Holiday Content Planning Throughout The Year (Part 2)

Once you have your holiday schedule set, how do you know what content to make for it?

Marketing has a lot of outlets to promote yourself, your business, and your brand. And it is not all just social media content.

So, what type of content can you make? (And as a pro tip, you can also use this list for general content to use regardless of if it is for holiday marketing or general marketing to share your business, brand, company, or story).

Once you have your schedule set as to what days you’re going to highlight with content or marketing, you can get going with:

• Social Media Content

OK yes, Social Media is probably the most popular and widely known form of content. One of the reasons for this is that almost all Social Media platforms are basically free (outside of ads, and your data collection). But you can plan text based posts, graphics, videos - you can plan things leading up to the holiday or on the day itself.

Depending on the scope of the holiday, you can just post to your stories, or you can make a post to live on your page after the holiday has passed.

• Emails

  If you don’t have an email list for your business, it is really important that you start this. Email marketing is one of the most underutilized tools, including direct emails to people (not just email campaigns but one-on-one “hi, how’s it going” genuine human to human emails).

  “Human” is used intentionally as true communication can not be outsourced to an AI or a robot. Why should anyone take time to read something you didn’t take time to write? And if you don’t actually care enough to know what is happening with people or to genuinely connect with them directly, don’t send fake “personalized” emails. Just send an email campaign and be clear it is an email update.

  For holiday marketing you can send out general email marketing promoting events, special sales, or shouting out a commemorative day or wish people a happy whatever day it is! Sometimes just a quick note can be nice, or you can share why that particular day means something to you and your brand.

• Text Messages

  While you probably don’t want to text people every single day wishing them a happy everything, for bigger events, sales, or major holidays, you can send a quick friendly text with a positive message for your network.

• Postcard mailers

  One of the most underutilized parts of marketing, mailing postcards can be a great way to reach your audience. They can also be really expensive as postage alone adds up quickly, plus the cost of printing and designing the mailers. One way around this is to see if there are any post card co-ops in your area where businesses can partner together and put their info on a larger post card going out to a neighborhood and splitting the costs between them.

• Magazine Ads

  Physical print is not totally gone! And depending on where your business operates, there might be local advertising opportunities with magazines that get distributed to your local community. These might not be the best for holiday ads as they tend to run for at least a month if not a quarter or half the year at a time. But they are important to note as they are a great way to connect with your local community!

• Online Ads / Social Media Ads

  When it comes to advertising, these are the most flexible and probably the best to use around holidays. You can edit the ad once it is running. You can take the ad down or change the caption unlike a print ad which goes out once it is printed. You also pay differently than a print ad. A postcard or a magazine is usually a flat fee for x number of cards or a certain issue of a magazine or flier. But a digital ad you usually pay per click and can set the budget for it. They can be hit or miss depending on how they are run, and usually it is best to work with a professional who is specialist trained in running these ads so you don’t waste money.

• Event Sponsorships

  Especially for holiday events, this is a great way to connect with your community and get your business out there. Checking with local nonprofits or religious organizations that you support can be a great way to find people to support, but so can checking with schools or other local organizations who look for sponsorships.

  Sometimes a sponsorship is a cash value in exchange for your logo or business or brand getting a shout-out. Sometimes it can be something like providing catering to a business meeting, offering a gift basket of goodies, or a gift certificate for free or discounted services can help introduce people to your products or services.

  It is important to make sure you don’t give away more than you can deliver, but when you can do sponsorships it is a great way to connect and support your community and other businesses, brands, and organizations that matter to you, and given that many events are around holidays it makes it easy to pair up.

• Holiday Gifts and Giveaways

  This technically can be more of a public relations activity, but holiday gifts can also be a marketing item when they are branded with your company’s logo or other branding. Insight: Taxes and tax regulations at least in the United States are why so many company end-of-year gifts have logos on them.

  Not every marketing move has to be a tumbler, t-shirt, or branded mouse pad. If you’re a landscape company, maybe you can give out saplings for Arbor Day. Or you can do friendship bracelets in your company colors on World Friendship Day. Sometimes the impact and the idea behind it is more important than handing someone one more trash-can delegated item.

At the end of the day, as long as you’re getting your business or brand or message or story out there and connecting with people, the ways to do it are endless!

Using holidays to highlight days to send out emails or create content or share a special sale or event can all be a great and fun way to connect with your audience!

And no matter what, you can use this list to come up with ways and outlets to use for marketing!