Only 14 days to go. The rushing around, the panic buying and the finishing touch preparations are starting to come into play. A culmination of days on days of getting everything ready and sooner than you know it, it will all be over. Christmas is one of the busiest holidays on the calendar and it is one of the perfect dates to give your content marketing a boost. The content pretty much writes itself… Add in a couple of lyrics to Noddy Holders’ timeless classic and you are well on your way. But how effective can christmas be on a content marketing strategy? Can it even be overwhelming? This week, we’ve collated the views from three articles based around Christmas content marketing to study the best practices others are using, and suggest how they might be added to. If you are reading this on your summer holiday or you are just about to go and sweep the leaves from your driveway, then you will probably think that this article is rather irrelevant to you and you have accessed it at the wrong time of year. However, one of the main points to gain from this article is that Christmas doesn’t last forever, so make sure that your content marketing does.
Christmas Marketing: Facebook Vs. Pinterest for Retailers
(Read Original Article Here)
Rachel Minihan (@RachelAtPPM), Principal at Purple Phone explains in her blog that one of the most important things to do as a business, let alone at Christmas, is to join Pinterest. Pinterest is a social media site where you can share pictures and “pin” them to boards online. The reason behind Rachel suggesting this is because she explains that 29% of people who are more active on Pinterest than Facebook are more likely to make a purchase online. Coupled with this, 70% of people that took part in the survey said that they would go to Pinterest for ideas on what to buy. Now imagine that you link this with christmas gift ideas and you have a market of people looking to buy a product either for themselves or for someone else, and you can effectively post a picture of your product for an idea. If your business offers a service and not a product, take a picture of someone using your service (obviously enjoying it, too) and use this to promote your business through Pinterest.
Be aware, however, that Pinterest is not as interactive as Facebook and Twitter, which can be a problem. When it comes to content marketing, it is extremely important that people can interact with the content that you are posting online and share it with their friends. Facebook is currently one of the most used social networks on the web with over a billion users – around 1 in every 7 people in the world use Facebook. So in terms of coverage, Facebook is extremely more advantageous here and we would say that Pinterest may not see those same high user levels.
‘Tis the Season for Great Content Marketing
(Read Original Article Here)
On the Design theory blog (@jpdesigntheory), there was an emphasis on remembering that it is Christmas and using this as a method of trying to warm up the relationships between you and your customers. Using Christmas is a good way of throwing in a few jokes, a smattering of Christmassy backgrounds and the odd picture of a mince pie in order to entice customers to join in with the festive furore and capture them underneath the mistletoe. Show them love with offers and incentives whilst encouraging them to repeat their custom and remember your company in the January blues.
Whilst this is potentially a great way of ensuring that you can gain repeat custom and sales, in terms of your business contacts and people with you on their mind whilst evaluating alternative businesses (i.e. you still have some competition for your product in the consumers mind), it may actually be too overwhelming to take this approach – which could lead to you pushing away potential customers. Believe it or not, not everyone celebrates Christmas and you need to make sure that you continue to value and respect these customers as you would at any other time of the year. Remember, your business is for life, not just for Christmas.
Content Marketing at Christmas
(Read Original Article)
Nisha Jagpal (@NishaJagpal) wrote an interesting piece on how to utilize your social media in order to keep up with the competition and to jump on the Christmas content marketing bandwagon. Some of the things that Nisha discussed included ways in which to center your content marketing around the Christmas cheer, and outlined ideas for articles and media that can do this for you. Her advice is solid and sensible, though it is certainly worth holding back and not overdoing the Christmas promotions because it really all ends after the 25th December. After this point, it isn’t Christmas anymore and your Christmas content runs the risk of going to waste. Nisha makes a really good point about using Christmas to showcase material and content to acquire new customers by enticing them to “try something new” or “Treat yourself for Christmas”, but we’d also add to her strategy by suggesting the use of evergreen content alongside more festive pieces for anyone feeling snowed under by the big day, or accessing your social media feeds at a later point.
So, Christmas is nearly here, the big day is coming and it will soon be all over and done with. The important thing for you is to work out where your business stands both before and after the festivities, and attempt to find a middle ground that maximises the holiday cheer whilst creating content that holds relevance all year round.