As I’m writing this, it is 100 days until Christmas. There, I said it. As people celebrating the festive season you may think it’s too still soon to be talking about it. But as marketers if we haven’t started planning our seasonal campaigns we’re already behind.
However, no need to worry. Whether you’ve already planned your campaigns for the next few months (I hope you have) or you’re a little bit behind (do let us know if we can help), I’m here to share with you some of the ways that you can use search data to support your campaigns and help customers find you this upcoming golden quarter.
What is the golden quarter?
The golden quarter in retail is essentially the period from October – December. Generally the busiest time of year for retailers due to shopping events such as Christmas, Black Friday and Cyber Monday. It is when consumers increase their spending, so it is a pivotal period for businesses to maximise their sales.
How can search data support your business during the golden quarter?
I’m a big believer that data from search engines is one of the most genuine data sources that we have access to, it can give us a realistic insight into both trends and consumer behaviour. It is completely anonymous data that mostly we don’t even know is being gathered.
By looking at data such as search queries, volumes and website click through rates we can begin to paint a picture of what our customers are interested in. This data and information does not only have to be used by your SEO team. Your wider marketing, strategy or product teams will also be able to utilise search data. To put it simply, if your customers are searching for something on a search engine that means they are interested in it wherever they are.
Some of the ways search data can be useful during the golden quarter (and year-round):
Identify trends
Search data can give insight into emerging trends, allowing businesses to understand emerging trends and customer preferences.
Identify product or service gaps
By understanding what customers are searching for, but what you do not stock or offer, businesses can seek to add new product or services to grow their offerings and customer base.
Predict peak periods
Patterns in search data can help businesses to anticipate periods of higher demand for products or services.
For example, an increase in searches for ‘alcohol free wine’ in November or December may be of interest to a grocery store. It can indicate to marketing and strategy teams an increase in alcohol-free/low-alcohol celebrations during the Christmas period, and it may be useful to a product or buying team in considering which wines to purchase for the store and ensuring there is enough stock.
That’s great, where can we find this data?
Ask your SEO team! They will be able to find the most relevant data and analyse it for you from the keyword research and monitoring tools that you already have including free ones such as Google Search Trends, Search Console and Analytics.
If you don’t have a dedicated SEO team then don’t hesitate to get in touch – we’d be happy to work with you to provide insights from search data that you can use to support your business during the upcoming golden quarter and beyond.
Head of SEO
