5 Content Marketing Ideas for September 2016

Actor Matthew McConaughey used video to tell a brand story for Wild Turkey Bourbon.

Ecommerce marketers can use content to connect with customers and prospects in September 2016, offering up compelling videos, shopping guides, seasonal how-to articles, or celebrating holidays like Talk Like a Pirate Day or National Coffee Day.

Content marketing is the act of creating, publishing, and distributing content with the aim of attracting, engaging, and retaining customers. Content marketing depends on reciprocity. When marketers provide something of value (content), consumers may feel obligated to give something in return.

Here are five ecommerce content marketing ideas for September 2016.

1. Entertaining Video

Video is a fantastic medium for content marketing, regardless of whether you sell to businesses or individuals. As an example, HubSpot reported that adding a video to a landing page may increase conversations by roughly 80 percent.

Video has also been responsible for several significant and successful ecommerce businesses. Dollar Shave Club, which recently sold for $1 billion to Unilever, really started to grow when it published an entertaining video in March 2012 and earned more than 12,000 new subscription orders in just 24 hours.

In the four and a half years since its release, the Dollar Shave Club video has earned more than 23 million views on YouTube.

Smart marketers are similarly creating entertaining video content to help promote their companies and products. Here are a few more examples.

Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson, the actor who plays the Mountain on The Game of Thrones, has released a short video promoting Icelandic Mountain Vodka. The video has earned almost half a million views on YouTube in about three weeks.

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The makers of the Squatty Potty fueled the success of their business with a video about a pooping unicorn. This video has had more than 25 million views on YouTube since its release.

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Actor Matthew McConaughey has become the creative director for Wild Turkey’s marketing. He recently released a short film. In about six days, it had garnered nearly a quarter of a million views on YouTube.

Make September 2016 the month that you begin using video in your content marketing. As you do:

• Develop multiple videos;
• Integrate video and website content;
• Interact on YouTube.

It will certainly take more work to create video content than it does to write an article. But it is not impossible. Steve Carroll, a semi-pro kayak fisherman from Caldwell, Idaho (and my son-in-law), recently produced a sturgeon fishing video as part of a kayak sponsorship agreement. The video was made with a $400 GoPro camera and GoPro’s free video editing software. This video is essentially Steve’s first time editing footage.

2. Shopping and Gift Guides

Halloween and Christmas are quickly approaching. With each of these holidays there will be shoppers looking for products, ideas, and information. September may be the perfect time to produce shopping and gift guides.

Popsugar, the media and shopping site, published its affordable Christmas gift guide way back in January.

Shopping and gift guides should be related to your store’s industry and useful to your potential customers. Here are a few example titles for Halloween.

• “10 Halloween Costumes for the Harry Potter Fan”
• “13 Cheap Gifts for Halloween”
• “8 Hateful Halloween Projects for the D.I.Y. Master”

And a few Christmas examples.

• “12 High Tech Gifts Grandpa Will Love”
• “21 Last Minute Christmas Gift Ideas for the Holiday Procrastinator”
• “17 Subtly Insulting Christmas Gifts for People You Don’t Really Like”

3. Seasonal How-to

Content marketing is best when it is useful. When you can help someone solve a problem or learn a skill, you are building a relationship that is likely to lead to repeat business.

In September, publish timely, seasonal how-to articles that help readers. As with all content marketing, these how-to posts should be relevant to your products and industry.

For inspiration, check out leading how-to sites, including the following.

• Instructables, you might learn to make a Kylo Ren Halloween costume,
• eHow, check out “How to Throw a Dinner Party Like a Full-On Adult.”
• wikiHow, see “How to Maintain a Lawn Mower.”
• Make Magazine, you might even “Make Edible Paper in 3 Easy Steps.”

Also, check out what content-savvy retailers are creating.

• Lowe’s: How-to make “Fall Leaves Wall Art,”
• Home Depot: “How to Install a Bath Vanity,”
• REI: “How to Train for a Marathon,”
• Eastwood’s “How to Weld Sheet Metal.”

Lowe’s how-to content, such as “Fall Leaves Wall Art,” helps shoppers complete fun, seasonal projects using products or tools the company sells.

4. International Talk Like a Pirate Day: September 19

September 19 is a good date to publish pirate-inspired tales.

September 19, 2016 is International Talk Like a Pirate Day. This pseudo-holiday began in 1995 in Albany, Ore. If you believe Wikipedia’s account, Talk Like a Pirate Day stated when two men were playing racquetball. One of the men was injured and called out “Arrr.” The pirate-sounding lament lead to the holiday’s invention.

For Talk Like a Pirate Day 2016, consider publishing content relevant to your industry and interesting for your shoppers.

• Fishing gear retailer: “10 Age Old Fishing Techniques We Learned from Pirates”
• Rare book dealer: “21 Amazing Pirate Tales to Shiver Your Timbers”
• Apparel store: “10 Modern Fashion Trends That Pirates Started”
• Sporting goods store: “Ancient Pirate Games for Talk Like a Pirate Day”

5. Coffee Day: September 29

In the United States, September 29 is National Coffee Day, a celebration of our favorite bitter brew.

Men’s Health magazine publishes coffee-related content and then shares the content on September 29 in honor of National Coffee Day.

Your National Coffee Day content marketing strategy is dual faceted. First, produce some tasty coffee-inspired content, and, second, share that content on social media on National Coffee Day.

Consider posting content that is entertaining or informational. Here are some sample article titles you might try to adopt for your business.

• “7 Reasons Coffee Is Actually Good for You”
• “Why Your Dad Was Right about Coffee”
• “13 Ways Coffee Is Better Than Tea”
• “The Coffee Industry’s Secret History”
• “21 Coffee Inspired Fashions, from Paris to Detroit”