5 Ecommerce Content Marketing Ideas for August 2014

Unusual holidays, lists, and questions answered could all help drive traffic to your ecommerce site this month.

Content marketing aims to attract customers with useful or entertaining articles, images, and videos. The technique is rapidly become one of the most popular trends in modern marketing. Content marketing operates on the theory that shoppers are more likely to make purchases from familiar companies.

Consider this: Many ecommerce marketers spend a lot of time trying to rank on search engine results pages or buying ads that show up on search engine results pages, when, in fact, search engines were created to find content.

What follows are five content marketing ideas for August 2014. Try to use these ideas in ways that would be relevant to the products you sell.

1. Presidential Joke Day, August 11

August 11, 2014 might seem like any other Monday, but it is, in fact, the date of a little known holiday intended to honor humorous presidents past and present.

President Reagan’s August 11 joke launched a holiday.

The holiday, according to Daniel Kurtzman of About.com, was created after President Ronald Reagan cracked a joke during an August 11, 1984 microphone check and raised tensions the world over.

During the sound check, the then president said, “My fellow Americans, I’m pleased to tell you today that I’ve signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes.” The joke was leaked to the press and the Soviet Union went on high alert.

There are a few ways that an ecommerce marketer could use this humorous holiday for content marketing, including writing an article about the holiday itself, or posting presidential jokes that are in some way related to the products the merchant sells. Here are some presidential jokes to consider.

• “I have left orders to be awakened at any time in case of national emergency — even if I’m in a Cabinet meeting.” – Ronald Reagan
• “These stories about my intellectual capacity really get under my skin. You know, for a while I even thought my staff believed it. There on my schedule first thing every morning it said, ‘Intelligence Briefing.'” – George W. Bush
• ”If I had to name my greatest strength, I guess it would be my humility. Greatest weakness, it’s possible that I’m a little too awesome.” – Barack Obama
• ”My esteem in this country has gone up substantially. It is very nice now when people wave at me, they use all their fingers.” – Jimmy Carter
• “When they call the roll in the Senate, the Senators do not know whether to answer ‘present’ or ‘not guilty.'” – Teddy Roosevelt

2. International Left Handers Day, August 13

International Left Handers Day has been celebrated each August 13 since 1992. The event, according to the Left-Handers Club website, is “when left-handers everywhere can celebrate their sinistrality [being left-handed] and increase public awareness of the advantages and disadvantages of being left-handed.”

The holiday may be another chance to post interesting content. For example, online sellers might choose to profile left handed folks in the industry they serve.

An online store that sells NASCAR-related products could feature Dale Earnhardt, Jr. An electronics retailer might remind readers that Bill Gates of Microsoft is a lefty. And a music shop might show a video featuring the left-handed Jimi Hendrix.

3. Senior Citizens Day, August 21

Where content marketing is concerned, Senior Citizens Day is a golden opportunity. Thanks to the baby boom, seniors are the fastest growing population segment in the United States. They are also a powerful consumer segment that is well worth a marketing investment.

Consider publishing articles and videos that encourage senior activities related to the products you sell. Here are a few example titles.

• Fishing supply retailer: “Top Ten Fishing Holes for Seniors.”
• Tool retailer: “The First Five D.I.Y. Projects to Tackle When You Retire.”
• Fashion retailer: “Ten Things Department Stores Don’t Know About Seniors.”
• Craft retailers: “Five Crafts Your Granddaughter will Love.”
• Video game retailer: “Six Tips to Beat Your Grandson in Titanfall.”

4. Curated Lists

Not everything that an ecommerce business publishes needs to be completely unique or profound. In fact, sometimes it is enough to share compelling content with your audience.

In content marketing, a curated list is simply a list of carefully selected content links or descriptions. The list can take the form of an article, a podcast segment, or a video published on your store site and in social media.

Would any of these topics work for your ecommerce business?

• The Ten Most Expensive Shoes in the World
• 17 Disgusting Recycled Materials that End Up in Clothing
• This Week in Table Tennis, Must See Articles
• The 5 Deadliest D.I.Y. Projects Ever
• Five Great Science Fiction Movies Streaming on Netflix this Month
• Video: 21 Ways to Tie Your Shoes
• Ten Fascinating Gardening Stories From this Week’s Headlines
• 12 Interior Designs You Must Follow on Pinterest

5. Videos for Frequently Asked Questions

Frequently asked questions are important to ecommerce sellers because, as the name implies, they are frequently asked. Consider making a list of ten common customer questions about important products or product categories and making videos to answer those questions.

The video below, as an example, addresses the question, “What’s the best Honda generator for football tailgating?”