Trendy or Just a Trend

You may have noticed that there are certain times of the year that traffic may rise or fall depending on the industry you target.  While just about all online business activity grinds to a halt over the year end shut downs.

The residential property letting market is a good example where traffic shows a noticeable increase from the second week of January, fading as the year progresses.  This is usually followed by another increase in activity later in the year between September and October.  As you may have noticed these two periods coincide with the new-year as well as the beginning of spring (well for those of us in the southern hemisphere).   These would be the two times of the year that most seem to either want or need a change.

While these changes are anticipated and are good indicators of when to expect traffic increases due to increased demand.  Often overlooked however is that by gearing your marketing efforts to precede these changes you can maximise returns.  Knowing when to expect these changes can help maximise the potential traffic to your website or minimise the impact of a decline in traffic. 

Email Alerts and Reminders:
Sending out emails to subscribers or those that have previously noted their interest in your listings, your area of activity or your business in general.  By sending out an email in anticipation of this increased activity you can ensure that you’re the first agency that these searchers may consider.

Social Media:
Much like the email alerts, by remaining in regular contact through social interaction your agency will remain a first option when searching for real estate.

Paid Search advertising:
With a notable increase in activity anticipated, there is usually an increase in competition over these periods.  Paid placement would ensure that your website is quickly and easily found for a multitude of related searches over a period that not only sees an increase in activity but action as well.

Offline Marketing:
Much like paid search advertising, an increase activity in any market will result in an increase in ad placement all round.  Be sure to include your online details on all offline marketing efforts.  While print ads and most forms of offline marketing quickly become dated, by referencing your website or an aspect of it, traffic can quickly be drawn to these sections.  By keeping these sections updated even offline marketing can be seen to be up to date.

Occasionally you may see an increase or a drop in traffic that doesn’t match general or traditional trends.  By anticipating these trends you can avoid making a panicked decision.  Whether positive or negative it is always important to investigate the reasons.  These could be due to changes in the overall market, could be influenced by an impactful event or could be more localised or specific to your website and business as a whole.

Bonus: Google have once again released their yearly top trend video.  This highlights events that generated the most buzz online.  These are cover actual search trends, how many do you recognise?  http://www.google.com/trends/topcharts?zg=full