‘Tis the Season for Planning Your Holiday Content Strategy

Spooky season may be wrapping up, but turkey, Santa, and resolution season are upon us! Friends, it’s time to start planning your holiday content strategy and promotions through the first of 2024. The holidays bring cheer, yummy treats, and consumer mayhem. We’re not just talking about the consumption of turkey and sugar cookies. We’re talking about buying stuff! Relevant, targeted content is the best way to stand out and persuade your audience to buy from your business. Don’t be a Scrooge… let’s start planning!

What is a Holiday Content Strategy?

A holiday content strategy is your go-to guide for planning, creating, and managing holiday content for your business. The holidays can take your “busy” season to an overwhelming season in a flash. That’s why it’s essential to be prepared well in advance. Develop your holiday content strategy now so you can partake in the most crucial part of the holiday season… spending quality time with your loved ones.

Your strategy won’t and shouldn’t look like everyone else’s. You should tailor yours to your business values, goals, and audience. Holiday content is uber-specific and thematic. To keep it fresh, you must pay attention to holiday trends. 

Consumers often search for gift guides, shopping tips, killer deals, and what’s trending. For example, reposting last year’s gift guide won’t be visible if your audience types “2023 Holiday Gift Guide” into a search engine. Your 2022 keywords, links, and products won’t be relevant or desired anymore. Decide whether you want to update previous posts or create new ones. Whatever you choose should be helpful for your audience and their needs.

Why Holiday Content Matters

Your ability to serve your audience with information is vital year-round, but the holiday season creates a unique opportunity for your business. People want to buy during this time of year, so it makes sense that you’re there for them. Holiday gifts, food, travel, apparel, decor, and everything in between allow you to serve your audience. Your audience needs to be able to find your website and see what special things you’re offering. And we do mean special! Holiday cheer should make your content stand out from your “regular” posts.

You might be surprised to learn that 2022’s holiday season had 13.1 percent more retail sales than 2021. Not only that, but 59% of consumers shopped online. This means that plenty of people want what you’re selling, and now is the time to market to them. Because, guess what? Consumers are already holiday shopping! You probably know a handful of people who have been holiday shopping all year round. Early birds are real! Whether in-store or online, give your customers a shopping experience that brings them back, even after the holidays.

Planning Your Holiday Content Strategy

Now that you understand the importance of holiday content and why your business needs it, let’s discuss how to execute it. Every business starts somewhere, and it’s acceptable not to know where or how. Content Journey has the secret recipe for your holiday content needs. 

• Start Early. Believe it or not, you should already be promoting your business for the December and January holidays. At the very least, you should have a plan to launch right after Thanksgiving. If you haven’t started yet, that’s OK! You can still make it work. We suggest starting today so you don’t fall further behind.
• Establish Your Goals. What’s your main purpose this holiday season? Maybe you’re launching a holiday collection, want to boost sales, or just need more exposure for your brand. Identify your holiday goals and keep them at the forefront of your planning. You’re likely to have meaningful goals from the year that trickle into your holiday goals as well. Just remember to beef them up and add holiday flair. While you may focus your digital marketing goals on sales, remember to also entertain, educate, and support your audience with your content. Sales are beneficial, but a lasting impression on your ideal audience is even better.
• Invest in Advertising. Content is critical year-round, but paid search strategies and ads are certainly a helpful boost during the holidays. Ads create immediate, timely exposure with their ability to reach your target audience. Your branding can really shine through with ads. Your recognizable colors, text, voice, and tone can set your ads apart from the competition. Ads are worth the investment, especially during this season.
• Know Current Trends. Pay attention to trends, especially with your target audience. What are they asking for? What can you do to stay relevant? Trends can push you out of your comfort zone, but following them often produces worthwhile results.
• Poll Your Audience. An underrated way to know what your audience wants is to simply ask them. They will voice their opinions! Especially those who want to support your brand and help you grow. They’re the bread and butter of your holiday content ideas. And the best part? They might come up with ideas you never thought of.
• Prepare a Solid Follow-Up. Your holiday content strategy should include a follow-up with your audience. Ask them about their shopping experience, customer service interactions, shipping times, etc. Get a feel for what you need to change or prioritize moving forward and for the next season. Feedback from your audience shows that they’re invested in your content and plan to support you again in the future.

