When it comes to creating content, whether it be social media posts, email marketing, blog content, or even paid advertising creative, it’s important to stay on top of trends. So your brand will remain relevant and will give your audience an opportunity to connect with you authentically. Creating content for the holidays is no different. Take the festive season that is fast approaching. You should be creating content that is Christmas themed. Why? Because it’s relevant and it’s what your audience cares about. If they’re in a merry mood, why not meet your audience where they are?
You should be creating content for the holidays, whether it’s separate from your regular content or not. Your content should be geared towards the time of year, whether you’re simply sharing a warm-hearted happy holidays message or if you’re running a holiday promotion on one of your products.
Step 1: Start early
It’s not a good idea to wake up on December 1st and realise it may be time to plan some holiday content. Did you know that some consumers start Christmas holiday shopping as early as April?
While you don’t have to start publishing content that speaks about Christmas in April, it is a good idea to get a handle on your holiday content ahead of when you want to start using it.
Step 2: Create a holiday content strategy
The first and most crucial step to creating content for the holidays is to start with a holiday content strategy. Content marketing that isn’t backed by strategy is directionless and can quickly fall flat.
Your strategy should outline the content pillars that you will base your content creation on, where and how your content will be published, and the audiences and objectives you want to reach through your content. For example, will it be traffic, leads, sales, brand awareness, or reach that you are aiming for through your content marketing?
Your strategy can also document the themes and branding you will use in your holiday content and the overall story you want to tell as a brand. This way, your content is strategic, planned out, purposeful, and on-brand.
Step 3: Arrange your topics
Your holiday content marketing needs to make sense based both on your brand and any promotions you are running, as well as the time of year that it is. Consider arranging your content in terms of timeliness and priority. For example, you wouldn’t post your Boxing Day sale two days ahead of your Christmas giveaway.
It’s vital to use systems and automation to ensure your content is ready before the actual holiday. But if you create multiple pieces of content for a single holiday, the content should make sense in its progression.
Step 4: Create your content
Now that you’ve devised a solid strategy and worked out the ideal timing for your content, it’s time to start creating. When creating content, whether it be copy, designs, or video, you want to make sure you lean on the content pillars you set out in your strategy and ensure that, although your visuals are holiday-themed, they are still on-brand.
It’s also worth looking through any existing content you have and seeing if there is the possibility that these pieces could be repurposed for holiday marketing.
Step 5: Publish and start generating a buzz
Due to your stellar strategy and the great content you’ve created, you’ll now be ready to start publishing your content and (ideally) generating conversions. Because you will most likely want to take time off over the holidays, it’s a good idea to invest in scheduling platforms like Hootsuite or Buffer to automate your publishing process by scheduling the content. Now you see the reason for getting started early!
Step 6: Analyse and learn
To make the most out of your holiday content marketing, it is a good idea to monitor your progress as you publish and adjust and optimise your content accordingly. It may be tempting to schedule publishing and kick back and relax, but a better strategy would be to see how users are responding to your content and optimise along the way.
Once the holidays have passed, take time to closely analyse how your content marketing performed and determine what you can learn. These insights will make next year’s holiday content marketing even more impactful.
Creating content is time-consuming, regardless of the intended platform. And, at this time of year, it’s pretty standard for content ideas to run dry. You may want to consider bringing in a virtual marketing company to create your holiday content for you. If you’re tackling holiday content creation yourself, follow the steps above to ensure you’re publishing effective content that your audience adores.
