Long before you hung the mistletoe or poured that cup of eggnog, you wrapped up your brand’s holiday content strategy. Your marketing team knew about the Adobe data that showed American online shoppers spent about $6.2 billion on Black Friday and another $7.9 billion on Cyber Monday in 2018, for example, so they worked through September and October to put something under your brand’s marketing tree by Black Friday. You’ve followed all the trends, listened to thought leaders, and created a marketing strategy that attracts plenty of attention.
If all of this preparation paid off, you might be able to relax for the rest of the holiday season.
But what if Black Friday wasn’t as strong as it could have been? What if the gurus were all wrong and the anticipated market trends suddenly changed between the time you planned your content in September and now, smack dab in the middle of the holiday shopping season? Worse still, what if you didn’t have any sort of holiday content strategy?
Don’t panic – you have time to create or revamp your holiday content in time for some end-of-year sales.
Creating a Holiday Content Strategy in 6 Easy Steps (and in a Hurry)
1. Check the industry trends to find out which is now naughty and which is now nice
Things can change quickly during the holidays – November’s hottest commodity may have turned into December’s lump of coal.
2. Make sure your website is mobile friendly
More people use their smartphones for shopping during the holidays, so make sure your website is mobile-friendly. Mobile optimization is the gift that gives all season too, by making your site easy to use all year round.
3. Check your existing content twice
Make sure your existing content aligns with your seasonal goals. In other words, make sure your landing pages feature winter holiday items rather than summer stuff.
4. Re-gift your old content
If you are in a time crunch, re-purposing old blogs, articles and posts can be faster than creating new content for the holidays. Simply spruce up your existing content in some shiny new wrapping, such as updating old statistics or adding a video, and share the link on social media.
5. Optimize your content with holiday keywords
Spice up your content with holiday-specific keywords. Google Trends and Google Keyword Planner can help you find keywords. Coupling your usual keywords with holiday keywords can boost your ranking on search engines.
6. Make a price list and check it twice
In a recent survey by RetailMeNot and Kelton Global, of more than 1,000 consumers on their 2019 holiday shopping plans, 70 percent said that price is the biggest determining factor in the gifts they purchase during this holiday season.
There is still get your brand’s content marketing in shape for the upcoming holiday season. For some help, contact WriterAccess. The content marketing strategists and writing elves can help you get your content under the tree in time to make the season bright.
Lynn H has been a professional writer, providing exceptional content online and offline, for nearly 20 years. In that time, she has penned thousands of articles for doctors, universities, researchers, small businesses, nursing organizations, sole proprietors and more. She writes everything from blogs to white papers; her specialty is putting complex scientific concepts in simple terms. She specializes in medical writing, creating informative and engaging content for professionals in medicine, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy, medical manufacturing, chiropractics, optometry, emergency care, plastic surgery and others.
