart move on Guitar Center’s part. Video content marketing on the web is a rapidly growing field as Americans consume more video every month. Brafton recently highlighted a report from comScore that found Americans watched 10 billion video ads in May.
Targeting this growing audience with content that is entertaining, informative and timely can help companies throughout the year. The additional boost Guitar Center receives from its July 4th content demonstrates the lift any form of content marketing campaign gets from mixing in seasonal trends and events.
The seasonal content shows a typical American street and a Guitar Center employee dressed as an ice cream man selling guitars and other instruments to people who are coming out of swimming pools and backyard barbeques. Users that land on this page will see multiple kinds of video content from the company. Much like Family Video’s content marketing campaigns, users will have access to several different pieces of content beyond its Fourth of July campaign that will help establish the company as a resource.
In general, shifting custom content efforts to focus on seasonal trends can be tricky for some companies. However, the campaigns we’ve seen from businesses this year demonstrate a growing understanding of the best ways to infuse your website with some timeliness to drive search traffic and improve sales.
