Content Marketing Tips for Christmas

What comes to mind when I say Christmas to you?

Waking up as a child to a stocking brimming with presents. Saliva building to the smell of Christmas dinner. Maybe something as small as twinkling lights and tacky tinsel in your home.

Whatever it is, I bet you also associate Christmas with shopping and adverts. The John Lewis Christmas ads from over the years, or Coca-Cola’s Holidays Are Coming classic.

And let’s face it, if you could do a big TV ad campaign, I bet you would love to do some heartfelt TV advertisement campaign to promote your business in the run up to Christmas.

Unfortunately for most businesses, we don’t have the money to splash out on a national television advertising campaign. Instead we have to be smart about what marketing we do with a much smaller budget.

The best thing for you to know is there are still many ways to get your business noticed this Christmas. And who knows, maybe you could become a memory at Christmas for your customers in years to come.

Online marketing is absolutely essential at Christmas, and content marketing is a nice affordable option that can get you serious results.

Christmas content marketing to connect with customers and boost sales!

It’s time to sit down and discuss the most wonderful time of the year

• What will your business offer to customers?
• What do you see being popular with your customers this Christmas?
• How will you communicate with your customers over the festive period?
• How are you planning to get your business, products or services in front of the right people?

Your Christmas content marketing strategy

Creating a successful Christmas content marketing strategy for your business requires planning, creativity, and a clear understanding of your target audience.

We’re not afraid to admit that marketing yourselves at Christmas can be tedious and may even make you feel a bit queasy at times. But it’s the wonderful time of the year to do so!

Promoting yourself is always difficult, but just like at any other time of the year, you don’t need to push the hard sell anymore than normal at Christmas.

Focus on giving value to your customers and you will win – especially if you are offering something this Christmas that will be popular over the festive period.

Let’s take a look at how you can get cracking (sorry) with a foolproof content marketing strategy for the Christmas period.

Defining your goals

Begin by outlining clear and measurable objectives for your Christmas campaign.

These could include:

• Increasing brand awareness
• Driving website traffic
• Boosting sales
• Growing your email subscriber list

Knowing your audience

Think carefully about your target audience’s preferences, interests, and behaviour during the Christmas holidays. Then use this knowledge to tailor your content to their needs and wants.

Creating a content calendar

We know Christmas is hectic. That’s why creating a content calendar is a great idea; because you can prep it in advance (a bit like the Christmas vegetables).

Run your calendar from early November through to late December and be mindful of specific dates to maximise engagement and reach.

Monitoring your efforts

Keep track of the performance of your Christmas content marketing campaign.

Use analytics tools to track key metrics such as engagement rates, website traffic, engagement rates, social media reach, conversion rates, and sales. Next, armed with this data, adjust your strategy accordingly.

Top ideas for your Christmas content marketing strategy

Create a message that your customers relate to in the run up to Christmas

Content marketing is essential to your marketing.

Because it’s Christmas, you’re thinking you can finally create a campaign that’s personal and really connects with your customer’s feelings.

True, but that’s what your content should aim to do all year round!

Creating a meaningful connection with your customers is the secret to any effective marketing strategy.

You may point out that the end game of all marketing is to sell yourself, your products and your services.

The best way to achieve this is by making sure your customer doesn’t see the marketing in your marketing.

Instead, your customer should feel understood and that their needs can be solved with your product or service.

You’ll achieve this through your message.

The questions to consider for your content strategy:

• Where will you be promoting your deals?
• What’s the key message behind your copy or messaging?
• Are you looking to improve your website’s online appeal before Christmas?
• Will social media be a suitable platform to reach customers? If so, will it be on Facebook, Instagram, X, Pinterest, LinkedIn, or all of them?
• Will you benefit from featuring in a magazine?
• Could you guest blog?
• Could you hold a competition?
• Have you thought about catching your customers’ attention when they land on your website?
• How will you entice customers and help them to make a decision?

Getting your message out – what content marketing you can do for Christmas

Search engine optimisation (SEO) for your Christmas products and services

If you’re looking to direct any new and existing customers to your website for Christmas shopping, then SEO is what you need.

SEO is a process that needs time to take effect. It requires quality content on your website. That can be in the form of blogs, product pages and sales landing pages.

When deciding what content to create, the type of content is important, but what you really need to make sure of is that the content you create is valuable to your customers. That’s the secret to effective SEO content.

You can use SEO data and insights to see what your customers are searching to find products and services like you offer, but you need to make sure your content offers them the answers they need.

By creating high quality festive content for your customers, over time, your content will earn your website rankings on the major search engines.

But you need time on your side to plan and execute an SEO strategy.

When should I start my SEO marketing for Christmas shoppers to find my website?

Ideally 6 months before the busy festive shopping period… but we don’t have 6 months, do we?

Don’t fret, we can still get to work on getting your website found this Christmas. We just need to get started sooner rather than later on creating festive website content.

