Question: Is there a right and wrong way to handle our content marketing during the holiday season? We are concerned that content shared during this time may not get as many views as other times of the year?
Trust me when I say, you are not the only company that has this question in mind. I have spoken to many seasoned marketers who have greatly differing views on this topic.
With answers ranging from no change whatsoever to almost a complete pause on marketing efforts I have heard it all.
The good news from these vastly differing answers is that it seems there is no “Right” answer for how to handle your content strategy, promotion and marketing during this time.
The bad news is that there is no clear cut right way either.
This leaves us all to wonder what is right for our businesses. This however is the exact right question to ask. What makes sense for “My” business at this time of year.
While some may think that readership will take a big dive over the holiday, there is an argument that more people will have free time to consume good content?
What to do…what to do…
If you are having a content strategy dilemma during this holiday season, may I suggest you ask yourself the following questions to help you decide.
Audience: Who is your reader? Does the vast majority of your audience consume your content from their office or do you have a large at home, mobile or casual readership? If you have a large audience that reads away from the office then you may not see much decline during the holidays.
Subject Matter: Even if your content is often consumed by professionals in the office environment, perhaps you have theme oriented content that will go well with the holidays. For instance if you are in the software business and you sell productivity tools, maybe a post on being productive during the break or better yet, how to unplug.
Time Sensitivity: Does the content have time sensitivity such as relation to breaking news or an upcoming event that is right on the heels of the holiday. If the content is highly time sensitive it may still make sense to get it out there and then promote to the appropriate audience.
Promotion Vehicle(s): If your main promotional vehicle is email this may impact your strategy differently then if you promote with Social Media. If your subject matter is super business focused you may not want to make Social Media your main vehicle as people may be a little less interested in such material. At the same time if you are emailing content you may want to think about lower click rates as people are away.
While there isn’t a single way to handle content delivery during the holiday season, your content marketing doesn’t necessarily need to be shut off either.
Figure out what makes sense for your audience and tailor the subject matter and frequency toward them.
What is your plan for creating, managing and promoting content during this holiday season?
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Daniel Newman is the co-founder of V3*Broadsuite and is an experienced C-level executive, serving as a strategy consultant for small and mid-sized businesses. He’s also an insight/analyst partner to four Fortune 50 enterprises and previously served as the co-founder and CEO of EC3, a hosted IT and communications services provider. Prior to that, he served as the CEO of United Visual, Inc. in Chicago Illinois.
He is a widely published writer who contributes weekly to Forbes, Entrepreneur, Huffington Post and industry publications such as Commercial Integrator, Sound & Communication and Corporate Tech Decisions. He’s also author of three best-selling business books including The New Rules of Customer Engagement, The Millennial CEO, and just recently Evolve: Marketing (^as we know it) is Doomed.
Daniel has established a reputation as a leading thinker in topics such as Social, Big Data, Cloud and Mobile. He has been named to many top influencer lists in all of these areas, including recognition by the Huffington Post as one of the 100 business and leadership accounts to follow on Twitter. He is also an adjunct professor of management at North Central College.