This is a quick lesson learned whilst working on a niche consumer product SEO project.
Here’s how the story goes…
I was managing the content production for a website with a focus on specialist paper products.
Paper used by:
- architects,
- parents for arts and crafts
- even, BBQ hobbyists
And it was whilst managing a content marketing campaign to reach the latter audience mentioned above, that my eyes were opened to a key SEO marketing tip.
Let me share it share with you…
Butcher Paper Marketing in the US
So, the project was supporting an online business which promoted pink butcher paper for sale – sell more and get more leads.
Until then, I had never heard of pink (or peach) butcher paper.
But in short it is a type of food grade paper manufactured (as the name would suggest) primarily for butchers to wrap their cold meat cuts for customers to take home.
But in recent years, pink butcher paper has become a popular piece of practical apparatus for professional and amateur BBQers alike.
According to top commentators within the speciality, butcher paper has especially good use in smoking brisket cuts to perfection (using a technique known as ‘Texas Crutch’).
You can find out more on this via top BBQ blogs like Meathead’s Amazingribs.com:
The Texas Crutch: Wrap In Foil Or Butcher Paper To Tenderize And Speed Cooking
In short, using butcher paper for BBQ grilling briskets is a huge trend – especially in the US.
So much so, that leading paper converters (specialist paper manufacturers) have pivoted their entire marketing promotional slant to support their presence as providers within this niche.
Take Oren International, whilst looking for innovative ways of reinventing possibly the oldest product in history – paper, they discovered the marketing leverage of SEO and blogging.
Before they tried it, their website was static and simply not attracting any new business.
Having come in to contact with content marketing firm Sprout Social, they came up with a strategy to re-invent their entire field online.
They focused on one of their fastest growing end users, BBQ experts and advanced practitioners and began writing almost daily on the advantages of using their brand of butcher paper.
The results…see for yourself:
From 0 – 7,784 visitors per month that almost 100,000 potential new business customer per year.
Although Oren International sell: Kraft paper, freezer paper, steak paper amongst other products and services – it has been the rise in popularity of pink butcher paper that has contributed most to their comeback.
What I found marketing pink butcher paper…
So, going back to that project I was telling you about earlier.
It was all centred on selling pink butcher paper online.
Armed with the Oren Int’l case study, I knew I was operating in a niche which had little competition and LOTS of potential.
As selling product was the aim – I focused on keywords with the most buyer intent:
Comparative (vs.) based questions, like butcher paper vs. parchment paper
My thoughts proved to be valid.
My posts went out…a few weeks to season (much like the brisket) and traffic started to rise.
But then all of a sudden on a given day I saw a huge SPIKE in Google organic traffic.
I mean a tower of a spike perhaps 800%.
At first, I thought is was spam bots or search engine spiders.
But on closer inspection (looking at my analytics), my unexpected organic search traffic (which was for 24 hrs only) which all came from America (as did 80% of my traffic – not surprising as being the global epicenter of BBQ sub-culture) was legitimate. No bots, no spammers.
I was left scratching my head.
I then typed in the date into good with the modifier ‘US’ and then, bingo…
SUPER BOWL.
Little did I know, that the Super Bowl in America is the 2nd largest holiday by food consumption only behind Thanksgiving.
People in the States celebrate football with FOOD.
And BBQ is in the Top 5 for favourite dishes.
But what surprised me the most was the immediate buying intent searchers looking for answers to butcher paper questions like:
butcher paper vs. foil
butcher paper for smoking brisket
…on the DAY of Super Bowl.
Clearly people had the intention of grabbing themselves some butcher paper with HOURS of their online search.
(No doubt looking to make the decision in advance of hitting the local grocery isle.)
Not great for an online vendor – the immediacy of timing would mean that I would miss out.
But major value in SEO experience to have witness the Google search SuperBowl food spike oddity.
If you are looking at marketing pink butcher paper in the US and want to take advantage of Super Bowl, here are some great stats to get your marketing cooking:
