Podnar Consulting, LLC

Archives for November 2016

Christmas-themed content ideas for non-Christmasy businesses

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holiday content marketing ideas

With Black Friday and Cyber Monday (well, almost) in the rearview mirror, small businesses everywhere are thinking about publishing content that has a holiday tie-in. Retailers have it made, but the tie-in isn’t so obvious for B2Bs.

Sure, if you sell commercial roofing systems you could talk about winter roof prep and remind customers that they don’t want to be the business whose poorly maintained roof dumped Santa ignominiously on his backside, right in the middle of the shop floor. Or, if you sell office supplies, you could write about the etiquette for sending holiday greeting cards to customers and clients. But what if you sell….I don’t know…

  • Floor wax? No, wait…you could write about how Christmas is a great time to wax the floors because so many employees take time off…
  • The soap that goes in the bathroom dispensers? No, not that either, because you could write about how people are extra-cautious with germs this time of year because they don’t want to be sick over Christmas…
  • Car batteries? No, that example doesn’t work, because cold weather can really do a number on automotive batteries…

Never mind…I’m sure there’s an example out there that even a world-class marketing team would struggle to connect to the holiday season. And that’s when it’s time to stop thinking about your product and start thinking about the people who buy it. And there’s one thing about Christmas that is common to the vast majority of adults in the U.S.: kids.

According to Gallup, more than 90% of American adults say they either have kids already or want to have them someday. More than half of Americans between the ages of 18 and 40 have kids, as do 86% of those over age 45. So if you write content that speaks to parents trying to survive the countdown to Christmas, there’s a good chance that it will resonate with the majority of your customers.

What are parents busy doing and thinking about this time of year? Well, I’m an older mom with younger kids (my youngest is 10, while some people I went to high school with are grandparents), but I bet it’s pretty universal:

  • Trying to keep the schedule straight
  • If you have kids in more than one school — and those schools don’t coordinate their holiday programs — making sure each child has someone in attendance
  • Reminding yourself to make sure that your kids’ dressy shoes — you know, the ones they haven’t worn since Cousin Suzy’s wedding in February — still fit
  • Finding out what everybody really wants for Christmas (which isn’t always the same as what they say they want — especially if they’re in the Santa-testing stage)
  • Making sure that all of the kids appear to have an equitable array of gifts (because, even though large gaps in age = large gaps in price tags, the kids still expect to have the same number of gifts)
  • Stocking up on caffeinated beverages so that you can stay awake until after the kids are in bed on Christmas Eve
  • Making your Christmas grocery list and weighing whether you can buy everything before the kids are out of school for the break without giving everyone food poisoning
  • Coming up with 50 explanations for, “No, you won’t be getting a pony for Christmas” — or, in my daughter’s case, a pig
  • Trying to find that stack of return addresses you cut out from the envelopes of the cards you received last year
  • Trying to remember where you hid the gifts you’ve been stocking up on since August
  • Bemoaning the fact that, once your kids start asking very specific logistical questions, the whole Santa thing stops being fun and starts feeling like lying
  • Trying to decide whether to honor your daughter’s request to wear her first pair of heels on Christmas (and surreptitiously checking the weather, hoping to see ice in the forecast)
  • Spending 14 hours on Pinterest looking for new things to do with that dang elf
  • Wondering how risky it is to change the ringtone you use for your boss to the theme song from The Grinch

Obviously, you want to be sensitive, since there are people for whom parenting is painful. You would never want to mock people who don’t have kids, for example, even if it’s in good humor. But the point I’m trying to make is that, no matter what business you’re in, who your customers are, or what holiday they celebrate (or don’t), there are some things about parenting through this time of year that are almost comically universal.

These are the things that make a great tie-in for holiday content…the things that have your audience nodding their heads and smiling as they read. The things that leave them thinking, “Yeah, that’s exactly what it’s like!” or “Oops…I knew there was something I forgot to put on my to-do list!”

Even if your Christmas-inspired content doesn’t lead directly to a sale, that recognition of shared experiences strengthens relationships. It reminds customers that there’s an actual person on the other side of that sales brochure or invoice. It makes you seem more authentic (as long as it really is…you can’t get away with making this stuff up).

The bottom line is that shared parenting experiences can make people like you — and, at the end of the day, customers are more likely to buy from people they like.

Feel free to use any of the ideas from this list, but it’s even better if you come up with your own. The point is that the holiday season is a great time to shift focus from what you sell to who you are — and who your customers are.

For many American adults, parenthood is a defining experience that shapes their identity. But it’s not the only one. What are some other ways in which you can channel the Christmas spirit into content that touches your audience’s hearts in a way they’ll remember long after the tinsel and gift wrap are packed away for another year?

 

Love the idea of Christmas-themed content but too busy to take it on? That’s where I can help. Get in touch today to find out more. 

 

Should you have holiday-themed content under your tree?

