In December 2020, online retailers and B2B sellers can focus their content marketing on getting things done during Covid, launching a YouTube channel, profiling the Nobel Prizes, teaching skills, and raising AIDS awareness.
Content marketing starts with creating or curating content such as articles, videos, graphics, or podcasts. Next, that content is published, distributed, and promoted, all for the sake of attracting, engaging, and retaining an audience of customers.
What follows are five content marketing ideas your business can use in December 2020.
1. Living during Covid
Put aside U.S. presidential elections and political machinations worldwide. Don’t even consider earthquakes (there have been 96 serious quakes by October) and murder hornets. This year, 2020, will be known for the Coronavirus pandemic.
So there is no reason not to create content that includes Covid.
The pandemic has impacted nearly everyone, so it makes good sense to produce content that is aware of that impact.
For example, there may be an opportunity for businesses to produce content that describes how to do a relatively common task during the pandemic, such as:
- “International Travel during Covid,”
- “Building Business Relationships amid the Pandemic,”
- “Mountain Biking throughout the Coronavirus.”
The topic should relate to the products your business sells. A kitchen supply retailer, for example, might focus on “The Art of Cooking with Kids during Covid” or similar.
Here are some actual sample articles:
2. Start a YouTube Channel
If your business is not already using video on YouTube, December is the time to start.
Consider that about one-third of internet users worldwide — more than 2 billion people — use YouTube. While it does not guarantee users will watch your content, the site does represent an important opportunity for content discovery.
What’s more, the videos you produce for YouTube can be shared, embedded, and repurposed in many other content channels.
To start your channel, decide what your channel will feature. Will you produce how-to videos? Product demonstrations? Or will your channel support one of your topic clusters?
YouTube provides helpful resources on how to launch a successful channel.
Once you have identified a topic, take courses at the YouTube Creator Academy.
Here are a few that are especially helpful.
3. Teach a Skill
During the pandemic, many folks are using their at-home time to acquire new skills.
Skill-based gifts such as musical instruments, for example, could be popular during the Christmas gift-giving season.
With this in mind, consider publishing content that teaches a skill. This might be as simple as an online music store offering violin how-to videos or an art supply store publishing drawing lessons.
Help your customers and prospects learn new skills related to the products you sell. If you sell drones, for example, create a drone-related guide. Photo: David Henrichs.
Nearly every online retailer could create an engaging class or instructional article. Here are a few suggestions.
- Model and hobby retailer. Publish a study guide for the FAA Part 107 drone pilot knowledge test.
- Coffee and tea retailer. Produce a Japanese tea ceremony tutorial.
- Auto parts store. Create a video demonstrating how to change the oil in a vehicle.
4. Nobel Prize Day, December 10
Alfred Nobel was a chemist and engineer. And although he invented dynamite, Nobel is best known for having established the five prizes that are awarded to individuals or organizations that “have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind” in physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, and peace.
The Nobel Prizes are given out each year on December 10 and carry a significant amount of cash — roughly $1.1 million in 2020.
For your December 2020 content marketing, consider writing about the history of the Nobel Prizes or profile a recipient who has a connection to the industry your business serves.
For example, an art supply retailer might write about Osamu Shimomura, Martin Chalfie, and Roger Y. Tsien, who collectively won the Nobel Prize in chemistry for 2008. The trio had discovered and developed a protein composed of amino acids that is fluorescent in some circumstances and can help illuminate cell biology.
This so-called green fluorescent protein, however, can also be used as a subject for art. In fact, German sculptor Julian Voss-Andreae, who now resides and works in the United States, has created metal artworks based on the shape of the green fluorescent protein.
Julian Voss-Andreae’s sculpture is shaped like green fluorescent protein.
5. AIDS Awareness Month
HIV and AIDs infection rates are stabilizing. Source: UNAIDS.
The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) are not suitable topics for every business.
Nonetheless, an estimated 1.2 million Americans are living with HIV. So it is likely that these conditions — HIV and AIDS, the latter is the last stage of an HIV infection wherein the immune system is badly damaged — have touched the industry your business serves.
Consider creating content that raises HIV and AIDS awareness in a positive way. This could include writing about the battle against HIV. For example, the United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) set out in 2015 to cure the disease by 2030. With 10 years left, are we on track?
You could also address HIV success stories in the industry your business serves and encourage user-generated content from folks willing to share HIV experiences.
Finally, if you’re using the Help-Hub-Hero content strategy, AIDS is a topic that could fit in the hub or hero category, depending on your brand.
Here are a few resources to help.
