8 Holiday content ideas for small businesses
While most of us are getting excited to bring live trees into our homes and put lights all over the neighbourhood, small business owners also have a dark daunting cloud that hangs over their holiday anticipation. The holiday season is a crucial time for small businesses, and the pressure and involvement needed can leave us drained or absent from actually enjoying the holidays ourselves. And this usually leads to a lack of social efforts online too.
Don’t let your social life and online content suffer from the season, these quick holiday content ideas are easy to put together and provide useful and interesting information for your followers. Batch create a few blogs or photos captions, then automate and enjoy having more time to yourself while also being present for your online community.
1. Look back with a 2019 summary
If you’re a small business, you’ve no doubt had a busy year. Summarize the achievements that your business has seen to highlight the growth and journey you’ve been through as a small business. This is interesting to your supporters because they can see how their involvement and support over the last year have had a small impact on the larger growth of your business.
You can also summarize your products or blogs released from the past year by category, giving your audience an easy way to explore your other webpages and products. This kind of content is simple to create because it already exists, and you just need to put together a list or format a blog that points your readers to your previous content.
2. Create curated gift guides
Making a gift guide can seem daunting, but it’s essentially just answering the question of who is your target audience? If you are trying to sell eyelash extension services you could create a gift guide for women in their twenties, a gift guide for spoiling your girlfriend, for the woman that has everything, for gifts under $100 etc.
Make a list that contains your services or products and then include a few links to other products that you personally endorse (not necessarily competitors but relevant items.)
3. Utilize UGC from your social platforms
User-generated content is one of the easiest things to share because you aren’t actually involved in the creation of the content. If you have a hashtag or have been tagged in social media with your product or service you can put together a year-in-review for your customers. This shines a light on your most engaging customers and looks great for your business to have a bunch of happy clients showing you off on social media all in one collective place.
During the holidays there are often many opportunities to share UGC on social platforms. Keep an eye on who is tagging your products and use that content to promote the holiday festiveness within your online social platforms.
4. Say thank you to your customers & followers
As a business owner, you know that you are eternally grateful for your customers, but have you told them recently? The holidays are a festive and joyous time for many, and a great time to send out a message of thanks to all your followers and customers from the previous year.
This can be done with a simple message, a thank you or happy holidays to your social media or email lists, or it can become more of a marketing opportunity. You can also go above and beyond to thank your customers with a promotional discount code, which is a treat for them, and a potential sale for you in the future.
5. Give a behind the scenes peek
If you don’t already share the behind the scenes in your small business, the bustling holiday season is a perfect time to open up and show the human side of what you do.
On social media, in particular, people want to see the real-life work that goes into their products or services. It creates a more personal connection and strengthens brand loyalty when your customers can see that your business has similar values or experiences behind the scenes.
6. Share relevant winter & holiday tips
Share some useful and relevant information with your customers to create a more personal connection. Get creative but stay on brand, don’t necessarily share your grandmas’ cookie recipe if you’re in the business of handmade jewelry (although, you can’t really go wrong with a recipe from grandma.)
7. Create 12 days of content
This is a great idea to present consistent and themed content to your followers. It takes a bit of planning and probably some creating ahead of time, but if you can think of twelve on-brand things that you can share, it is a great way to engage consistently during a busy time. It can be twelve of anything; tips, gift ideas, recipes, products etc.
8. What's new in 2020
Give your followers something to look forward to in the new year. If you have a new product or a new location, a new website, new anything! Whatever plans you have in the distant future, let your followers in on the secret. It helps to create a deeper bond with your audience because they are involved in your planning, and when the product eventually does launch, they feel a sense of inclusion at having already known about it ahead of time.
If you don’t have a launch to tease, you can also announce your intentions for the upcoming year. It doesn’t have to be tangible goals, even just saying that you are looking forward to a new year to focus on building the current relationships or expanding into greener solutions or whatever it is that you are actually thinking ahead for next year. Be genuine and authentic to attract the right kinds of audiences.