5 Content Marketing Ideas for June 2015

In June 2015, content marketers have plenty of opportunities to connect with customers and prospects — producing articles, videos, graphics, and tools around holidays, summertime advice, entertainment, and decision making.

Content marketing is the practice of creating, publishing, and distributing valuable, interesting, and entertaining content with the aim of acquiring customers and making sales through engagement and relationships.

Here are five content marketing ideas that your business can use in June 2015.

1. National Flip a Coin Day: June 1, 2015

America’s National Flip a Coin Day, which is observed on the first of June each year, is an extremely obscure holiday. It is apparently intended to raise awareness about math and statistical science. Just how one is supposed to celebrate National Flip a Coin Day is, well, something of a coin toss. But it may create a fun content marketing opportunity.

There are at least two approaches a business marketer could take to National Flip a Coin Day content marketing.

The first of these approaches would be to try to entertain or inform folks with lighthearted content around decision-making and coin flipping. Imagine what articles or videos with the following titles might be like. Note that for each title there is a retail business for which the content might make sense.

• “21 Fashion Decisions You Should Leave to Chance” – apparel retailer.
• “The 9 Coin Tosses That Change the Automobile Industry” – auto accessory store.
• “Pick Your Next Date with a Coin Toss” – retailer serving female shoppers.
• “Freaky Hard Coin Toss Workout for CrossFitters” – nutritional supplement seller.
• “The Contractor’s Guide to Making Important Decisions with a Coin Toss” – tool retailer.

Content marketers might could also focus on Flip a Coin Day’s aim, and teach readers or viewers about statistics as it relates to the business’s industry. Here are a few possible article or video titles, and, once again, suggestions about the sorts of businesses that might publish them.

• “15 Statistics That Will Impact Your Contracting Business” – plumbing supply retailer.
• “6 Ways Math and Statistics Impact Fashion Design” – clothing retailer.
• “10 Statistically Sound Reasons to Avoid Kratom” – fitness product site.

2. Father’s Day: June 21, 2015

Father’s Day is set aside to remind us just how influential a good father can be. It is a time to honor those dads who take responsibility, seek the best for their families, and willingly sacrifice their own wants at the parental alter.

Although many retailers see Father’s Day as a time to sell gag gifts — think chili pepper tie — and grilling supplies, consider taking a more sentimental approach in your content marketing this year.

Try publishing heartfelt stories about exceptional fathers related to your industry. As an example, retailers of workout equipment or fitness supplements have it easy. They can retell stories about dads like Dick Hoyt and Rick Van Beek, who have both pushed, pulled, or carried their disabled children on marathons and triathlons. Simply telling their stories can bring your audience to tears.

3. Offer Summertime Advice

The 21st of June is officially the first day of summer in the northern hemisphere, and it is a good time to offer summertime tips and suggestions. What’s more, content marketers in just about any industry segment can find good topics that will be both interesting and useful to their audience of customers and potential customers.

Mr. Porter is featuring summertime advice content in its Journal online magazine.

Here are a few examples of how some leading online retailers are blending summer tips and advice into their content marketing.

• Mr. Porter, The Rules of Poolside Cool. This is a lookbook-like article, offering swimwear suggestions for men.
• Williams-Sonoma, Party Planner: Summer Campfire Feast. This blog post suggests the menu for a memorable meal gathered around a summer campfire.
• Lowe’s, Do-it-yourself Lemonade Stand. This article is part of a series of posts focused on summer do-it-yourself projects with kids.
• Bodybuilding.com, Ashley Hoffmann’s Summer Shoulder Workout. A workout plan to help men and women have strong, shapely shoulders for more revealing summer attire.

4. Build a ‘Generator’

While content marketing often takes the form of an article or a video, content can also be a tool or game that engages site visitors. So in June 2015, try to build a “generator,” a simple tool that generates something for your site visitors.

This BuzzFeed title generator entertainers site visitors on Ravi Parikh’s blog.

Ravi Parikh, the co-founder of mobile analytics firm Heap, has just the sort of generator I’m talking about on his blog. The BuzzFeed Title Generator simply displays article titles that could have come from the popular BuzzFeed website.

“There’s a bunch of common patterns in BuzzFeed titles,” Parikh explains, “So it was fairly easy to identify these and create this title generator.”

Your content generator should be fun, and, if possible, result in something that site visitors can share. Here are a few more examples of generators to inspire your own.

• “What’s Your Fashion Blog Name?” from NYMag.com.
• “Automatic Movie Plot Generator” from Bill Myers.
• “Musical Composition Generator” from WolframTones.
• “Blog Topic Generator” from HubSpot.
• “Acrostic Poem Generator” from Acrostic Poem.

5. Create a Decision Tree or Flowchart Graphic

A decision tree is a graphic that analyzes items such as resource costs and unexpected events to help readers understand the results or consequences of some action.

Separately, flowcharts are another, graphic-based tool used to help describe steps in a process or workflow.

Decision tree and flowchart graphics can be both useful and engaging.

These rather technical decision-making models and workflow guides can also be adopted to create entertaining, useful, and shareable graphics.

Consider building decision tree or flowchart graphics that would make sense for your customers.

As an example, a retailer of outdoor gear or clothing might create a decision tree around where to camp this summer. A purveyor of fine, formal clothing could have a decision tree graphic that helps shoppers find the proper suit or dress from some special occasion. Finally, a website that sold carpentry tools to do-it-yourselfers could have a decision tree graphic to help shoppers find the best wood to use in their climate.