Content Marketing

5 Content Marketing Ideas for November 2016

Looking for content marketing ideas for November 2016? Try Thanksgiving Day, holiday shopping survival, famous folks with birthdays, how-to articles, and helping out a community.

Content marketing is the act of creating, publishing, and distributing content with the express aim of attracting, engaging, and retaining customers. In November, you should have plenty of opportunities. In fact, here are five ecommerce content marketing ideas to help you get started.

1. Thanksgiving, November 24, 2016

For the third year in a row, producing an article or video around the Thanksgiving holiday has topped my list of November content marketing ideas. This is not an accident. Thanksgiving is one of the most popular and widely celebrated holidays in America. It is also a significant milestone in the holiday shopping season.

In years past, I’ve recommended writing about the holiday’s history, creating how-to articles around celebrating Thanksgiving, or focusing on Thanksgiving as the beginning of the Christmas shopping season.

For 2016, consider using Thanksgiving content as an opportunity to entertain your customer audience. Find a way to make them smile or laugh.

If you need a little inspiration, watch President Obama’s corny Thanksgiving jokes from the 2015 turkey pardon.

 

2. Holiday Shopping Survival Guide

The holiday shopping season, which will begin in earnest on Black Friday, can be a stressful time for your customers. So why not offer them some tips for surviving the season with a smile?

Your holiday shopping survival guide might include ideas for finding good deals, suggestions for saving on shipping, or even a list of things folks could do to relax after a hard day of shopping.

Refinery 29, an online journal is one example of a company that has published a holiday survival guide.

Refinery 29, an online journal, is one example of a company that has published a holiday survival guide.

This idea is not new. Lots of publications and businesses release holiday survival guides of one sort or another, but there is still plenty of opportunity for your business. Try to make the survival guide both helpful and entertaining.

3. Birthday Celebrations

Colin Kaepernick's birthday is in November. <em>Image: Wikipedia.</em>

Colin Kaepernick’s birthday is in November. Image: Wikipedia.

November is the birth month of many famous people. So why not write an article or make a video celebrating someone famous? Better yet, choose an individual that is in some way important for or related to the segment your business serves.

As an example, an online music store could publish an article or video about Antoine-Joseph “Adolphe” Sax, who invented the saxophone. Born on November 6 in 1814, Sax created several different instruments. It would be easy to describe some of his less successful instruments before going on to address one of the most popular instruments around — the saxophone.

For another example, if you sell kitchen supplies online, you might want to celebrate John Montague’s birthday on November 3. Born in 1718, 4th Earl of Sandwich invented the lunchtime favorite, the sandwich.

You do not have to go as far back as 1718 to find your celebrity to celebrate in content. Here are some famous folks with a birthday in November. And this is just a few randomly selected days.

November 1

  • Tim Cook, Apple C.E.O.
  • Fernando Valenzuela, baseball player.
  • Anthony Kiedis, musician.

November 3

  • Colin Kaepernick, football player.
  • Dennis Miller, comedian and commentator.
  • Larry Holmes, boxer.

November 7

  • Billy Graham, evangelist.
  • David Petraeus, military general.
  • Albert Camus, philosopher.

4. Seasonal Skills and How-tos

Useful, how-to articles or videos can be content marketing’s highest form. If you can help a member of your audience solve a problem or work through a challenge, that person will likely feel indebted to your business. This is what we call reciprocity and it is fundamental to content marketing.

In November, try to publish how-to articles focused on seasonal skills or problems. When it makes sense, describe how products you sell can be used in your how-to article. For example, an online tool store could publish an article about winterizing a lawn mower and, in the process, mention a timesaving tool that the reader might purchase.

Nearly every industry has seasonal problems it can address — from fall or winter clothing for an apparel store to winterizing your lawn for a garden supply store.

Here is an example video from Westlake Ace Hardware describing how to clean a gas grill. This video does not specifically speak to the month of November. But it is a topic novice cooks will likely search for as the grilling season winds down.

 

5. American Diabetes Month

November is American Diabetes Month.

November is American Diabetes Month.

Diabetes is the seventh leading cause of death in the United States. In fact, in America diabetes causes more deaths than breast cancer and AIDS combined.

November is American Diabetes month. It’s an opportunity for your business to raise awareness and enrich your community. Publish an article or a video profiling someone in your company, in your industry, or among your customers who, like about 29 million Americans, is living with diabetes.

Your profile video or article should, according to the American Diabetes Association, “capture the authenticity of those who understand this disease best.”

Once you have created and published your content, promote it with the hashtag #ThisIsDiabetes on social media.

Remember, engaging your audience and serving your community are important and valuable goals for your content marketing efforts.

Armando Roggio
Armando Roggio
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