Look, I love the holiday season. Doesn’t matter what you celebrate or who you celebrate with, it’s certainly a special time of year. For me, personally, it’s Christmas. I look forward to spending a few days enjoying the holiday by exchanging gifts with my friends and family.
But, for me, it’s not Christmas time. Not yet anyway. Growing up we had a tradition: Christmas doesn’t start until we see Santa in the parade. That, of course, was the famous Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
Otherwise, before that parade, we actually enjoyed the month known as November. As a month, November has a lot to offer! The leaves are still falling. We have those wonderful autumnal colors everywhere you look, too. We have Veterans Day. …Thanksgiving.
It’s a wonderful month, indeed. Definitely more than just, “Christmas, Part I.”
Anyway, look, I’m not trying to sell you on the month of November. I’m here to talk about marketing.
Whether you’re like me and you personally like to keep your Christmas in December or you’re someone who started shopping for a tree in late October, we need to realize one thing: Professionally, the holiday shopping season is upon us. It’s one of those things I’ve had to accept as a marketer in this industry. Christmas started before Halloween. Now is the time to start promoting holiday shopping, deals, and more for the season.
Now, in my personal and professional opinion, it’s not a good idea to just dive head-first into holiday promotion mode. Yes, we want to plant the seeds of shopping and remind everyone that the end of the year will be here before we know it, but we don’t want to badger folks, if you catch my drift.
Continue your normal, everyday routines. On occasion, I’d suggest making simple, strategic changes to your promotional content.
For example – You might normally post about a product and direct it towards your followers by telling them how good that product might be for them. Now, when you post and review a product, maybe approach it from the angle of, “wouldn’t this make a great gift for that person in your life? I’m sure that person would love to wake up to one of these on Christmas morning.”
It’s a minor change to the question, “who would benefit?” Now, we’re just taking it a step further and making it, “hey you! who, in your life, would benefit from this?”
Same thing goes for news or outside materials you may reference. For example, rather than an article that covers the “top 10 shoes for runners,” you can find articles that discuss the “top 10 gift ideas for runners,” if you can find them. These are just some subtle ideas to help plant those holiday shopping seeds without constantly bombarding folks with the spirit of the holiday season for the next 2 months.
There are probably hundreds of ways you can go about varying your content so it’s dropping the hint without dropping the hammer and I’d love to hear any suggestions you may have or try to implement in your content routines.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying you can’t post something that directly tells people, “YOU ONLY HAVE X SHOPPING DAYS LEFT!!!” Go for it. Get your audience in the merry mood however you see fit. …just make sure you’re giving them the chance to enjoy November, too.
-Bob
We talk about this in S3. Ep1 of the new Your Site Builders Podcast.