Holiday Content Ideas 

Holiday content differs from regular content thematically. But how else is it unique? We have some holiday content ideas that will help your business stand out.

• Make Your Content Specific. Offer content that people find helpful at this time of year. For example, if you sell non-alcoholic drink mixes, ‘tis time to offer up your holiday cheer recipes. If you’re an interior designer, share design tips that help people elevate their homes for the holidays. Think about what your audience needs from you during this season, and post those things. 
• Create Special Holiday Promotions. Promos during the holidays should be bigger and better than any you offer throughout the year. Make them flashy and irresistible. You want your audience to know that they’re getting something special that isn’t offered all the time.
• Feature Festive CTAs. It’s fun to be corny. Get festive with your calls to action. Your audience will think they’re funny and memorable, even if they all sound like dad jokes. Jingle your content bells all the way to the North Pole if you have to!
• Offer Holiday Giveaways. The holidays can be difficult for some people. Pressure to spend large amounts of money, have the best decor, and smile all the time is a lot. Offer giveaways that make an impact on your community. That’s the true reason for the season, after all.
• Create a Holiday Theme. Tap into a holiday theme that fits your company. Let’s say you own a jewelry brand and want to highlight your holiday collection of winter-themed earrings. You could host a “Twelve Days of Earrings” contest. You post a question on your Instagram story for the first 12 days of December. The first person to answer the question correctly wins a free pair of winter earrings! No matter what you choose, remember that your theme says a lot about your brand and how you interact with your audience.

Content Creation and Production

Let’s be honest: you’re trying to do A LOT as a business owner. You’re working behind the scenes to keep customers, business partners, team, family, and yourself happy. It’s acceptable to start small when creating holiday content. You don’t need to do it all overnight. Even small marketing tactics can greatly impact your audience if done correctly.

Leverage User-Generated Content

Encourage your customers to create holiday-related content. Hashtags that promote your holiday marketing campaigns are a great way to do this. Consumers can use your hashtags on their social media posts to boost your engagement. Collaborating with your audience in this way builds trust and relatability for your brand. 

You can also repurpose user-generated content for your holiday campaigns. Consider having an affiliate program that allows you to partner with influencers who will draw attention to your campaigns and bring more traffic to your site. You can share their posts and public admiration for your brand.

Craft Engaging Holiday Stories

Hone in on the power of storytelling in your holiday content. Stories provide an emotional connection between you and your audience. Stories can be nostalgic, funny, and heartwarming. Creating narratives that resonate with your audience makes for a memorable, unique experience for them. Social media, your website, and your newsletter are effective ways to publish, share, and interact with personal stories and experiences.

Use Multi-Channel Content Distribution

The best way to effectively distribute holiday content across various platforms is to tweak it for each platform. You wouldn’t post an entire YouTube video to Instagram, but instead, a snippet from a video with a link to the full video could be useful. 

Customize your content for the audience it will reach on each platform. Coordinate each content release for maximum impact. You don’t have to post on five platforms with the same content on the same day. Space it out and post when it benefits each platform’s audience. 

Remember, your decisions should reflect what’s best for your audience and your business.

Measuring and Optimizing Your Holiday Content 

Even during the cheer and glitter of the holiday season, stats are important for optimizing your content. Take a look at your past holiday marketing efforts to understand how to improve for 2023.

Key Metrics to Track

Identify the most relevant KPIs, also known as key performance indicators, for your holiday content. KPIs are essentially a numeric version of your marketing metrics, client retention, website success, sales, and the like. Tools like Google Analytics can help you monitor and analyze your online performance.

A/B Testing and Iteration

One way to thoroughly evaluate your audience and their needs this holiday season is to conduct A/B testing. You can do so with promotions, discounts, gift guides, countdowns, urgency messaging, and clearly written shipping and return policies. Strong CTAs will encourage your audience to act quickly because most holiday-related things are exclusive and temporary. Once you set these tests in place, monitor their results to make data-driven improvements throughout the holiday season.

Make Your List and Check It Twice

You are now an informed business elf who can plan your holiday content strategy. With helpful information and a desire to step up your content this year, you have what you need to succeed. But you might be missing one last thing… time. You’re a business owner, and content marketing is a lot of work, especially during the holidays. Contact Content Journey to help you out. We have the tools and expertise to bring your holiday content vision to life. Let’s celebrate together!