It’s nearly the holidays and most of us are winding down for Christmas. And, when I say, “wind down”, what I really mean is, “run around like a headless chicken trying to get everything done in time to relax over the festive period”.
For marketers and PR specialists, this means spending time thinking about your 2019 digital marketing strategies.
Why am I giving you work ideas this close to Christmas? What’s that all about?
Don’t worry. The 6 ideas discussed below will help you grow your brand and communicate better with your clients in 2019 but won’t feel (too much) like work.
Get Snap-Happy for Better Social Media Campaigns
It’s Christmas. You probably have your camera out quite a lot anyway. Take the opportunity to capture the embarrassing moments of the Christmas party or John from Accounts wearing that jumper.
If you have a social media presence, and the vast majority of businesses should, pictures provide an easy way to get your brand in front of an audience.
“A picture is worth a thousand words”, so goes the saying. In this winding down period, and the early weeks of 2019, rather than spending time writing blogs, adverts, or marketing spiel, post pictures instead. Add a few relevant words and, voila, brand exposure for minimal effort.
If you have an Instagram, Pinterest, or Twitter account, make the most of the holidays for boost your brand.
Socialise with Colleagues from across Departments
The internet has changed the way businesses must relate to their clients. The relationship is much more interactive and it’s important to understand what your clients need from you. Because of this, 2019 will see increasing collaboration between different departments.
In particular, businesses have to create stronger connections between marketing departments and customer services. Feedback from customer services should inform your marketing strategies. It is the department that knows the customer best. Marketing departments must liaise with customer services if they want to stand create content strategies that work.
Think of the holidays as a networking opportunity, a way to strengthen inter-departmental communication.
Wine and Dine Your Favourite Client
According to Forbes, personalization and authenticity will separate successful marketers from those who just contribute to noise. Wining and dining your clients is a great way to create that personal touch.
It’s also the perfect research opportunity. You entertain them, and in return, they help you develop a better understanding of their needs.
The bigger brands know they need to put the customer centre stage, with the business acting as a guide, rather than an expert. To discover what your customer needs from you, you need to engage with them. As well as feedback from customer services, spending time with customers will help.
Spend Time Online, Reading Magazines, Listening to the Radio…
According to Sugarman, general knowledge is an important tool for copywriters and marketers to develop. It fuels ideas that help engage people’s interest in your products and services.
Ideas help fuel creativity. Ideas come from learning. It’s the perfect excuse to spend time browsing the internet, reading magazines, listening to the radio, and chatting to anyone and everyone.
You never know what snippet of information can come in useful at a later stage. Browsing Reddit, Facebook, Instagram, etc., isn’t “wasting time”. It’s “informing your 2019 content marketing strategy”!
Think about Your Story
What is your brand story? Story telling is more important than ever before and for success in the coming years, your brand must tell its story. Brand stories help create authentic bonds between businesses and their customers.
Stories have a beginning, middle, and end, a protagonist, an antagonist, and an inciting incident. When thinking about your story, consider why you’re here, what you’re trying to achieve, where you’ve come from, where you are, and where you want to go.
If you’ve never thought about your brand story, now is a great time to start thinking about it. A strong story will help facilitate engagement and increase brand awareness.
Learn to Write for Your Customers
UX writing (user-experience) is the latest buzz emerging from the PR and Marketing industries. It follows a key theme that we’ve touched upon several times in this blog: that content strategies must put the customer at centre stage. It’s all about giving them content they want and need.
The aim of this style of writing is to guide users through digital content (e.g. websites) in ways that are relevant and useful. It means pre-empting the reasons they are reading the content and giving them directions on their next step.
UX writing reflects how people use the internet. It needs incorporating in every 2019 content marketing strategy.
Summary
Your 2019 content marketing strategy must reflect the move towards a more humanising interaction between businesses and their customers. There are plenty of opportunities this holiday season to create a solid foundation for next year’s content strategy. Best of all, most won’t even feel like work!
If you’re looking for help with your 2019 content marketing strategy, please get in touch.
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