I don’t know about you all, but things are starting to shift. It’s September, back to school, the holidays are quickly approaching (I mean Rosh Hashanah is next week and I just saw something on my Facebook for pumpkin patches). If you’re a blogger, shop owner, photographer etc, you know this time of year means chaos. But in a good way as for many of us it’s the time we make the most money for our business. This always helps to get us through the slower months. With that being said, I thought I’d share some important tips to stay organized, maximize your earnings and not feel like you’re losing complete control this holiday season.
5 TIPS TO GET YOUR CREATIVE BUSINESS READY FOR THE HOLIDAYS
1. Get Your Editorial Calendar On Point
I wrote about the importance of an editorial calendar in my last Blogger Q&A. If you haven’t implemented some sort of a system yet, you need to get the fire under your butt to do it now. Holidays will quickly creep up on you and you’ll be scrambling to find content to fill the needs of what’s trending now. Since we only have a little less than 4 months to finish the year off, I encourage you to look at EACH month and start planning accordingly. Make a list of what types of posts you want to do from gift guides to holiday looks to decorating. Add these into your calendar now so you can visually see where they will go and then plan to complete those posts in advance where possible.
For example, I’m working on some holiday hair styles and cocktails at the moment even though it’s still technically summer. These are verticals you can get done now ahead of time that don’t require the leaves to change, or new clothing to come out in stores. If you can, shoot them now, set up your posts, and get it on the calendar. You’ll instantly feel ahead of the game knowing you have great content with beautiful imagery that’s season specific scheduled.
2. Change Your Marketing Strategy
Blogger or not, it’s fall and people want to see boots, scarves and pumpkin anything already. I mean if you have a PSL photo you should start sharing it, #duh. Take a step back and look at your Pinterest boards, your newsletters or however you interact most with your audience on a visual level. Are these photos season specific? Are they tailored to what your audience is currently looking to for inspiration? I’ve begun sharing looks for the holiday with sparkle, pumpkin recipes and anything with a damn scarf on my Pinterest boards. They are already proving to pin more as people gear up for the new season.
A little insider tip from me to you, get signed up with Tailwind to schedule your pins. It’s life changing. Also, when pinning old content (and you should be!) feel free to change the description to allow it to suit the season. I may be pinning a scarf from a look, but in the description you can easily write “best way to wear your favorite winter scarf now”. Now you’ve turned your old post into the perfect fall pin.
Same goes for Instagram (or Facebook). Use your #TBT to share some fall or winter looks from last year. Get these scheduled now (since they’re old photos anyway!) through Hootsuite or LikeToKnowIt. You’ll feel great knowing you have beautiful content happening every week across your social platforms that’s brining new life to old posts. It’s a win win.
3. Site Clean Up
You may have seen my spring cleaning post, but fall is no different. Get your site and social profiles up to date. Swap out your ice cream eating selfie profile pic with one that’s a little more September like (blanket scarf and PSL? Okay too soon). If you’re a fashion blogger and have a “shop my favorites” widget in your sidebar, update the widget with new fall styles for your readers to shop. Each season you should always be double checking profile bios, about pages, sidebar links and everything in between. Keeping your site healthy is important!
4. Adjust Your Sales Pitch
Holiday gift guides are just around the corner and you’ll be getting a slew of pitches for this. Will you be doing them this year? If so, will you be doing dedicated ones for brands? Ask for product placement fees? These are all things you should be asking yourself and if you need to, add them to your media kit that you send out so it’s readily available. A brand may not realize you’re doing them this year but if they see you offer gift guides on your media kit this month, you may just find your next collaboration!
Also, if you plan to create content like holiday cocktails or Christmas decorating tips to holiday outfits, start pitching to brands ahead of time to let them know your plans. It’s a great way to get in front of them again to work together. Share similar ideas from last year so that brands can see your great work. Come up with new and exciting content for the season that they’ll want to be a part of.
5. Seasonal Prep
This really applies to everything here. It’s time to start thinking like fall/holiday is here since you’re the blogger, you’re the creative. You need to create content AHEAD of time so if that means shopping the holiday section in September, go on and do it. Prep your business properly from creating your gift guide photoshop templates now when you have time, to getting all your holiday cards ready to go to send out in December. The more you can get done now the better.
So here’s to one busy fall and holiday season here on My Style Vita. With all of that, what do you want to see in the upcoming season? More holiday outfits? Recipes to entertain with? Be sure to let me know in the comments or tweet me!
