Actionable Marketing Guide – What Do You Give Thanks For?

Published: Mon, 11/19/18

Dear ,

This week we celebrate Thanksgiving in the U.S., a holiday symbolized by family dinners featuring turkey.

Did you know that 88% of American families serve turkey for the holiday according to the National Turkey Federation?

Despite being mistakenly considered part of the Pilgrims’ first feast, Thanksgiving turkey is more likely attributable to Benjamin Franklin. He wanted the turkey designated as the American national bird. (BTW, the Pilgrims probably ate lobster, seal and swans according to The History Channel.)

But beyond the turkey dinner, at its heart Thanksgiving is about being with the people we love and care about. More importantly,Thanksgiving symbolizes the start to the holiday season of family and friends.

So it’s no surprise that the Wednesday before Thanksgiving is the most traveled day of the year in the US. That’s because while people travel to spend the holiday with loved ones, many work until Wednesday afternoon.

But did you know that many of our Thanksgiving traditions are due to the efforts of one astute content marketer?

Godey's Lady's Book After reading about the Pilgrim’s feast, Sarah Josepha Hale decided to make Thanksgiving a national holiday. As editor of Godey’s Lady’s Book, the largest and most well known magazine of the mid 1800s America, Hale created and published recipes for turkey and pumpkin pie to build new traditions around the holiday.

Encouraged by Hale’s articles and letter writing campaign, President Abraham Lincoln designated Thanksgiving as an official holiday to “heal the wounds of a nation” on the fourth Thursday in November in 1863.

Like Lincoln we live in polarized times. Therefore you must work to build relationships with people that have different points of view from your own. Show your customers and other members of your audience that you care about them.

Where possible change your language to use inclusive words rather than divisive ones. This helps to build trust.

As a marketer, I love how this holiday evolved and gained traction—especially Hale’s recipes. It’s about how we develop traditions and rituals. These are important for marketers since they create hooks and reasons to communicate.

Further, Thanksgiving symbolizes the official start of the holiday shopping season in the US. Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, continues to expand and gain prominence for how retailers encourage shoppers to buy. Like Singles Day, Black Friday has extended globally.

In fact, President Franklin Roosevelt moved Thanksgiving back a week in 1936 to help jumpstart holiday sales during the depression. But public opposition forced him to move it back to the fourth Thursday of November after only two years.

From a marketing perspective, whether or not you’re American, use these Thanksgiving holiday lessons to plan your annual promotional calendar.

Schedule a set of regular celebrations. Go beyond the sales and promotion to develop related traditions. For example, AMEX helped its small business partners by creating Small Business Saturday that encourages people to “Shop Small” with local stores.
Develop related content. Take a page from Sarah Hale and create content that motivates your audience to participate. Like Hale, skip the promotion.
Tap into existing older traditions where appropriate. For example the Macy’s parade ends at, you guessed it—Macy’s in Herald Square.

RECOMMENDED READING:

13 Steps To Create A Promotional Calendar
Holiday Celebration Marketing

As we get into the full swing of the holiday season, check that your holiday promotions have been implemented properly.

Beyond this, make sure that you have a process in place to build customer relationships going forward. Now is the time to make sure that you can jump start your 2019 sales.

Lastly, if you’re planning to take some time off around the holidays, here are 100+ ways to repurpose your content. It’ll help you reduce your content creation time.

For those of you celebrating the Thanksgiving holiday this week, I wish you, your family and friends a happy and memorable holiday!

Heidi Cohen,
Actionable Marketing Guide

Happy Marketing,
Heidi

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Crystal Clear Communications’ George Stenizter compiled a list of 1,200 content marketing questions. Then he answers them with help from influencers like Heidi Cohen. (Note: Stenizter has spread this project out over time.)

Actionable Marketing Tip:

Compile the questions your prospects, customers and others ask you. Then answer them. Even better, get help from influencers, employees and customers.

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