Strolling through the grocery store nowadays, you’ll experience a never-ending proliferation of pumpkin-themed products ranging from cookies to dish soap and SOLO cups. And as quickly as the market for pumpkin fanatics arrives at the close of Labor Day Weekend, the jingle bell frenzy ensues just hours after kids collect their last piece of Halloween candy.
Strolling through the grocery store nowadays, you’ll experience a never-ending proliferation of pumpkin-themed products ranging from cookies to dish soap and SOLO cups. And as quickly as the market for pumpkin fanatics arrives at the close of Labor Day Weekend, the jingle bell frenzy ensues just hours after kids collect their last piece of Halloween candy.
For many of us marketers, the final quarter of the year is critical for completing any remaining marketing goals. Before getting caught in the undertow of mistletoe, keep your marketing strategies going strong through the final stretch of the year.
Here are three tips that can help keep your online marketing strategies sharp:
1. Build realistic editorial schedules that are on target with your goals.
The main difference between successful blogs and those that are trying to gain traction is consistency with scheduling. Adding an editorial calendar to your content marketing plan is the first phase of getting your blog into a rhythm. There are numerous free templates online to help you get started.
The content you produce should be helpful for your audience. At least 2.73 million blog posts are published every day. Implementing a consistent publishing schedule as detailed on your editorial calendar helps your audience know when they can expect your content.
2. Develop a niche focus instead of thinking too broad.
In order to connect with your audience, try taking a different approach to a general topic. Defining a niche market gives marketers the upper hand when establishing their organization as an industry thought leader.
If you want to test out a niche marketing strategy on a smaller scale, perhaps brainstorm a new blog category to feature on your website. Your website can then be optimized for search engines so that your niche market can easily find you.
It’s no secret that our city is a booming hub for nonprofits and associations. For example, the American College of Cardiology is a large medical society in D.C. that is dedicated to enhancing the lives of cardiovascular patients. Incorporating a niche blog category on its association website that focuses on heart-healthy seasonal recipes would be timely, out-of-the-box and personal way to connect with their audience while still placing emphasis on health.
Because you have previously developed an editorial calendar to plan out the content for your audience, incorporating a new blog category into your content strategy presents more creative opportunities. Read on to the final tip to learn how to drive consumers to your new website addition via an engaging email strategy.
3. Launch a responsive and engaging email strategy.
The Email Genome Project (EGP) is a MailChimp service that uses software to analyze billions of email addresses to discover trends that are hidden within the data. From these studies, EGP uncovered that Tuesday and Thursdays are the peak days to send emails, unlike weekends when email engagement drops by nearly 50%. Also, the best time to send an email is around 10:00 am in the recipient’s time zone.
The UX/UI of your email templates is just as important as the research behind your email strategy. Because mobile device use grows 58% year over year, a responsive email template and mobile-friendly experience should be top of mind in order to stay relevant with developing trends. As marketers, a responsive email design presents more opportunities to drive your audience to your content.
What does your organization offer that your competitors don’t? Why should audiences pay attention to your content? Be what your audience seeks by framing your content around their interests. The holiday season offers endless marketing opportunities for every organization—how will yours take advantage of it?
Danielle’s flare for writing lives somewhere in the middle of the “content connoisseur” and “media maven” Venn diagram. She currently works in marketing at Bates Creative and loves communicating with others one blog, social media post and networker at a time. Connect with her on LinkedIn or follow her on Instagram.
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