Episode 6: Seasonality
Tim and Robbie take a deep dive into how they utilize seasonality in their respective fields. Seasonality is an important concept regarding the why and how to understand your customers through content.
“The McRib comes out once a year and gives you indigestion, just like bad holiday marketing.”
Transcript
Robbie Fitzwater:
Wait—there’s seasonality in marketing? Okay, sure. But all you really need to know is pumpkin spice latte season and Black Friday/Cyber Monday. That’s it. That’s all there is.
[Intro]
Tim Lowry:
This is Tim and Robbie with the Content, Community, and Commerce Podcast. We talk about ideas at the intersection of content, community, and commerce to help e-commerce brands and marketers put them into practice. Today’s topic: seasonality in marketing—and how understanding your customer’s seasonal behavior helps you create better, more relevant content.
Robbie:
Exactly. Seasonality isn’t just about holidays. It's about knowing what your customer is thinking about throughout the year and meeting them with the right content at the right time.
Tim:
I love this topic. When it’s done well, seasonality-driven marketing is just fun to watch—especially on the organic side. Seeing those traffic spikes at the right time of year, when they’re relevant to your client, is exciting. And when you time things well, whether it's SEO or email, it can feel like printing money.
Robbie:
So how do you define seasonality at a high level?
Tim:
The most obvious version is calendar-based: spring, summer, fall, winter. Think promotions tied to major holidays. But there’s also brand-specific seasonality. For some businesses, summer is everything. If they don’t hit their numbers in those three months, they’re stuck with crickets the rest of the year. No one in Minnesota is buying swim trunks in December.
But for other businesses—like snowboarding or ski companies—fall and winter are when things heat up. They’re ramping up hard as temperatures drop. And then there’s customer-specific seasonality. People have personal cycles: vacations, school calendars, holidays. You’ve talked about the “Mind of Mom” calendar from Walmart, which I love.
Robbie:
Yes! When I worked in northwest Arkansas, deep in the Walmart ecosystem, I learned about their “Mind of Mom” calendar. It maps out what’s top of mind for moms throughout the year: New Year goals, spring break prep, summer camp, back to school, holiday shopping, and so on. The idea is to connect content and product to what she’s thinking about in that moment—empathy meets timing.
Tim:
And timing really matters. I walked into a hardware store recently and saw half the store decked out in Halloween, the other half in Christmas. A skeleton standing next to a Christmas tree. Too soon, right?
You can’t post a guide on “How to Decorate for Halloween and Christmas” in one breath. It confuses your audience and waters down your message. Give each season its own spotlight.
Robbie:
Exactly. Seasonality is also about relevance. It’s about planning your marketing around what your customers actually care about at specific times. That’s true for lifestyle brands, outdoor gear, even B2B.
Tim:
Yes—even in B2B, you see seasonality. In July, traffic drops as people go on vacation. Around Christmas, no one wants to take meetings. If you're in B2B, don’t panic about those traffic dips. But in e-commerce, it’s the opposite—those are high-spending seasons because the same people who were B2B buyers during work hours are now consumers shopping from home.
Robbie:
You’ve got to meet people where they are—what are they doing, thinking, and needing in each season? That context informs how you promote products and content. You want your content to lead to commerce.
From the SEO side, you know content doesn’t rank overnight. If I want a blog post to rank before the holidays, when do I need to publish it?
Tim:
Ideally, a few months in advance. Unless you're a high-authority site, you can't wait until November to post a gift guide and expect to rank. Start in August or September. No one cares what order your blog posts are in, so don’t worry about seasonality looking “out of place.” I just published a winter care guide for horses—it’s October. Google needs time to find, index, and rank it.
Robbie:
You’re getting ahead of that customer behavior. You're asking: What’s going to be on their mind next?
Tim:
Right. And once you’ve been doing this for a full year, you can start internally linking all that content. You build seasonal hubs that help people at every stage—from early planning to mid-season replenishment.
Robbie:
It’s like me going out for a cold ride, realizing it’s freezing, and digging through the closet the next day for all my winter riding gear. That’s the kind of moment you want your content to hit.
Tim:
Yes! And when people go to refresh their gear, you want to be the brand that shows up with helpful info. Not just products—advice, checklists, real expertise.
Robbie:
And you’re just having the conversations you'd already be having—digitally. That’s the “community” side of content, community, and commerce. Be helpful. Be human.
Tim:
If you’re in community with someone, you care about what they care about. If you're helpful now, when it’s time to sell, they’ll trust you.
Robbie:
That’s why SEO and email are a one-plus-one-equals-four relationship. Email is the perfect delivery mechanism for the content you're already creating. And it gives you a reason to reach out—beyond just “10% off this week.”
Tim:
Exactly. Content gives email something meaningful to share. It builds trust and keeps you top of mind.
Robbie:
We always get asked, “What should I send?” The answer is: send something valuable. Send something helpful. Help them prep, help them plan. Then, yes, you can add the Trojan horse: “By the way, we sell this.”
Tim:
And if you're ramping up your email cadence in November, your audience should already be used to hearing from you. You can’t go silent for 11 months and then blast out a dozen emails during Black Friday. That’s when you get unsubscribes.
Robbie:
Exactly. You need to warm up your audience. Seasonality isn't just about the campaign—it affects your whole channel strategy. SEO, email, social. All of it.
Tim:
You mentioned slow seasons earlier. Those are a great time to experiment. When your audience is less active, you can take creative risks, migrate your site, test new formats—whatever you’ve been putting off.
Robbie:
Exactly. You don’t push a site migration live the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. That’s a guaranteed disaster.
Tim:
No. You plan ahead. Same with your ad strategy. You don’t want to acquire customers at peak CPMs in November. You want them already warmed up by then. Start investing in audience-building months ahead of time.
Robbie:
On Black Friday, we often send three emails in one day. It’s noisy out there. If you only send one, there’s a good chance your audience misses it completely.
Tim:
Especially if your target is mom, and she’s hosting Thanksgiving. She's not checking email until later that night. You need to hit different parts of the day strategically.
Robbie:
So to wrap this up, here are three takeaways for planning around seasonality:
Understand your customer’s seasonal needs.
What are they thinking about at each point in the year? What are their pain points?Prime the behavior you want to see.
Don’t wait until the week of. Introduce ideas early so your audience is already in motion.Back into your strategy with plenty of lead time.
Whether it’s content, email, or ad planning, give yourself the time to build, test, and execute well.
Tim:
And build a content calendar. Map out the year. Get your roadmap in place so you're not scrambling quarter by quarter.
Robbie:
This is your drumbeat. You don’t email just because it’s the holidays. You email consistently, and the holiday campaign is part of that rhythm.
Tim:
If your first email in a year is your Black Friday sale, you’re basically that old friend who only texts when they want something.
Robbie:
Exactly. And if you’re going to email more during peak season, ramp up that cadence beforehand so your audience is ready.
Tim:
So yes, there is seasonality in marketing. It’s more than PSLs and Cyber Monday.
Robbie:
Maybe even... McRib Season.
Tim:
This episode was brought to you by McRib. Comes out once a year and gives you indigestion. Fine meat. Unique shape. Available annually.
Robbie:
Tim, this was a treat. If you haven’t received the Amazon holiday catalog, keep it far away from your kids. And if you liked the episode...
[Outro]
