How adopting digital calendars combat lost SEO clicks and creates sustainable, owned marketing channels to secure a competitive edge in customer loyalty

The ground under the feet of marketers is always shifting. Whether it’s the gradual tilting in the method of message delivery – from legacy media to digital platforms – or the overnight takeover of the customer data revolution, adaptability and a nimble approach are critical to success in the space. But what happens when virtually an entire industry is suddenly cut off from a key resource? How does a marketer cope when all the clicks disappear?

If only it were a hypothetical question. Marketers are losing clicks – and in a very big way.

The culprit, ironically, is a technology that was designed to supercharge production and make work easier: artificial intelligence – specifically Google’s new AI summary feature.

A recent study from Authoritas analytics found that “a site previously ranked first in a search result could lose about 79 percent of its traffic for that query if results were delivered below an AI overview,” as reported by The Guardian.

That’s a colossal number. And the challenge it has left behind for marketers is to find new ways to amplify brand visibility and to collect and measure key customer data indicating intent, engagement, and interest. But instead of finding new ways to do the job that had previously fallen to CTRs, what if marketers were able to simply create a new channel?

Driving Awareness and Capturing Demand Without Reliance on Rented Channels

It’s easy to blame the trouble on AI. Marketers are being squeezed on every side as AI summaries gut SEO and PPC traffic, email engagement plummets due to filters and inbox fatigue, and social media platforms increasingly charge for visibility.

But the real issue is this: an overreliance on rented channels through which algorithms or platforms control access.

But rather than reinventing the wheel, marketers only need to refine how they connect with and engage people. An underutilized tool that most people are already using daily has the potential to replace those Google website visitors – and has inherent advantages that could make it a superior option to CTRs.

The Digital Calendar can not only increase the visibility of upcoming sales, events or brand updates on the consumer side, but also provide marketers an alternative way to measure traffic and engagement via calendar subscriber counts, RSVP notifications, opt-in rates and more.

The Case for Owned Channels

One of the inherent problems with relying on Google for traffic (and thus measurable data) is the lack of control a business or marketing department has over the platform. Email and SMS once gave brands a reliable, direct way to reach audiences, but both are now overcrowded. Digital calendars, which offer a direct line of engagement with consumers and are checked multiple times daily by the user, are an underutilized resource as an owned channel.

From a marketing standpoint, channel ownership assures a level of control, stability and flexibility that Google can’t provide. It’s also a deeper and more trusted consumer relationship than the traditional click game because of its transparency: users indicate their interest in a brand by opting in, electing to willingly share their information as part of the correspondence.

Use Case:

• A customer subscribes to a brand calendar or agrees to an ongoing engagement in the course of an event RSVP, for example.
• Key dates from the brand’s marketing calendar – B2B webinars, retail promos, product launches, content drops – then appear within that user’s own digital calendar, alongside the other events and reminders in their daily lives.
• That brand has now created a unique, dynamic user experience that organic internet searches can’t match.

Calendars don’t have to replace SEO or email, but they can greatly enhance a company’s marketing efforts with a new layer of personalization and direct engagement.

Why Digital Calendars? Measurement and Value

In addition to its direct consumer connection and dynamic capabilities – including changing dates, times and other details across every subscriber’s calendar as necessary – digital calendars provide marketers with metrics that matter:

• subscriber growth
• RSVP rates
• attendance lift
• lifetime engagement

Focusing only on clicks can risk missing the bigger picture. A click shows a momentary action, but it doesn’t always reflect meaningful interest or intent. Calendar interactions, on the other hand, represent a sustained form of engagement as a user chooses to opt in, keep receiving updates, and revisit brand touchpoints over time.

That distinction matters: calendars shift the measure of success from short-term traffic and vanity metrics to ongoing relationships – and because those relationships are tied to real behaviors like attendance, participation, or repeat engagement, they provide a more direct line to driving revenue and informing smarter marketing strategies over time.

Given their cost-effectiveness and ease of operation, digital calendars are a natural choice to become marketers’ new (and superior) source for first-party data.

How to fully tap into their value?

Calendar marketing isn’t just a reactive strategy to combat lost SEO clicks. It’s part of a larger movement toward sustainable, owned marketing channels that offer brands more control, develop stronger customer connections and provide the flexibility that static tactics such as email can’t deliver.

They also ensure better, more stable customer data that marketers can count on over the long haul. Becoming an early adopter of digital calendars can help a brand secure a competitive edge in visibility, customer loyalty, and first-party data using an accessible, affordable channel that customers are already plugged into.

As an example of how Digital Calendars work, a retailer might choose to launch a ‘Promo’ or ‘Drops’ calendar that lets shoppers opt in to receive seasonal sales, new product releases, or loyalty-member events right on their calendars.

• For example, SetActive has recently launched a drops page, allowing interested customers the opportunity to put reminders directly on their calendar versus relying solely on ads to remind customers of upcoming launches, turning what was once a disappearing click into an owned reminder that drives in-store or online sales.

Hospitality brands (hotels, restaurants, resorts, bars) can turn their events calendar into an owned marketing channel that guests choose to opt into.

• A restaurant could turn their weekly specials or monthly events such as Game Day happy hour or Chef’s table, into a dynamic calendar that guests can choose to opt into. Instead of relying on email blasts or posters at the venue, the restaurant would instead have a direct line of visibility in the calendars of guests that chose to opt into its events calendar.
• The restaurant could take this a step further by evaluating their RSVPs and attendance rates per event, measuring which events were more successful and engaging and pivoting their marketing strategies to promote similar events in the future.

Key takeaways that will help you optimally configure Digital Calendars in your business include:

• Treat calendars like a premium space. Don’t abuse the privilege of access to what amounts to a customer’s personal to-do list and scheduled reminders.
• Be concise and relevant, adding only value-driven entries – not spam.
• Segment events by audience interest, such as webinar calendars versus retail promo calendars.
• Learn about customers during the enrollment process and curate their calendar entries with the content that suits them best.
• And be sure to automate updates, making the most of calendars’ dynamic qualities and avoiding slamming the user’s email inbox.

Editor’s Note

AddEvent is a software company creating calendar, appointment and event management solutions. Brands using AddEvent’s platform have access to a wide variety of tools such as add to calendar solutions, embeddable widgets, and RSVP and subscriber tools, allowing them to measure event/subscriber engagement, enhance their marketing strategies and more.