Christmas Content Marketing Lessons #1: Christmas Songs
I just finished a series on Tuesday on the incredible power of serialized content.
In order to give you some more examples of serialized content, I decided to do a series on Christmas content marketing lessons.
In other words, content marketing lessons we can learn from Christmas.
(By the way, if you haven’t read it yet, then you can begin reading the three part series on serialized content with the first post: How Content Marketers Can Use a Literary Technique That Made Charles Dickens Famous.)
This first post here today will focus on lessons we can learn from, of all places, Christmas songs.
If you’re ready, then let’s get started…
Christmas Songs and the Surprise Content Marketing Lessons
It’s ok. Go ahead. Call me a “sap.” I probably deserve it.
Why?
Well, there is a local radio station that begins playing Christmas songs 24/7 starting on December 1st and plays them every day up until, and including, Christmas day.
And the reason you might want to call me a “sap”?
I really like listening to the station during this time of year. I don’t why.
I just don’t get sick of hearing those songs. Maybe it’s the feeling I get from hearing those songs.
Anyway, I was listening to the station the other day, enjoying the old-school classic Christmas songs I know (i.e. White Christmas, I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus, Silent Night, etc.).
I was also in awe of how many Christmas songs that I’ve never heard of (98 Degrees had a Christmas song?), when I realized something.
There are some important content marketing lessons we can learn from Christmas songs.
(Did you just hear that ”someone-bumped-the-turntable-needle-scratch-now-there’s-silence” sound?)
Are you wondering if I’ve had a little too much spiked egg nog? I haven’t.
I’m serious. There are some important content marketing lessons that we can learn from Christmas songs.
Think about it.
Why do so many top artists do Christmas songs?
I believe it’s because of the power of content marketing.
Here are the content marketing lessons I’ve learned from Christmas songs.
1. If you want your prospects’ attention, then produce content based on things they are already thinking about.
Famous “old school” marketer Robert Collier revealed this concept back in 1934 in his book, The Robert Collier Letter Book: “Join the conversation already going on in your prospects’ mind.”
Everyone’s mind is on Christmas this time of the year, so the smartest thing for singers to do is to sing songs that focus on this theme.
This will get them attention from prospects, media outlets, and other avenues because of their focus on this theme.
Your First Christmas Content Marketing Lesson:
Create content around themes that everyone is focusing on throughout the year.
Examples: January = Goals & Resolutions, February = Love, March = Luck, April = Fooling People, etc.
This will help you to gain attention and traction that you otherwise would never get.
2. Try and create content around certain themes that have an enduring and universal appeal.
Not only is it wise for singers to sing Christmas-themed songs so that they will get attention this time of year, but so they will get attention (and sales) for years to come.
Puerto Rican singer-songwriter José Feliciano may not be a top-selling singer nowadays, but every year one of the Christmas songs that is guaranteed to be played is “Feliz Navidad, a Christmas song he wrote back in 1970.
I don’t know what kind of kind of royalty deal he has, but that song brings him continual exposure and, hopefully, continual profits for him.
It keeps him in demand.
Your Second Christmas Content Marketing Lesson:
Create your content around universal themes that will appeal to your prospects today and 30 years from now.
Focus on themes such as: good vs evil, rags to riches, darkness vs light, David vs. Goliath, and many others. (Think “21 types of Content We Crave“)
If you can tie your content (and your product/service) to one of these themes, then you will see lasting, continual results.
Example: Apple tied their story into the “David vs. Goliath” theme and we’ve all seen the results they had!
3. Christmas songs show us that we have three ways we can use to create content.
After you find the current or lasting theme you want to use, you have three options to choose when it come to how you actually produce the content.
Christmas songs teach you three basic methods that you can use to produce the content.
I) The first choice is what some singers do. They sing a classic song like “O Holy Night.” It’s a public domain song.
They don’t have to pay for it or share royalties.
It’s guaranteed to be popular and have a strong emotional pull. All they have to do is put their own twist on it and its ready to go.
2) The second choice is what other singers do. They license a song that has already been created.
I’m betting they have to pay a fee upfront and/or pay a certain percentage of any income they make from it.
Why would they do that? They don’t care.
Because using a song that was already written and proven to be popular basically guarantees them exposure and sales.
Plus the song is getting that singer exposure and selling their real product, which is them.
3. But there is a third choice that some singers bravely choose to do. They create a brand new song around the Christmas theme.
This is riskier, because it might not be as popular as a song that has already been written and proven to be popular.
But I would think it wouldn’t be as risky as a normal song they would write. Why?
It’s guaranteed to get at least some exposure and attention, because it’s tied to this powerful theme.
And if it’s a hit, then it will be a song that will be played for years to come and bring them future exposure and profits.
Profits they won’t have to share like they would if they licensed a song.
And, as a bonus, it might become so popular that singers in the future will pay them money to license it to sing themselves.
Your Third Christmas Content Marketing Lesson:
Once you find the current or universal theme that will appeal to your prospect, then choose the method you will use to create the content:
1. Use public domain content
2. License the content
3. Create the content yourself
If you pick a truly powerful theme, then creating the content is the easy part, since you have these 3 options.
One last thing.
If you aren’t sure you can really apply this idea to the content you create, let me ask you if you noticed something.
Did you notice what I just did in this post?
I created content (about content marketing) and tied it to a theme that is on your mind right now (Christmas)!
And because I did this, you read this post. (And you will probably also read the next two posts too.)
See? If I can do that with the topic of content marketing, then you can do it too.
Photo by Paparutzi.
Stay Tuned
If you liked this post, then make sure to come back to see the second post in this series.
It’s called “The Lost Story of How Content Marketing Gave Birth to Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”.
I will post it next Tuesday, December 15th.
If You Liked This Post…
If you liked this post, then you might want to:
- Subscribe to this blog, so you don’t miss the next post!
- Read part one of my series on the power of serialized content
- Read my post on: “Building an Audience: What All Successful People Have Done Throughout History“
- Read my book: 51 Content Marketing Hacks
- Hire me to help you implement suspenseful, content serialization into your content marketing
- Hire me to come speak about this topic (or another topic)
- Learn why your content marketing isn’t working here
- Share this post with your friends and followers
- Or ALL OF THE ABOVE!
I’m a business strategist, consultant, content creation specialist, and speaker. I’ve been studying effective marketing and business methods (both online and offline) since 1999.
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