How do we help to get your website ranking for Christmas customer searches?

Blogging, copywriting and website content are all vital when it comes to completing SEO for your business.

Blogs are really effective and offer a more creative opportunity to tell stories and connect with like-minded people and potential customers at Christmas.

The best kind of content resonates with your audience and aligns perfectly with your company’s brand. Seek to create evergreen content where possible, which means that your blogs or Christmas landing pages can be recycled even after just the one year.

Here are some Christmas-inspired content ideas:

• Themed blog posts
• Gift guides featuring your products or services
• Behind-the-scenes looks at your business’s Christmas preparations
• User-generated content showcasing customer experiences
• Interactive giveaways or contests

Visual content performs especially well, so think about using high-quality images, graphics, and videos to capture your audience’s attention and get your message across.

Get in touch for more information about SEO for your business at Christmas.

Your website offers great content opportunity for the festive period

Product pages

On your ecommerce website, your product page copy is a great opportunity for festive content.

Your product copy can play a big part in your SEO, but more importantly, it’s a stage to connect with your customers.

Through effective SEO, you’ll be able to connect with customers who will be interested in your products for Christmas.

Instead of rambling on about the product’s features, relate the product back to solutions that will fit with your customers. It’s vital to always put the customer first in your product descriptions.

An effective product page has copy that speaks directly to the reader and shows them why they need your product.

Your reader should imagine themselves with your product and want to feel how your copy says they’ll feel once the product is in their hands.

Why not create relevant Christmas product category pages to get your website visitors in the festive spirit?

Go through your product inventory and identify the key categories or themes that align with the season. For example, if you sell clothing, you might create categories like “Tacky Christmas Jumpers” or “Festive Party Outfits”.

Make sure you conduct keyword research to include the most relevant keywords related to your Christmas categories. Then, incorporate these keywords naturally into your category page content, meta tags, and product descriptions.

Category pages

Your website’s category pages play an important role in organising your site’s content and helping to guide your visitors towards items they’ll like.

Optimise these category pages with festive banners, backgrounds, and images that reflect the Christmas spirit. Showcase Christmas-related products right at the top of your category page. These could include festive decorations, gifts, or items specific to your industry.

Service pages

Create special Christmas service packages that are tailored to the festive season.

For instance, a cleaning firm might introduce a “Christmas Home Clean” package.

Customise your existing service descriptions to highlight how your services can be valuable during the season, and craft content to clearly explain how your services can save time, reduce stress, or enhance the Christmas experience.

And of course, there’s your main website content. You could tweak your homepage to your Christmas message, and cover important details like extended delivery dates and last posting dates before the festive season.

A fun addition are countdown timers for shipping deadlines (and help you to create a sense of urgency!).

And with it being Christmas, there are so many pictures you can paint in your reader’s mind through your product description:

• Your friend’s smile once they tear off the wrapping
• The feeling of helping a family member to finally achieve their goal for the New Year
• Or the biggest moment of your life, with your partner’s eyes glinting back at the diamond before them

You can create any story that your customer will relate to.

3 key ingredients to a successful Christmas online marketing strategy

1. Simplicity – don’t overcomplicate your message or offering. And don’t christmasfy it too much, just add a little sparkle.

2. Personality – this is the best time of the year to experiment and let loose (but not too loose).

3. Faultless customer experience – should your message resonate, make sure the experience for your customer is enjoyable. From the moment they enquire to the delivery of your Xmas offering.

Keep these three aspects in mind and you’ll create more than a worthwhile marketing campaign to connect with your customers. You’ll create an outstanding experience that customers will remember beyond Christmas.

Don’t forget your amazing customer service this Christmas

Point one and two are essential of course to your marketing strategy, but point three is one that many businesses fail to acknowledge when they focus on their marketing planning. Particularly the logistics of managing and delivering on the marketing.

Your customer service and experience at this time of the year is fundamental, and let’s be honest, that does in fact contribute to your marketing strategy. Your marketing could be amazing at gaining enquiries, but if your customer service is poor, you won’t convert those enquiries into paying customers.

It’s a stressful time of the year, consumers do not want a tough time if they come to you. Your service to them must be faultless.

Should your customers have the best experience with your brand, they won’t just be a gift for Christmas that’s for sure. They could become a loyal customer to you beyond the festive period.

A bonus fourth tip…

If you want to go down the route of ‘Christmasfying’ your business, then don’t get too carried away. Keep your brand image in mind and don’t inject garish reds and greens into everything. You don’t want to come across as tacky!

There’s a lot for you to sort at Christmas, let us take some of the website marketing pressure off of you.

It’s a busy time of the year. We’ve all got a lot on, not only within business but our personal lives.

If you need support with your marketing, whether it’s content, copywriting, social media or anything else, then we’re here.

Scroll down to our contact form below and drop us a line. I’ll get back to you pretty quick!