If you haven’t already begun, then get your knuckles cracking and start creating your holiday content calendar for 2020.
Building your content, or at least planning it in advance, is your path to great performance. Studies on content marketing show that the best-performing companies are ones that have a documented content marketing strategy.
In this post, we’ll cover different types of content that you can create during the holidays. Using different formats and strategies will make your editorial calendar interesting. You’ll find it easy to post on a regular basis and also ensure that the tone and messages are consistent.
Here are the different types of marketing content you can build for the holidays in 2020.
Giveaways
What’s not to love about giveaways? Your audience anticipates winning an awesome prize and in the process of carrying out a giveaway campaign, you can hit a number of important goals for your business.
To make the best of a giveaway, tie the prize you’re offering to people to the actions you want them to take. If you want to boost your social media followership, you can motivate your audience to get more entries into the contest by following you on different platforms.
If you’d like to build your email list, set up the giveaway so that new subscribers get automatically added to the potential winners’ pool.
- Motivate your users to follow you on social media to improve their chances of winning
In general, the chance to win something creates excitement and other positive emotions. Your audience will engage with your business online which will make you visible to others. Use a WordPress plugin like RafflePress to make these it easy to create an awesome giveaway.
The attention and excitement it can create can lead to much better results in a short period of time.
Live videos
Video content is a type of content format types that you need to prioritize as a part of your content creation strategy.
It has become one of the most widely consumed content formats and its engagement rate supersedes that of any other content you can offer.
There are a few reasons for this: the widespread availability of mobile phones, affordable internet, and the launch of new social media apps that are video-based.
Create live video sessions to answer questions, to create a behind-the-scenes build up of upcoming sales, or to engage with people in other meaningful ways.
Doing live videos resembles a personal call even though you could be speaking to a large number of people. It’s also a way to showcase authenticity and build trust in your audience, which is essential since people are less likely to take risks buying from uncertain sources in 2020.
Social media ‘Stories’ and Reels
If your audience includes younger demographics like Gen Zer or Millennials, then it’s vital to engage with them on the platforms they use the most.
Snapchat and TikTok are places where younger groups are most active. The popularity of the short video format in these platforms is reflected in how larger networks like Facebook and Instagram now have ‘Stories’ as part of their experiences.
Stories last for a minute and disappear after 24 hours. This makes them perfect tools to create the Fear of Missing Out and to promote short-term sales and offers.
Recently, Instagram has also started ‘Reels’ where users can make 30-second videos. Done well, the use of features like Stories, Reels, Snaps, and other short videos can reach a large number of people fast.
However, you need to focus on content that’s either highly entertaining or educational. And this needs to be covered in less than a minute. Avoid overly-promotional content and focus on connecting with people.
From here, try to drive people to join your email list which is a powerful tool for driving conversions. You’ll also make sure that you’re not heavily dependent on platforms that don’t belong to you and avoid losing any followers you’ve painstakingly built.
Holiday-themed lead magnets
Lead magnets for the holidays are not pretty magnets one can stick to a refrigerator. But they do act like customer magnets because they attract people into subscribing to your newsletter in exchange for a helpful digital gift.
The holiday season lends itself to great ideas for lead magnets. Based on your products and your audience’s needs, create downloadable content that helps people out during the holidays. Here are some ideas you can use:
- A seasonal checklist for your B2B or B2C customers so that they can easily achieve specific goals
- Special discounts on purchases or free trials for a limited period of time
- Free ebooks, video tutorials, audio files, or software
- A drip campaign that follows the theme of ‘12 days of X’ with X being content that relates to your product, business, or to some need your customers have
- Gift cards or a cash prize
Like giveaways, lead magnets can speak to the spirit of the season if you use them effectively. Create helpful content that you can automatically deliver when users sign up and you won’t just build an email list, you’ll also build a positive relationship with your customers.
Conclusion
Regular blog content and social media posts are critical if you want to engage users and build your SEO. During the holidays, your content can also kickstart your sales at a time where people intend to make more purchases.
We’ve covered some interesting and impactful content types that you could include in your content calendar. Set up your content strategy in advance by including things like giveaways, and you’ll be certain to see great results in a short time.