From National Black Business Month to product-focused features, August offers content marketers many opportunities to connect with their audience of customers.
Content may well be one of the most powerful forms of modern marketing. A business that creates content, publishes that content, and then promotes it has the potential to attract, engage, and keep customers. Its site may perform better in search engine rankings, and its social media posts may gain fans and followers. And the content could instill a sense of reciprocity in its audience.
What follows are five content marketing ideas your business can use in August 2020.
1. National Black Business Month
Good content marketing is akin to good journalism. Content marketing differs from news, however, in that it should be more neutral and more positive when possible.
Few online retail businesses will want to write about recent protests or analyze the specifics of a given case of racial bias or violence as part of a content marketing campaign. However, some race-related topics could make sense.
August is Black Business Month and an opportunity to feature or profile African-American-owned businesses. Photo: Cytonn Photography.
August is National Black Business Month. It gives content marketers an opportunity to recognize the importance of African-American-owned businesses and encourage policies that enable entrepreneurship.
So for your company’s August marketing, consider creating an article, video, or podcast that profiles an African-American-owned supplier or vendor. Ask how the business started and what differentiates it from competitors. You could even list some of its products that your store sells.
2. American Adventures Month
Travel articles frequently describe enticing places, even if it’s not always possible or practical to get there.
This means you can create articles about touring the Americas, vacationing, and planning family adventures in honor of American Adventures Month without necessarily worrying about whether the pandemic will be over by August and travel is a good idea.
Remember to always relate your content to the products your business sells. So an online fashion retailer might create an article about the best South American cruises since tourists could be interested in what to wear on the trip, too.
You can write about adventures in August, even if you’re uncertain what sort of travel will be open and available. Photo: Kelsey Knight.
Similarly, an ecommerce shop selling kitchen supplies would be justified in writing, say, an article entitled “15 Amazing Wine Tasting Adventures in California” since gourmands often love wine.
The key is to create posts that are engaging and interesting to the kind of folks who are likely to buy from your business.
3. Financial
In August 2020, the coronavirus economy will likely remain a major concern for your customers. Thus your August content marketing could offer finance-related ideas, tips, or advice. The goal is to provide your customers and prospects with useful info they can apply to their situation.
Money and finances are always popular topics. Plus, customers will appreciate your company if you save them money. Photo: Sharon McCutcheon.
Here are a few potential article titles paired with an example ecommerce business.
- Auto parts retailer: “5 Ways to Lower Your Car Payments Now”
- Children’s clothing retailer: “10 Apps to Help You Save for College”
- Furniture shop: “7 Signs It’s Time to Refinance Your Home”
- Fine art boutique: “Why Millionaires Invest in Art and You Should Too”
- Power tool purveyor: “10 Helpful Tax Deductions for Contractors”
4. Product Pitches
At the time of writing, men’s fashion retailer Mr Porter was offering a 1.69-ounce bottle of 111Skin Celestial Black Diamond Emulsion for $800 or approximately $473 per ounce. That was roughly a third of the price of an ounce of gold and more than 23 times the price of an ounce of silver.
Consumers presumably need a good reason to spend $473 an ounce for anti-aging cream.
To buy products like this, consumers need a fair amount of cash and a good reason. Mr Porter offers some of the latter in an article titled, “Five Luxury Grooming Products That Are Worth The Investment.”
Mr Porter’s product pitch reads like a review in a magazine.
Each of the pricey products is described in detail with a focus on the benefits. What’s more, the article reads less like a product description and more like a review you might find in a fashion magazine.
For your business’s August content marketing, consider writing an article that reads like an impartial product review. The pitch doesn’t have to feature expensive items, but it should treat your products like they are exceptional. Here are a few magazine articles for inspiration.
5. An Expert’s Guide
My final idea for August 2020 is also inspired by Mr Porter’s The Journal, which is an excellent example of retail content marketing.
For this suggestion, however, instead of expensive-but-worth-it grooming supplies, consider the example of The Journal’s expert guides.
The Journal has many articles with titles that begin with “An Expert’s Guide,” “The Expert’s Guide,” or similar. The guides typically address fashion, grooming, travel, or lifestyle.
Take a play from Mr Porter’s content marketing playbook and create a series of expert guides.
Here are nine examples, in no order.
For your store’s August 2020 content marketing, consider starting a series of expert guides for your audience of potential customers.
