I found this great guide today about how merchants should plan for year round events like holidays if you're doing retail promotion or just want ideas for blog topics. Check it out here:
Start Promoting: Holiday Guide for Merchants (websitemagazine.com)
In order to receive the benefits that holidays can bring in, merchants must first spend time creating a marketing plan for each special day. For example, popular holidays, such as Thanksgiving or Independence Day, require months of planning and robust marketing, including search advertisements, an email campaign and a social strategy. On the other hand, merchants may decide that email and social are suitable channels for promoting smaller holidays, like Grandparents’ Day or Groundhog Day.
This is an article worth bookmarking and printing out. It lists the holidays for this year but also when they fall so that you can use it for future years. Of course, you could just pull out a calendar and look at it but the author went through the trouble of compiling it for you, so it's got value.
For example, today is Presidents' Day but what's coming up next?
Get the whole list and then you'll have a blogging plan for the whole year. Start blogging about something at least 2 weeks before the event to make sure you take advantage of these opportunities all year round. I would even start blogging a good 3 weeks before each one to make sure you get the best mileage out of all your blog writing work.
This kind of goes right along with my "You Should Be Blogging or Adding News to Your Website" article - also worth checking out!
Now who's ready for some green beer? 🙂
-Tony
