5 Content Marketing Ideas for July 2021

Content marketing is an excellent way to build a so-called first-party audience that will benefit your business. A challenge for many companies, however, is knowing what to write about.

In July 2021, your content marketing could focus on teaching a skill, showing off products via a live stream, celebrating UFOs, enjoying grandmothers, or reviewing an upcoming summer blockbuster.

Regardless, remember that the purpose of content marketing is to attract, engage, and retain customers. What’s more, the traffic you build, in a sense, belongs to your company. You don’t have to worry about what is happening to tracking cookies or how Apple is changing its policies. You’ll have a first-party audience.

1. Teach a Skill

Content marketing may be most effective when teaching your audience a skill related to the products your business sells — the intersection of being useful and demonstrating the utility of your products. The skill being taught does not have to be complex, just helpful.

Here are several examples of teaching a skill. Use them as inspiration for your own teaching content.

• REI. “How to Launch and Land a Kayak“
• AutoZone. “How to Change Your Oil“
• Beardbrand. “How to Trim Your Beard at Home“
• Rockler. “Learn How to Turn a Pen“

2. Live Stream

Have you ever watched an online shopping network? What about a product live stream?

It turns out that lots of folks have. According to Statista, roughly 16.5 million consumers purchased a product from television shopping service QVC in 2020. We can only imagine how many folks are watching and buying from live streams on ecommerce sites, social media sites, and marketplaces.

For your July 2021 content marketing, consider committing to a weekly live stream. Aim to make the stream engaging and entertaining while also describing your products.

Amazon Live allows businesses to address a large audience of potential buyers. It is also an example of how to promote your product via live streams.

You might need to support your live streams with advertising. For example, publishing a live stream on Amazon Live typically requires $35,000 in advertising.

3. World UFO Day

On July 2, 1947, military officials recovered the wreckage of a weather balloon near Roswell, New Mexico. But at least some believe the so-called “balloon” was actually an alien spacecraft, an unidentified flying object (UFO) hidden from the public as government scientists analyzed its technology and examined its alien pilots.

The front page of the Roswell Daily Herald a few days after the crash was discovered.

UFOs continued to make appearances, and many sightings were documented after the Roswell crash. Even former president Jimmy Carter claimed to have seen a UFO in Leary, Georgia, in 1969.

In America, the Roswell UFO incident (and those that followed) sparked an interest in aliens that contributed to television shows and films such as Star Trek, Star Wars, and ET.

Now, science fiction fans and true believers celebrate World UFO Day each July 2. These celebrations vary from simply watching science fiction films and talking about the possibility of alien life to attending elaborate costume parties dressed as imaginary aliens.

Commerce companies ranging from online or omnichannel retailers to B2B companies can create content around UFOs to attract and engage their audiences. Here are a few example ideas.

• Science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) toy and project stores — e.g., KiwiCo, Fat Brain Toys, Lego — could publish a kid-friendly list such as “10 Most Astonishing UFO Sightings of All Time” along with several alien-related science toys and games.

• An electronics shop might release an article or video describing how “alien” technology influences modern gadgets. There are, for example, dozens of examples of science fiction influencing the design of actual products. Just compare the Star Trek communicators from 1969 with early mobile phones.

• Fashion businesses selling polos, t-shirts, and jeans could publish a tongue-in-cheek article about how high fashion is under the influence of aliens. Using as inspiration HuffPost’s 2018 article, “16 of the Most Outrageous Looks from New York Fashion Week,” the company could even provide photographic evidence.

Just look at this picture and tell someone that aliens are not impacting high fashion here on earth. Image: HuffPost.

4. Review a Movie

Hopefully the pandemic is subsiding in your area. It may be safe and socially acceptable to return to movie theaters.

If you choose to include movie reviews in your content mix, make sure there is a connection to the products you sell. For example, car dealers can review movies about racing or similar. Toy stores can review children’s movies. And stores that sell pop-culture items can review just about any film.

Here are some of the movies coming out in July 2021 that you could review.

• “Summer of Soul“
• “Black Widow“
• “Space Jam: A New Legacy“
• “Old“
• “Snake Eyes“
• “Transformania“
• “Joe Bell“
• “How It Ends“

5. Gorgeous Grandma Day

Don’t miss the opportunity to create content for Gorgeous Grandma Day on July 23, 2021. Use the occasion to celebrate how beautiful grandmothers are inside and out.

For your business, there are perhaps a few ways to create content for Gorgeous Grandma Day, including:

• Have employees publish posts about their grandmothers.
• Post checklists with items such as helping grandma or taking her picture.
• Inform your audience about the event, asking, “Did you know about Gorgeous Grandma Day?”
• Host a contest wherein customers post stories about their grandmothers.

We all love a gorgeous grandma. Photo: Ekaterina Shakharova.