With the holiday season well underway, most businesses, if not all, are launching all kinds of seasonal marketing campaigns to their clientele. The end-of-the-year holidays are one of the most crucial times of the year for businesses because in some cases it’s their biggest source of revenue. More sales are made and more services are made valuable to their customers, so to not promote your business at this time means losing out on a lot of sales.
What can you do during the holidays when it comes to successfully promoting your company? Here are a few content marketing tips to consider.
Create and Update Valuable Content
Are there hours you need to inform your customer base about during the holidays? Are you offering anything new in light of the holiday season? Are there any changes being made to the website? These are all things you need to consider whilst creating new content for your holiday campaign. If you’re creating holiday-themed content for your blog, don’t go for time-sensitive posts such as “Hottest 2016 Gifts to Give”. Instead, try going for evergreen stuff such as “ugly Christmas sweaters” or “favourite holiday recipes”, for example.
Keep in mind also that regardless of the season or special occasion, your content needs to be as relevant and valuable to your audience now as it ever was. Do a little research on what kind of keywords your customer base is looking up around this time of year. See if you can soothe some kind of itch they have, whether it’s finding the gift for someone who has everything or if they’re trying to find a way to be less stressed out. If you’ve been in business for over a year, now is the time to take a closer look at any past holiday promotions you’ve done to see if there are any changes that could be improved upon content-wise.
Once you’re done with making the content, you need to update your website accordingly. Ditto if you’re creating any newsletters for your company. On that note, it’s important to remove any such promotions once the holiday season has passed; much like leaving your Christmas lights up year-round, not everyone is interested in checking out holiday-based stuff until it’s really time to do so.
Don’t be Pushy
We live in a time where more and more businesses, whether retail or otherwise, are heavily advertising their holiday-related products earlier and earlier with each passing year. It’s gotten to the point where more people are less interested in doing anything holiday-related until it’s closer to the season (in this post’s case, we’re talking late November throughout December and ending in early January).
Be the exception to all the pushy companies and don’t force your holiday specials onto customers until it’s the right time. You can also focus your content so it’s positive and cheerful in accordance to what the season’s really about: giving to and sharing with your customers.
Keep it Appropriate
Believe it or not, there are campaigns businesses have done that are borderline inappropriate. Take this famous example by Kmart: their main holiday commercial featured a line of men dancing in boxers while dancing to Christmas music. While some found this ad hilarious, there was a great deal more who found the ad completely inappropriate, even offensive.
Don’t be Kmart. Be classy.
Boost Your Presence on Social Media
Not being active on social media during this time of the year can end up being the kiss of death for some businesses. Reach out to your audience and share relevant holiday-themed content (while still remembering to keep it appropriate) and just be as considerate to your customer base as possible.
It’s also important to consider hosting a mobile-friendly version of your website if your business is an online store so that you’re not missing out on an untapped market. With more and more people choosing to shop online over visiting the physical building (need we say more about the shopping malls this time of year?), offering this kind of ease and availability to your customers is a no-brainer.
Give Back to Your Audience
This is the time of year where things should be all about giving, so why not offer discounts or specials that add value to your customers’ lives without breaking the bank? Whether you’re giving away a free service, offering a daily special via a 12 Days of Christmas themed promotion, or a free 2017 calendar at the front desk, making your customers’ lives easier is one of the best ways to show your holiday spirit. Figure out what your target audience is looking for, and give them that gift.
These are a few of many content marketing ideas for the holiday season to bear in mind, but if you need help throughout the rest of the year, we’re more than happy to lend a hand. Contact us at V3 Media and we can get you started with help on your current or upcoming content marketing strategy.