How to Help Your Content Business Get Through the Holidays and Make More Money

Between U.S. Thanksgiving (Nov. 28) and New Year’s Day, much of the business world seems to slow, if not come to a screeching halt. People take time off to celebrate the holidays or use up their vacation. They must use up money left in their budgets or forfeit it in 2025. And many celebrate clients and colleagues at end-of-year parties.

Are you and your content business ready?

Take some this week to prep from a revenue, audience, and production perspective with these tips:

Revenue

People always want to know what to buy their family, friends, colleagues, and customers. Why not have them buy something from you?

Books and merch are obvious choices. But if you don’t have those, think subscriptions, shout-outs, course gift certificates, or even sponsored posts, which would be a truly unique client gift.

Remember that gifting requires a little more work than a standard transaction. Ensure your process allows someone to buy and give. Online retail sites enable buyers to ship to a different address. Can your online shop let buyers “ship” to a different email address? Can the buyer send a gift notification? And can that notification be scheduled?

Last year, I was buying a monthly subscription gift and found that not all businesses give gifting options. Of the half-dozen sites I considered, only one let me pick the first shipment date after the holiday so I could let the recipient know when we exchanged gifts instead of having the box show up on their doorstep the previous week. (Guess which one I bought?)

Does the buyer get anything that can be wrapped? Some of your buyers will be gifting in person. They want something to wrap (or at least put in a pretty bag.) A simply designed, old-fashioned gift certificate could work well. Don’t forget to include all the redemption information on the back. 

Caveat: If you don’t have an automated gifting option, you can do a manual process and just make the coupon code for 100% so it’s treated the same as a redemption code. Just make sure to set it up for one use of the coupon code. 

With your content gifting set up, you’re ready to let everybody know about the options. Create a landing page on your website and pin a link to the top of your social media channels. Mention it in your content. Consider doing a small paid campaign on social.

Caveat: Don’t forget to keep good records – operationally and financially. Depending on your accounting method, the 2024 gift payments will enter your bank account, but you won’t record it as earned income until the gift is redeemed.

Audience

Think about your audience. How do the holidays affect them? Consider this from two perspectives: topics and timing.

As you fill out your editorial or content calendar (or revise it), identify subject matter that might be more relevant in this season. End-of-the-year wrapups and goal-setting (i.e., resolutions) are often relevant. You also can go a little deeper. 

For example, a blog with a cooking tilt might include recipes that can be made quickly or with pantry ingredients. They aren’t “holiday” topics, but they answer a need for audience members who are crunched for time more than usual. An Instagram creator with a business-related focus could make a video to help their audience explain what they do for a living when relatives inevitably ask.

Next, figure out if your audience will have more, less, or the same amount of time to consume your content. 

For example, if your data shows they usually consume your content while at work, you might want to take a break in your schedule between Dec. 25 and Jan. 1. Or, if you typically get more traffic on the weekends, you might think about adding more content to the schedule because your audience may have more downtime to enjoy it.

Not sure of what’s up with your audience? Ask for their feedback. You could even do a simple poll:

We are looking at our publishing schedule for December. In regards to our content, do you expect to have:

• More time to consume it
• Less time to consume it
• About the same time to consume it

Production

Now, let’s make it about you and your content business. Are you planning to take time off? We highly recommend it.

Block out the time on the calendar when you won’t be working. Then, pull out and update your production schedule. Adjust the deadlines. If you work with other team members or contractors, talk to them about their time-off plans and incorporate those. Don’t forget to make sure they’re good with the revised deadlines.

Caveat: Give yourself more time to complete your “vacation” content than you think you need. Remember, you still have to produce your current content. 

If you operate a community, whether it’s accepting comments on social media or managing an interactive platform, decide how you will handle them on the days when you’re not working. Is there someone on your team or in the community who could manage it in your absence? Let your community know you’ll be away in a post (if possible, pin it to the top).

Go forth to gift and plan

Now is the perfect time to take steps to make your business shine in the holiday season, from adding a new revenue stream to giving your audience what they want. And finally, to give yourself a gift of time away from the day-to-day business.

Your ideas are priceless — let’s get them published with Tilt Publishing.

The post How to Help Your Content Business Get Through the Holidays and Make More Money appeared first on The Tilt Publishing.