What gets Country Living readers clicking as the seasons change? Recent high-performing stories, along with last autumn’s strongest articles, point to three useful lessons businesses can learn from.
Show how your product fits into what people are doing, planning or buying this season. Recent Country Living stories offer useful examples. What to do with hydrangeas in August and Autumn-flowering perennials to plant worked well because they answered questions readers were already asking. They were timely, specific and useful.
You can take the same approach with your autumn marketing. Show why your product is useful now, rather than year-round. You don’t need to mention autumn in every piece of marketing. Think about what your customers are doing at this time of year, then show how your product fits in. Its appeal might come from its materials, colour, or function, or from the occasions it suits, such as going back to school, preparing for Christmas, or having people over.
The article What to do with agapanthus after flowering is a good example of content that answers a specific gardening question. Readers knew exactly what they’d learn before they clicked.
Use the same approach in your product marketing. Don’t just show what you sell. Explain how to use it, what it’s designed to do or which problem it addresses. You could show how to style a scarf, care for a wooden chopping board, choose the right belt size or hang a print.
Useful content might be a demonstration, a care guide, a sizing explanation or an answer to a common customer question. Before you publish, check that the content gives people information they can act on. If it doesn’t, add a practical detail such as how the product works, who it’s for or what they’ll need to use it.
A timely subject can show customers when and why they might use your product. Country Living’s article, How to view the solar eclipse safely using a colander, is a good example of practical advice tied to a specific event.
In your marketing, focus on occasions and questions that are already relevant to your customers, such as Halloween, Bonfire Night, preparing for Christmas, colder weather, hosting visitors, or buying gifts. Then decide whether your product can help with that subject.
For example, a food business could share a recipe using its products. A stationery business could show how its products can help customers organise Christmas orders, while a homeware brand could demonstrate a table setting for seasonal entertaining.
The connection should be genuine and useful. If your product doesn’t offer a clear answer, example or solution, the trend probably isn’t relevant to your business.