Come See the Zombie Side of Sears
rkelley
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3 min read
With Halloween fast approaching, a lot of websites are pumping out content related to the sugar-fueled holiday. Crafting relevant content in a time-sensitive fashion in order to take advantage of hot topics and current events can generate some nice traffic to your site, even if it's fleeting. Hell, the Bedroom Intruder guy was even smart enough to cash in on his 15 minutes of fame by selling his own Halloween costume. Seriously, if a dude like this is savvy enough to capitalize on an opportunity, that doesn't leave you with much of an excuse.
Even Sears has surprised the Internet by zombie-fying their website for Halloween, boosting their traffic levels and plunking them into the forefront of your mind:
This makes Sears, a company that probably hasn't been regarded as being particularly "hip" or "trendy" for the past 20+ years, all of a sudden look pretty cool.
So what the hell does any of this have to do with you? Well, you don't have to be a social media expert or some content-crafting genius in order to pump out some topical and fresh content for users and web surfers, but as a site owner, you should be aware of trends and current events that may benefit your sales. Even if that means pushing the orange and black products to the front of your site and calling it a Halloween special, it at least lets your users and customers know that you're paying attention to what's going on.
Sure, everyone craps out an "X Best/Worst/Sexiest/Most Creative/Etc" Halloween costumes list each year or highlights the funniest/craziest pumpkin carvings, but this is stuff that people expect to come across in October. The same goes for turkeys and pilgrims in November, Christmas trees and menorahs in December, and...well, you get the idea. Remember that arts and crafts schedule you followed in elementary school? It applies to web content too. We do the same things every year out of tradition and because it's what people expect -- pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving, green beer on St. Patrick's Day, colored eggs at Easter -- and as more and more people turn to the Internet to shop, interact, and pretty much live their lives, these traditions are expected to shift online as well.
It's not just holidays you should pay attention to -- the same goes for current events and pop culture that resonate with your audience. Show people that you know what's going on and they may appreciate that savviness more than the dude who sells the same stuff on a stagnant, sterile-looking website.
This advice may not apply as much if you've got a site that is generating plenty of money without requiring you to update it, but if your site is heavy or even just moderate on content, it'll give you an edge. Obviously the more creative you are, the better, but even if you're lacking really awesome ideas, you can still do something relevant to give the semblance of freshness and timeliness. Even content-lite sites can benefit from a little creativity. Sears doesn't didn't even have to write anything -- all they did was create some new banners and get silly with Photoshop, and they were still able to turn heads.
This makes Sears, a company that probably hasn't been regarded as being particularly "hip" or "trendy" for the past 20+ years, all of a sudden look pretty cool.
So what the hell does any of this have to do with you? Well, you don't have to be a social media expert or some content-crafting genius in order to pump out some topical and fresh content for users and web surfers, but as a site owner, you should be aware of trends and current events that may benefit your sales. Even if that means pushing the orange and black products to the front of your site and calling it a Halloween special, it at least lets your users and customers know that you're paying attention to what's going on.
Sure, everyone craps out an "X Best/Worst/Sexiest/Most Creative/Etc" Halloween costumes list each year or highlights the funniest/craziest pumpkin carvings, but this is stuff that people expect to come across in October. The same goes for turkeys and pilgrims in November, Christmas trees and menorahs in December, and...well, you get the idea. Remember that arts and crafts schedule you followed in elementary school? It applies to web content too. We do the same things every year out of tradition and because it's what people expect -- pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving, green beer on St. Patrick's Day, colored eggs at Easter -- and as more and more people turn to the Internet to shop, interact, and pretty much live their lives, these traditions are expected to shift online as well.
It's not just holidays you should pay attention to -- the same goes for current events and pop culture that resonate with your audience. Show people that you know what's going on and they may appreciate that savviness more than the dude who sells the same stuff on a stagnant, sterile-looking website.
This advice may not apply as much if you've got a site that is generating plenty of money without requiring you to update it, but if your site is heavy or even just moderate on content, it'll give you an edge. Obviously the more creative you are, the better, but even if you're lacking really awesome ideas, you can still do something relevant to give the semblance of freshness and timeliness. Even content-lite sites can benefit from a little creativity. Sears doesn't didn't even have to write anything -- all they did was create some new banners and get silly with Photoshop, and they were still able to turn heads.