Many people ride the holiday content marketing trend. Come December and you see articles about decoration popping out and your YouTube subscription list lighting up with Vlogmas series. Maybe you’re considering it too. But just how do you go about tailoring your content creation to fit the big pants of the holiday spirit? That’s what we’ll be talking about today!
‘Tis the Season
To create content (and be jolly)
As opposed to evergreen content which we’ve covered here, seasonal is only relevant during a specific period of the year. It doesn’t have to be tied to a holiday, although brands often put huge efforts on their Christmas campaigns.
However, it could be linked to the actual season of the year and the changes in the weather. You can do both, mix and match, but the most important thing is to do in a way that is right for your business.
Any Time Is a Good Time to Start Planning
Avoid the stress of procrastination
Right after you list down your New Year’s resolutions for 2019, start putting together your content marketing strategy for the next year. This is the key to alleviating some of the stress once those busy months from October to December come. Just the last quarter of the year holds Halloween, Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Christmas & New Years Eve. Now, I don’t mean to have it all figured out in January.
However, you really need to pen at least the bone structure of what’s going to be set in motion in the following months. Which leads to my next advice…
Use a Content Calendar
The organization freaks like me will love this
List down all the pieces of content you might possibly need. Then put everything down in the calendar. See which big holidays or celebrations might be worth exploring. Whether it will be you doing it or a professional writer – don’t forget about the SEO part involved (we will talk about that later, though).
Having one of those calendars is going to help you put your thoughts and plans in perspective. Every time you feel stuck for ideas, you will be able to track down the plans you made ahead of time. It will help you get back on your feet and focus on what needs to be done.
Not sure what type of content calendar will best suit your needs? Check out this source of inspiration.
Choose Your Focus
The festivities that are right for you
You don’t have to center your content creation around every major holiday or time of the year.
Look up relevant searches related to the holiday at hand. What type of things are people asking? What problem do they need to be solved? How do your services or business might help them? Obviously, not everything will be relevant to your field.
Choose the ones that will be the cash cows for your business or brand.
Let’s say you are a gardener. The summer is your high season. You get most of your business during that period. You can either center on making the most of it by using content or instead, use seasonal promotions & deals to get business during the colder months.
Come up with a set of KPIs
Make them relevant and easy to scale
Metrics matter. In order to measure the effectiveness of anything, you need to set an objective to be met. How else would you know your campaign has been successful? Setting up Key Performance Indicators or KPIs, for short, is a stage you should not overlook.
How do you do it? Ideally, you will have an answer to a few very important questions.
- What is the ultimate goal here?
Is it to make the person buy your product? Is it to entertain? Is it to raise awareness of your brand? All of them? It might be all, just two, or something else. But, the more specific you are with the answer, the easier it will be to measure the results.
- How will you measure success?
Likes, shares, clicks, traffic, sales, leads. Pick one and observe how it changes and its interconnectedness to the content you’ve created.
- Will you write it yourself and if not, what’s your budget for it?
It’s always a good idea to think about the logistics in advance. Do you care about the quality of the text? Do you need it to be set in a specific tone and be a definite attention grabber? Probably. Whether it’s a landing page or a MailChimp campaign, you surely want it to hit the nail on the head. This means finding the best writer for the job.
Now, that may seem like a lot to take in and consider for a beginner’s first steps into seasonal content creation. If you want to stop and do it now, I’ll be right here when you are ready to explore Part 2.
