5 Content Marketing Ideas for December 2015

Although 2015 is rapidly coming to an end, there are still plenty of marketing opportunities for ecommerce content creators. One could try publishing last-minute Christmas gift ideas, how-to holiday preparation, and celebration articles and videos — offering sincere greetings, helping with New Year’s resolutions, or even just contemplating the year we’ve had.

Content marketing is the act of creating, publishing, and distributing content with the specific goal of attracting, engaging, and retaining customers. Content marketing tends to work best when published regularly, with useful or entertaining topics.

Here are five content marketing ideas for December 2015.

1. Last-minute Christmas Gift Ideas

Seemingly, no matter how perfectly a shopper plans, there will always be last-minute gifts to buy. Even the most organized, spreadsheet-using holiday gift giver will, undoubtedly, come up a present or two short.

The cause for these deficiencies can vary. A niece gets engaged on Dec. 18, so that her fiancé is promoted to the shopping list. Someone might draw the boss’s name for the holiday gift exchange. Or maybe a shopper simply forgot.

In December, consider offering last-minute shoppers suggestions. Articles about this topic might have headlines like these.

“The Procrastinator’s Guide to Gold-star Worthy Christmas Gifts”
“25 Last-minute Christmas Gifts That Look Like You Planned Ahead”
“21 Last-minute Online Gifts That Will Arrive by Christmas”
“10 Tips for Last-minute Christmas Shopping Online”
“7 Awesome Last-minute Christmas Gifts for Dad”

A gift idea pin board is a simple way to offer helpful content around Christmas.

In addition to offering gift suggestions as articles, consider making short videos or even social media posts, like a Pinterest pin board. Look at your calendar. As you get close to your last possible shipping date, send out an email linking to your last-minute gift ideas content.

2. Holiday Preparation or Celebration Tips

December hosts several major holidays, including Christmas, New Year’s Eve, and Hanukkah. Each of these holidays has associated traditions and celebrations, which in turn create the opportunity to share great content.

Lowe’s has many examples of holiday how-to articles on its ecommerce site.

Lowe’s, which sells home improvement items in physical stores and online, does a great job of offering holiday preparation ideas, including how-to articles like these.

Online purveyors of tools, crafting supplies, or related products could create content similar to Lowe’s either as articles or videos.

Online stores that sell kitchen supplies, home decor, or even food have the opportunity to publish holiday-related recipes, as another example. If you need inspiration, check out Giada De Laurentiis’ recipe for Rosemary Garlic-Rubbed Beef Tenderloin with Red Wine-Rosemary Butter on the Williams-Sonoma website.

Recipes are another example of content you can publish during the holidays.

3. Sincere Season Greetings

In some forms, content marketing can be about building a relationship with shoppers. This implies that not everything your online store posts is meant to drive an immediate sale. Sometimes this means that you are simply sharing a genuine feeling, a genuine seasonal sentiment, if you will.

This sincere message can take several forms, including articles, posts on social media, or email content.

The aim is to touch your customer’s heart, sharing inspiration photos, holiday experiences, or even just saying Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

4. New Year’s Resolutions

Tradition dictates that with the start of each new year, one should resolve to improve, trading in bad habits for good ones, or striving for long sought goals anew.

For the ecommerce content marketer, New Year’s resolutions represent a few possibilities for entertaining or informing an audience. Specifically, one could write articles or produce videos that:

Cover resolutions like news and reporting on trends;
Offer suggestions for New Year’s resolutions;
Use humor to mock New Year’s resolutions;
Offer real help for achieving New Year’s resolutions.

Any of these angles could make for great content this December.

Some market segments lend well to New Year’s resolutions.

There are even certain ecommerce industry segments that beg for New Year’s content. As an example, consider Bodybuilding.com, which sells fitness supplements. Bodybuilding has published many articles related to New Year’s resolutions, including these.

“Win the Resolutionary War“
“10 Ways to Jumpstart Your New Year’s Resolution“
“New Year’s Resolutions: Changing the Focus”
“10 Secrets to Achieve Your Fitness Goals“

5. Retrospectives

The end of December can be a good time to publish retrospective articles or videos that look back on what happened this year. These articles will work for nearly any ecommerce industry segment.

Here are a few examples.

Fashion clothing retailer: “10 Styles That Defined 2015.”
Fishing supply retailer: “2015’s 10 Best Northwestern Fishing Spots.”
Hardware retailer: “Top New Tools of 2015.”
Home decor store: “Scents of 2015: Our Top Selling Candles.”

For more inspiration, turn to magazines or online publications, which frequently publish retrospectives. As an example, Refinery29, which published a retrospective about 2014 trends, inspired the first example listed above. For another example, try a local newspaper’s year in sports review.