What’s the best time to post content over the Christmas Holidays?

(This blog was updated November 2020)

It may seem like the 2019 holidays were only yesterday, yet the time is here already to post content for the 2020 holiday season. In previous years, perhaps you felt you never knew the best times to get that content out where it made the most impact.

When is the best time, really, to post content over the Christmas holidays? Reaching people during that time frame is already a major challenge since so many are busy. And, this year, COVID-19 may change those rules since more people are likely to hunker at home.

What kind of content should you send this year to reach the most amount of people? This year, you may want to focus more on blogging and email marketing.

What Time of Day is Best to Post Holiday-Themed Blogs?

Blogging might sound overly basic when it comes to holiday marketing. Still, starting it now can reach more people for one very good reason. As Neil Patel points out, blogs have longer lifespans than any other marketing channel.

As immediately gratifying as social media is to capture people in the moment, a holiday-themed blog stays relevant for far longer beyond the holidays. A blog like this one, for instance, often stays performing well on Google because other businesses look for information to help themselves.

On a customer level, though, you need to create blogs that educate and entertain at the same time. It pays to make the content evergreen so customers could still benefit from it beyond its holiday theme.

Patel, above, says basic metrics show blog posts published on Mondays in the late morning around 11am seem to always attract the most readers. For the holidays, this is still a relevant time since many people at work are Googling interesting things to read.

Are Weekends Still Worth Considering During the Holidays?

HubSpot mentions that posting blogs 16 times per month helps drive 3.5 times more traffic than if posting only several times per month. Yet, should you post holiday-themed blogs on weekdays only?

Not necessarily. If you happen to have blogs with links, posting on the weekends is usually better since more people are relaxed and ready to engage on a weekend morning.

Things are maybe different this year due to COVID-19. Many people are now working remotely from home, making the above rules perhaps slightly different. During the 12 days before Christmas, think about posting daily within the morning hours. This is during the time when people are more apt to check their inboxes and read daily news.

What kind of content works for holiday blogging? For this year, consider topics that focus on solving problems.

Finding the Right Content for Your Holiday Blog

Your holiday blog topics this year should focus on how to solve problems since everyone has them, perhaps more than ever. At the same time, you want to stay in a festive frame of mind.

Humor is a good way to approach your content and play up how holiday shopping helps readers escape the news. Most importantly, how can your own products help solve problems for your loyal or prospective customers?

Storytelling is important here, as it always is. Find some real-life funny stories about how people managed to get through the year and found some joy using your products. Consider using the basic structure of storytelling in blogs: character, a problem, an action, and a solution.

In this case, it might mean interviewing customers as testimonials. Content like this can also become more exclusive and entertaining when used in an email marketing campaign.

When Should You Send Emails to Customers and Leads?

Starting an email campaign this holiday season is one of the smartest things you can do. These are still very effective at compelling people to make a purchase. Neil Patel proves this with an infographic saying 66% of all consumers aged 15 and above make a purchase as result of an email campaign.

Timing when to send emails to everyone, though, is still worth analysing. Using auto-responders is a good way to get a recurring pattern going so you never have to send out emails manually. Considering you already feel overwhelmed keeping your business running around the holidays, using automation helps save time.

When to send those emails has no set magic formula either. Entrepreneur pointed out that 91% of consumers polled show they do not mind getting promotional emails, as long as they are targeted to their needs.

During the critical 12-day window before Christmas, consider sending something every day with more personalised and targeted approaches. Again, storytelling about the year can work well here, especially videos. How consumers found ways to make life more joyful with your products is what the holidays are all about. No better message exists to tackle the complicated nature of the 2020 holiday season.