It’s almost December. Is your holiday communications strategy mapped out yet?
If that question just gave you a little anxiety, take a deep breath. It’s not too late. You’ve got this.
Here are some fast, simple ways you can get ahead of your holiday marketing content and communications.
Come up with a holiday theme
Why a theme?
- It categorizes your content while still differentiating your message and brand from generic holiday messaging. For example, if you are trying to sell a product during the holidays, perhaps a “12 Days of Christmas” theme would be a way to showcase product features or sale prices during a specific time period.
- It helps you stay consistent by sticking with one look, feel, or possibly even unique hashtag or quote.
Brainstorm content ideas
Whether or not you decide on a specific theme, you can start generating a list with as many content ideas as possible. Here are a few ideas to get you started:
- Write list posts. These are scan-friendly bits of content readers are more likely to engage with and easier to put together than a traditional blog post.
- Post and share “thankful” posts. Be sure to tag employees, clients and other companies that are relevant to them. Get more tips on how to make this work in our post on extending your reach during the holidays.
- Use Instagram to share what you and your team are up to in the office. Is Doug’s cubicle decorated like a candy cane lane? Did someone actually buy fruitcake…and better yet, what did you do with it?
Create a mini content calendar
It’s easier than you think and you don’t need the latest app or expensive software to do this. Since you’re only mapping content for a couple weeks or a month at most, all you really need a well-formatted table created in Word or Google Docs. Here is an example of how we use mini-calendars for purposes just like these (not fancy, but it works!).
Schedule your social media content
The great thing about Twitter, Facebook and some other social media options is you can create content and schedule it to post on a specific day and time. This can improve your visibility with your target audience and you can get these done in one sitting, freeing up your time for other business and holiday tasks..
Use Tweetdeck to schedule your tweets if they aren’t time-sensitive or driven by live-events
- Find free stock images you can use and pair them with copy that matches your holiday theme. A couple of our favorite free libraries are PEXELS and Pixabay.
- Look for evergreen content on your blog or last year’s social media posts. Evergreen content is work you’ve already written and used that isn’t time-sensitive and is still relevant for your audience. For example, a blog post on the benefits of walking or a great non-seasonal product offering would be an evergreen topic because it isn’t tied to an event in the past, present or future.
While you don’t have to adopt all of these tactics to make your holiday messaging a success, just take on as many as your capacity allows and try not to overthink it. A little planning will set up for holiday success on social so you can get back to business.
