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If you’re running short on content marketing topics this September, consider back-to-school activities, guides, potatoes, conversions, or the U.S. Constitution.
Content marketing is the process of creating, publishing, and promoting articles, videos, podcast episodes, and the like to attract, engage, and retain customers. Done well, it is useful or entertaining.
What follows are five topic ideas for your company’s September 2022 content marketing.
1. ‘Back to School’ Series
As the leaves change color and a hint of coolness enters the air, people become excited about all things pumpkin spice and cozy sweaters. But for marketers, the coming of autumn also marks the beginning of a new school year.
In September, back-to-school shopping and activities will be in full swing. Photo: CDC.
In the United States, a typical household in 2022 with high-school-age children or younger will spend $864.35 on back-to-school shopping, according to estimates from the National Retail Federation. Families with college students will spend even more — about $1,199.43.
Categories such as electronics, apparel, and dorm furniture get the lion’s share of these sales. Many will happen in August, but September is also a good time to create a back-to-school blog post or email newsletter series focusing on the items shoppers might have forgotten. It could, additionally, provide helpful info about good study habits or address how your products interact with the school experience.
2. The “Ultimate Guide to…”
For some, September is a time to take advantage of the last few weeks of warm weather to go camping or hiking. For others, it means spending time in the kitchen, cooking up all the seasonal produce they can get their hands on.
An “Ultimate Guide to Autumn Activities” could engage customers and prospects no matter what products your business sells.
Producing a guide to autumn activities, whatever they might be, is a good way to provide useful information whilst featuring the products you sell.
For example, a direct-to-consumer backpacking brand could produce “The Ultimate Guide to Fall Backpacking Trips in West Virginia” or similar.
If a content marketer is particularly ambitious, the “ultimate guide” could be a hub or pillar page and the basis for an entirely new section of a company’s site. Finally, don’t be afraid to promote your products directly in the guide.
3. National Potato Month
September is National Potato Month in the United States. As food holidays go — can a whole month be a holiday? — National Potato Month is a very versatile theme.
Most people enjoy potatoes and will likely engage with content on that topic. And recipes featuring potatoes could appeal to a wide range of dietary restrictions and preferences, including vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free, and paleo.
The Idaho Potato Commission even has a video on YouTube showing you how to make donuts with dehydrated mashed potatoes.
If Idaho can make donuts with potatoes, imagine what you could do.
Despite its versatility, National Potato Month is seemingly unrelated to many businesses. But if entertaining or humorous content fits your brand, you might be surprised.
For example, a plumbing supply business could publish a potato cannon tutorial and sell the pipe and glue to build the launcher.
4. Tell a Conversion-driving Story
Let’s turn to pop culture in 2010. In episode three, season seven of the animated series Futurama, the characters Fry and Bender purchase new eyePhones from Mom Industries and begin to compete over who can get more followers on a social media app.
In the show — a parody of iPhones and social media — it turns out that Mom Industries is trying to infect folk’s brains with a virus. But let’s put that aside.
In one of the scenes, Fry wants to purchase an eyePhone, but the too-helpful clerk starts to describe everything wrong with it, dissuading Fry from making the purchase. But an anxious Fry yells out, “Shut up and take my money.”
The image and phrase have long since become a popular meme that captures how we can feel about a new product that fits our lifestyle or solves a problem. Once we know what it does or how it works, we want it. “Shut up and take my money.”
This image — “Shut up and take my money” — has become a meme describing consumers’ feelings for an excellent product.
For September, try to find at least one conversion-driving story that describes a product you sell so well it is worthy of the “Shut up and take my money” meme.
5. U.S. Constitution Day: Sept. 17
On September 17, 1787, delegates in Philadelphia signed what would become one of the most influential documents in human history, the United States Constitution.
Howard Chandler Christy painted this version of the signing of the Constitution in 1940.
In commemorating this event, marketers can produce content related to the Constitution, its amendments, or positive aspects of American culture.
For example, a blog post could describe the history of Constitution Day or the amendment process. Alternatively, a short video could discuss one of the founding documents that preceded the Constitution, such as the Articles of Confederation.
Finally, content related to American exceptionalism— its successes and failures — is a worthy topic in recognition of Constitution Day. After all, the Constitution is what makes the United States unique among nations.
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