In December, your company’s content could round up 2019’s top stories or trends, look ahead to what 2020 holds, or cover seasonal events and how-tos.
Content marketing is the act of creating or curating content, publishing it, and distributing it with the specific goal of attracting, engaging, and retaining customers for your business.
Here are five content marketing ideas to inspire your business this December.
1. End-of-year Wrap-up
As 2019 comes to an end, it could be a good time for content marketers to look back at the trends, topics, and even articles that stood out or impacted the industry their businesses serve.
Your end-of-the-year wrap-up could be as simple as a list of your company’s 10 most popular posts from 2019. It might be a listicle describing key trends from the past year, or it might be a retrospective video explaining how events in 2019 impacted your customers, niche, or products.
For a couple of examples, take a look at Lush cosmetics’ YouTube video, “Lush Thank You: 2018 Highlights” and Mr. Porter’s article, “The Menswear Moments We will Remember from 2018.”
The Lush video emphasizes the company’s charity efforts, naming several causes Lush and its customers helped to support. The Mr. Porter article looks at fashion trends and recommends products for customers to try. Both are good examples of wrap-up content.
Without much effort, you could come up with three or four interesting wrap-up articles for your business.
2. Look-ahead Posts or Videos
A close cousin to the wrap-up is the look-ahead. What predictions, advice, or tips can your company offer its customers for the coming year?
Online retailer Mr. Porter featured several look-ahead articles in its content marketing.
Here your aim is to provide useful articles, videos, or other content that will help folks succeed. Let’s again use the Mr. Porter website as an example. Here are several look-ahead posts the retailer published in December 2018 or the first week of January 2019.
Your look-ahead article or video should reflect your brand and customers. Consider these possible titles for look-ahead posts.
- Online tool store: “Top Labor-saving Power Tools for 2019”
- Kitchen supply shop: “Top Chefs Name the Best Meals for 2019”
- Direct-to-consumer bike maker: “The Best Adventure Rides for 2019”
3. Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day
On Sunday, December 7, 1941, Japan’s Imperial Navy attacked Hawaii’s Pearl Harbor, driving the United States into the Second World War.
A photo of Pearl Harbor taken from a Japanese aircraft.
Although it has now been 78 years, Pearl Harbor is among the most remembered attacks in American history. For the anniversary, write an article, schedule a podcast, or create a video about the events of that day.
Your Pearl Harbor content might profile a survivor who went on to make an impact on your industry, or it could feature an inventor or innovator whose work may have impacted Pearl Harbor.
For example, stores such as PilotMall.com and PilotShop.com, which both sell gear for pilots, could feature Dr. Robert Morris Page, the inventor of pulse radar. Some 19 of the ships at Pearl Harbor were equipped with pulse radar, but those systems were not turned on. If they had been, would it have changed the outcome of the battle?
In a similar way, nearly any ecommerce business can find a connection to Pearl Harbor. A swimwear and surfing retailer, as another example, might write an article about the legendary Kaʻahupahau, the shark goddess who lived in Pearl Harbor and was believed to protect it.
4. Winter How-to
Winter officially begins on December 21, 2019. Your customers will have winter projects, and your content marketing may be able to help. Consider creating helpful articles or videos that describe how to complete specific tasks.
Here are a few ideas.
- An online pet shop: “How to Protect Your Puppy from the Cold”
- A garden supply retailer: “How to Grow Herbs Indoors”
- A hardware store: “How to Winterize Your Windows”
Lowe’s has many practical how-to articles on its blog.
And a few links for inspiration from, respectively, Lowe’s, Home Depot, and HGTV.
5. National Tie Month
December is National Tie Month. It is a time to celebrate men’s neckwear and the influence it has had on fashion, business, and culture.
The modern tie is said to have descended from 17th-century Croatian cravats. As the story goes, Croatian mercenaries hired to fight in France’s Thirty Years’ War from 1618 to 1648 wore traditional silk scarves tied in a knot. These “hrvatis,” as the Croatians called them, became popular in Paris. Members of the French royalty, including Louis XIV, soon began wearing knotted silk and lace ties.
Some consider the tie is a staple of a man’s wardrobe. Others would never wear one. Photo: Christian Lunde.
For your company’s December 2019 content marketing, you could celebrate or hate the necktie. Write an article, create a podcast, or make a video describing how you (or your customers) feel about it.
