The holidays…. everyone is waiting for those magical few days when nothing moves, nothing goes… and you only get to rest and enjoy time away with your family. But what about your business marketing? Should it completely shut down? Is your business stopping if you do?
Benefits of Marketing Through the Holiday
Your audience is always alert and they expect you to be as well
Your audience may have a better attention span during a break
If your competitors remain active, your market-share is at risk
The consistency aligns with the average B2B buyer’s journey
You will end up with higher quality leads in the long term
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Labor Day, which is fast approaching for some marketing firms, can be viewed as a time to relax. But is this the case when it comes to content creation and distribution?
Why Do Some Firms Think This Way?
As any holiday approaches, many brands are convinced that consumers are already mentally vacationing or are simply too busy to focus on anything work-related and certainly too busy to actively consume content.
According to Linked in, this is not true. In fact, consumers avidly consume more content in their downtime.
For today’s consumer, it can be hard to tell the difference between a workday and a day off. If we’re honest, we are on our phones more than we’d like to admit and have created the habit of checking our phones often throughout the day – whether we are working or not.
For example, the founder of a small business is just as likely to check The Wall Street Journal or LinkedIn updates on her day off with a morning cup of coffee as when she is spending a busy day in the office.
More evidence to the contrary is that today’s business owner never stops working. You probably know a small business owner or founder who never takes a break. Even if they promise their spouse to not peek at their computer, they are likely to sneak away for a few private moments with their phone. The hard workers know that their competition isn’t taking time off, so they don’t want to lose any bit of competitive advantage.
Audiences might engage with content differently during holidays and break periods, but they do still engage. Curiosity tends to increase, so even if their likelihood to pull the trigger may soften, they are out there researching, learning about trends, reading the news, etc.
In other words, marketers who take a break during holidays can be missing significant business opportunities.
Maintaining Cadence
In the content marketing industry, the term cadence refers to a steady stream of value-adding content. The lights of your marketing business should always be on.
A cadence is different than a campaign, where marketers communicate in a more periodic fashion. Monthly or quarterly newsletters are an example of a campaign approach.
Why is cadence important?
Cadence protects your competitive advantage. By keeping your content in front of consumers, you maintain your spot in the forefront of their minds. If you stop creating content – even during a holiday – you provide your competitor an opportunity to take your place.
Consumers expect your brand to always be thinking about them. Today’s consumer expects a user experience that is top-notch. They expect you to be there for them rain or shine, holiday or not. Building brand awareness and recognition is not easy, but losing them sure is.
Cadence builds trust. You create content in order to secure your brand’s place as a top contender in the minds of your target audience. For B2B brands in particular, the buyer’s journey is a long one and requires nurturing along the way.
The decision to adopt a new technology or SaaS provider is a serious one and takes quite a bit of time and consideration.
During this time, potential customers must see you as a consistent and reliable partner.
When you operate with a reliable cadence, you build trust and are available when the buyer is ready to pull the trigger.
Cadence is cost-effective. It might feel counterintuitive, but communicating with cadence requires fewer resources over the long run. Cadence requires more consistent spending, but those spends are smaller. Plus, readers will have consumed your content over time.
This means that the content’s value will have compounded because those readers have likely been acting as brand advocates for your company.
You’ve built trust with them and you will see the dividends.
Work Smarter Not Harder
This is always good advice, but especially when your marketing team is about to take a break. Consider these ideas:
– Identify your highest performing content and repurpose it.
– Most people come back from a holiday refreshed. Some even use the time away from work to refocus on and recommit to their careers. Provide a piece with productivity advice and you’ll be able to call upon and repurpose this post during future holidays.