5 Content Marketing Ideas for September 2023

In September 2023, content marketers can solve customer concerns, jumpstart Halloween, delve into short-form videos, experiment with AI, and tell Uncle Sam’s story.

Content marketing is more than just promoting products — it’s about creating value that attracts, engages, and retains customers.

Content marketing can supercharge search engine optimization, enliven social media posts, and drive email campaigns.

Here are five content marketing ideas to try in September 2023.

Solve Customer Concerns

Articles offering solutions to problems produce happy customers.

Marketing gurus have long advised addressing customers’ fears, concerns, and pain points. Helpful and informative articles are among the best ways to do that. Your company’s problem-solving — or solution-suggesting — content should be specific to your products and customers.

Here are some examples.

An online board game store could address:

• Difficulty in understanding game rules or strategies.
• Not knowing the appropriate age or skill level for certain games.
• Uncertainty about the quality or durability of the games.
• Finding games that cater to specific interests or niches.
• Difficulty in choosing the proper game for social occasions or family gatherings.

The resulting content might include a video demonstrating how to set up and play a new game or an article describing how game ratings work.

Content can help shoppers know which running shoes are best for their type of running.

A running shoe shop could focus on:

• How to find the correct shoe size or fit online.
• Uncertainty about the proper shoe for a gait or style of running (trail, marathon, casual).
• Concerns about the quality of the shoes.
• Trouble understanding the technology or features of different running shoes.

2. Halloween

Halloween is among the top revenue-generating holidays for U.S. retailers.

Yes, Halloween is in October, but September is the time to produce and publish Halloween-themed content to give Google and other search engines time to index it.

Moreover, many folks will look for Halloween items a month or more in advance. How else did they spend $10.6 billion in 2022, according to the National Retail Federation?

As always, your content should align with the products your company sells. Here are a few examples.

• Craft shop. “How to Create a D.I.Y. Costume on a Budget.”
• Kitchen supply store. “How to Bake and Decorate the Perfect Halloween Cookies.”
• Science-focused toy store. “Educational Halloween Games for Kids.”

3. Turn Articles, Testimonials into Short Videos

Short videos are an excellent opportunity for content marketers.

If your business is not already using short-form videos on TikTok, Instagram, or YouTube, among other platforms, it is time to start.

A HubSpot survey found that 90% of content marketers used short-form videos in 2023.

In September, consider repurposing your company’s most popular articles into short-form videos. For example, a listicle on five ways to pick a running shoe could spur five short-form videos, each generating many shares.

Or cut longer videos, such as testimonial reels, into several short ones.

4. Experiment with AI

Content marketers can benefit from AI collaborations. This image is AI-generated, as is every other image in this article.

Another trend to try is AI-based tools — not to generate entire articles but to complement and improve your existing efforts.

Here is an example. Take your company’s top articles and ask ChatGPT to suggest related posts that could perform as well. Another option is using AI for image generation. I’ve used Midjourney to create all of the images in this article.

5. Celebrate Uncle Sam

“Uncle Sam,” the famous, fictional personification of the U.S. government, dates to 1813 when a newspaper reported that soldiers had come to refer to a meat supplier by the moniker.

The story of Uncle Sam would make compelling September content.

The story goes like this. A businessman named Samuel Wilson from Troy, New York, supplied the United States Army with barrels of beef during the War of 1812, which lasted until 1815.

The beef barrels were stamped with the letters “U.S.” to indicate that the meat was the property of the United States. However, soldiers began to joke that the initials stood for “Uncle Sam” Wilson, and the name was eventually used to refer to the federal government itself.

Political cartoonist Thomas Nast further popularized the character in the 1860s and 1870s when he depicted Uncle Sam as a bearded, star-spangled man. In 1961, Congress made Uncle Sam official.

For your company’s September content marketing, find ways to connect Uncle Sam’s fascinating origin story to your products. A kitchen supply store, for example, could explain how the beef was preserved in barrels.