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holiday-themed contentGo to any big-box retailer the day after Halloween, and you’re likely to discover employees tripping all over each other, wiping away any vestiges of Halloween and flooding the sales floor in a tsunami of Christmas cheer.

And thus begins the mad dash that won’t end until January, accompanied every step of the way by a soundtrack of jingle bells and talking reindeer.

So it’s almost impossible not to wonder if you should use Christmas references in your content marketing.

And it’s not just Christmas. The same thing happens with all the other major holidays, too. Heck, we can’t even kick off the month of September anymore without being bombarded with pumpkin-spice everything.holiday-themed content

But just because everyone else is doing it doesn’t mean it’s a good idea.

On the other hand, just because everybody else is doing it doesn’t make it a bad idea, either. It’s risk vs. benefits, folks — and only you can weigh them out. Here are some things to consider:

Expect some members of your audience to be offended.

And, if they’re not, somebody will tell them they should be.

On the other hand, other customers will be offended if you don’t mention their favorite holiday. Remember how Starbucks got blasted for using plain red cups during 2015’s holiday season? You would’ve thought they decided to fire Santa — or go caffeine-free with no warning. So you have to decide which course is the most likely to offend the fewest customers.

Make sure you know what you’re talking about.

Sometimes good intentions turn into huge faux pas. And then there’s the old cliche about assumptions (you know the one I mean). So, for the love of all that’s holy, please don’t start referencing things you know nothing about.

Here’s an example (and I promise this is really a thing): When people first move to the South, they often invite their friends, neighbors, and colleagues over for a barbecue. Because Southerns love barbecue, right?

Indeed we do. But we also take our barbecue very seriously — and hamburgers and hotdogs ain’t it. In these here parts, “barbecue” means ribs or pulled pork, slow-smoked on a grill, and slathered with barbecue sauce (unless you’re in the dry ribs camp). Hamburgers and hotdogs are what you serve at a cookout.

We’re a polite bunch down here. We recognize the good intentions and would never, ever say anything. But we do notice. And so will your audience if you make a reference to something cultural and get it wrong.

Don’t force it.

My southern mama always said, “If you have to tell people you’re a lady, you’re not.” In other words, if you have to try too hard to make a connection between your business and Christmas…just don’t.

On the other hand, making a connection between your business and Christmas is a lot easier than you may think. It’s a lot like writing for “boring” industries. You just have to get your head out of the technical details and start thinking about how your product or service affects people’s daily lives.

  • Sell prepared, ready-to-pop-in-the-oven meals? Sure, you can point out that they make great gifts. Not a thing wrong with that. But it might be more effective to think about how hectic our lives become during the lead-up to Christmas and write about hacks for getting through the madness with your sanity intact.
  • Sell a finance app? Talk about how families can keep their Christmas spending under control.
  • Provide event-planning and/or catering services? Write about things companies need to consider when planning their holiday parties. From food allergies to liability for party-goers who drink too much, there’s a lot to think about — and with your experience, you know exactly what those things are.
  • Sell upscale clothing? Write about how the “dress code” for Thanksgiving has deteriorated over the years, and dig up some research (there’s got to be some out there) that says family gatherings go more smoothly when everyone is dressed up.

What you don’t want to do is make such a stretch that people laugh at it.

Don’t ruin great evergreen content.

And, no, I’m not talking about Christmas trees.

Evergreen content is the meat and potatoes — or turkey and dressing (my Southern is showing again) — of your blog. It’s the meaty stuff that’s always relevant, rather than the stuff built on trending topics or events.

Why is it so important? Because it lives forever, even if it needs to “get a little work done” now and then.

And immortality has its benefits:

  • While a post on the latest celebrity wardrobe malfunction might bring an initial surge of traffic, people will lose interest as soon as the next shiny thing passes by.
  • Because evergreen content generates traffic for a long time, it will also generate leads for a long time.
  • Evergreen content tends to have all of the things Google looks for when calculating SERP results, so it’s great for SEO.

On the other hand, posts that reference the current calendar year become immediately irrelevant on January 1 — even if they’re about something foundational, like why SEO is a thing. So save your holiday references for the posts that have an expiration date, like Google’s current SERP algorithms (which will probably be outdated by the time this post is published). Don’t date what would otherwise be immortal evergreen content.

Don’t overdo it.

You know that feeling you have on November 1, when your kid offers you a piece of candy? (OK, November 5, but that’s not the point.) People can have too much of a good thing. If you use holiday references,  do it sparingly, not in every single blog post.

 

Bottom line: It’s OK — and maybe even a really good idea — to holiday your content. But if you’re going to holiday, holiday responsibly. And if you need a sounding board for your ideas, I’m happy to listen. Just write to me here at the North Pole. I’ll get right back with you … unless I’m off pardoning a turkey. (See what I did there?)

 

 

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