Thanksgiving is right around the corner, so it’s time to start thinking about what your company will bring to the table. There’s a lot of prep that goes into cooking the perfect thanksgiving dinner, just as there are many aspects to consider when marketing your company. My mom always forgets to put out the cranberry sauce; don’t let content marketing be the ingredient you leave off this Thanksgiving! Here are four tips to incorporate Thanksgiving into your content this year.
1. Serve Up Useful Information
We bring this tip up all the time, because it’s one of the most important parts of content marketing. Shareable content should be useful to your customers. Betty Crocker has a special section of their website dedicated to thanksgiving recipes and tips. Taste of Home magazine has Pinterest boards filled with content about thanksgiving dinners, side dishes, and desserts. Now, these are both food-related companies so it is pretty easy for them to incorporate thanksgiving tips into their posts. But really, anyone can offer advice like this.
If you sell car insurance, maybe you can write an article about how to avoid thanksgiving traffic or post some recipes that travel well for people taking long drives to family members. If your company specializes in sports equipment, write an article about the thanksgiving football games. All you have to do is include a brief mention of your company that somehow relates to the article. The connection doesn’t need to be as clear-cut as Betty Crocker and recipes; just focus on creating useful content that can be tied back to your brand.
2. Stuff Your Instagram with Photos
Instagram has reported that they experience more traffic on thanksgiving than any other day. Plan some Instagram content, such as images you can post with special Thanksgiving hashtags. There are specific things you can do to increase the likelihood of your photo getting attention on Instagram. For example, photos with faces have a 35% increase in comments compared to faceless pictures.
3. Encourage Giving
People like socially conscious brands and the holiday season is all about giving. Think about how your company can do some good in the world. Perhaps you can have a promotion in the week leading up to Thanksgiving where you donate some proceeds to local food banks. Maybe you can write an article about various charities readers can donate to help people less fortunate this thanksgiving. Doing good not only helps others out, but it increases people’s respect for your brand.
Finally! An article where it makes sense to use this turkey photo we’ve been sitting on!
4. Shut Your Piehole!
It might sound counter-intuitive, but sometimes the best course of action for brands on holidays is none at all. Forcing content for the sake of content comes off as forced and dishonest, especially on a holiday dedicated to spending time with family and friends. Participating in a holiday on social media can be tacky. For example on this past Veteran’s day, Fleshlight, a sex toy manufactory, tweeted “happy #Veteran’sDay” and it came off as awkward and forced.
Costco earned positive press last year when they announced they’d stay closed on Thanksgiving. Promoting your brand on Thanksgiving might make it look like your brand only cares about making money. Instead, perhaps post a simple thanksgiving wish and leave it at that.
Content marketing can be as easy as pie.
There are many different ways to approach Thanksgiving-related content. Think about what is best for your company and be ready to feast on the results. As for me, I’ll make sure to remind my mom not to leave out the cranberry sauce.
Check more content marketing tips through our free Content Marketing Academy series. Now that’s something to be thankful for!