The holidays are a stressful time for businesses. While sales may increase, managing orders, providing customer service, and staying on top of day-to-day responsibilities can be taxing. The last thing most business owners want to worry about is posting to social media accounts every day.
That’s where having a content calendar comes in handy. A content calendar allows businesses to schedule those daily posts ahead of time and be better prepared to capitalize on upcoming holidays, share promotions and discounts, and engage consumers during the season. It also saves time by having content prepared in advance, with the opportunity to add impromptu content as the season begins.
Here’s how to build a content calendar:
- Know who your customer is. For most businesses that work closely with customers, this might be a simple step. Knowing who your customers are, what’s most important to them, and what they will look for in your business can provide guidance for producing content that speaks to them and draws them in. If your business is mostly online, you can view your social media audience insights to see the demographics attracted to your products. (If you’re not sure how to identify your target audience, we can help).
- Decide what and when to post. When planning weekly content, we suggest using the 80/20 rule, which includes 80% of outside content and 20% of promotional content. Outside content can be articles related to your products, services or the industry, positive reviews from loyal customers, community events, employee spotlights and other content that doesn’t directly promote your business. For the other 20%, you can share popular products, share discounts for services, highlight company values and direct customers to make a purchase or visit your location. Each social media channel has different peak times for posting content. This little cheat sheet from Constant Contact can provide prime days and times for posting.
- Pinpoint main holidays and events. Part of reaching consumers with quality content includes knowing when they’ll be interacting on social media. And while Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Eve might be the main holidays most businesses focus on, there are several other smaller days that provide opportunity for fun and engaging content. For example, November 13 is World Kindness Day. Creating a post that promotes being kind or sharing ways that your employees exemplify kindness can add a personal and human touch to your business while generating engagement from customers sharing their own kindness stories. You can find relevant holidays from various sites to incorporate into your content.
Planning ahead with a well-thought out content calendar can help alleviate a big part of holiday stress for your business while driving engagement and sales. Contact The Light Digital for help creating quality content and for all aspects of digital marketing.