By Darrell Cuthbert

​However, many back-office functions and B2B operations come to a virtual standstill at this time of year. This does not mean, though, that your website and social media channels should do likewise.
 
A lot of consumers have more time on their hands than usual, either because they are on vacation or just because things are quiet at work – and for a lot of people that means more time spent online.
 
Aside from consumers, many business owners and managers use the Christmas and New Year holiday season to strategize and think about the year ahead, and this often includes internet searches to see what the competition is up to industry news, and to find information about products and services that the business can make use of to operate more efficiently in 2018.
 
But what if your company website, blog, and social media channels all observe complete radio-silence from mid-December to mid-January? 
 
This type of gap where nothing new is posted can really cause your content marketing program to lose momentum – and lead to customers and potential customers losing interest and moving on to other sites and pages, including those of your competitors.
 
However, keeping a website, blog, and social media accounts up to date seems an impossible task in many businesses, with employees starting to go on leave.
 
Two simple strategies can help though:

1. Plan Ahead
2. Automate Content distribution 

 
If this sounds complicated, it really isn’t.
 
Plan Ahead

• Think about subjects and themes that are topical at this time of year, and an angle that opens up the door for you to link your product or service offering to the subject or theme (in a natural, subtle way – not a spammy, hard-sell, in-your-face way).

 

• Write a couple of blog posts/articles for your company website using the above

 

• Write a series of social media posts on the same theme as the blog articles (varying lengths and styles for use on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ etc.), using the articles as inspiration and source material

 

• Put together some more social media posts that are non-promotional, but also topical where possible (e.g. fun facts about the season, interesting information about general industry trends, comment on relevant third party articles or other material spotted online (Google alerts are a great way to keep in touch with this and find topic ideas).

 
 
Automate Content Distribution

• Pre-schedule blog posts to go out on relevant dates, assuming your content management system (CMS) allows for this. If it doesn’t, you can either:
  • Save the posts as drafts and diarise the correct publication date. It should only take a minute or two for you, or a staff member) to log in on the relevant day and release the post
  • Publish all the posts before going away, and possibly forward-date some of them manually if your CMS allows for this (it’s a bit of a con as the post will appear online with a date a few days, or weeks, ahead of time – but generally very few people check blog post dates, so it will probably go unnoticed)

 

• Use a service like Hootsuite or Buffer to pre-schedule social media posts (I use Hootsuite, but that’s a matter of personal preference. I have friends and colleagues that are die-hard Buffer fans, use whichever works best for you)

 

• Link social media posts to your blog posts or the third-party content you are referring to as relevant.

 
By taking the actions suggested above, you can make sure that your company website and social media accounts keep working right throughout the holiday season – even if there is nobody in the office.
​

© D Cuthbert 2017

Most big businesses in South Africa have a company website and practice content marketing in one form or another.

In addition more and more local small and medium sized businesses are setting up websites and participating in the online world. However, not all owners of SMEs in South Africa realise the power of a properly planned and executed content marketing program and the impact it can have on their business.

All business owners want more traffic to their website as this is a powerful way to attract potential customers and increase the business’s engagement with existing customers.

Creating and sharing well-written, interesting, relevant content that informs and educates customers is the most efficient and sustainable way to increase a business’s search engine rankings and draw traffic to a company website.

The infographic below (courtesy of Quicksprout) cites some interesting statistics, including:

• 61% of consumers feel better about a company that has a blog
• Companies with active blogs receive 97% more leads
  
• 90% of consumers find detailed content useful
  
• 50% of consumers say content marketing has a positive impact on purchasing decisions
  
• 86% of B2C (business to customer) marketers use content marketing
  
• 62% of companies outsource their content marketing
  

If your business does not already have a company blog it is important to set one up as soon as possible and fill it with useful content – ideally by posting informative articles and other material on a weekly basis.

Content marketing works for companies of all sizes and in all industries but is especially powerful as a growth tool for South African small and medium sized businesses.



By Darrell Cuthbert

WordTiffie Copywriting and Web Content is a commercial writing business focused on providing high-quality written material to small and medium sized businesses.

WordTiffie is based in Durban, South Africa, and is owned and operated by Darrell Cuthbert – South African writer, blogger and online marketer.

Get in Touch now to discuss your content and copywriting requirements