Holiday hype: beating the summer content slowdown
With many people setting off on holiday, relaxing in the garden or getting their groove on at gigs, comms leaders may find themselves with a reduced team over the summer. But this doesn’t mean that your content output needs to take a hit. Our copy team share top tips for beating the summer content slowdown. So grab yourself a Pimm’s and read on…
Make the most of existing assets
Johanna Stiefler Johnson, senior content producer
With so many people taking annual leave in June, July and August, the summer months might not be the best time for brands to launch a killer content campaign or advance a time-consuming project. Instead, use this time to refresh, repurpose and redirect audiences to the wealth of content that you have already published.
Unless it’s time-sensitive or tied to a ‘news hook’, branded content won’t become outdated straight after it has been pushed live. Many already-published articles, videos and podcasts will have the potential to be repurposed in a time- and resource-efficient way.
Let’s say, for example, that your brand wants to give some extra attention to an existing podcast series. You can create a snappy teaser video highlighting the guests, speakers and topics covered in an episode, encouraging audiences to tune in. This bite-sized content will direct the audience to the full audio series and can also be shared on social media channels.
Alternatively, if you’ve got a raft of fantastic interview features that could do with some added exposure, you could easily incorporate these pieces into a timely listicle article. When creating content for client magazine Parkinson’s Life, World Poetry Day on 21 March 2023 offered a great opportunity for us to reflect on the previous interviews we had done with writers – and create a new piece of content by rounding up insights from existing features.
Include evergreen articles in your story mix
Sophie Parrott, senior content producer
Creating and maintaining a clear content calendar is crucial to keeping on top of things when you have limited time.
Aside from mapping out your comms strategy, this schedule will help ensure that your news site and social channels stay busy whilst identifying any potential gaps that might need filling.
When it comes to creating content to populate your editorial calendar, evergreen articles are a great way to achieve this. This content is designed to stay relevant for long periods of time and doesn’t have a news hook that could make it time sensitive. It can also be written up in advance, which will save you from the dreaded pre-annual-leave scramble.
With ‘how to’ guides, listicles and roundups, case studies, checklists and ‘history of’ articles, there are plenty of ways to approach this. Of course, the type of content you choose to create will depend on your industry, brand narratives and expertise. Your priority should be to ensure that your content is a valuable resource for your readers.
Online bank Monzo is one of many brands that create consumer-focused evergreen content. From an article looking at ways to use its platform beyond travel purposes to money-saving tips for people who are planning weddings, their team has created a bank of content that will continue to serve its audiences – and direct traffic – throughout the year.
Use your interview time wisely
Sarah McGrath, junior content producer
You’d be surprised how many stories it’s possible to create from a single interview. Perhaps you’ve set out to ask an employee about a new company project for a piece of content – that doesn’t mean that’s all you should find out about.
While you’re chatting about the rationale behind this initiative, you might find out about an extracurricular passion of theirs. Alternatively, an interviewee might make a casual comment about a colleague’s career trajectory, which could be an excellent starting point for an in-depth profile interview. It’s worth listening out and taking the time to ask them a couple of additional questions.
Even if you don’t have time within the scheduled interview to gather the quotes you’d need for extra articles, jot down interesting talking points and review your transcripts to see if there’s a story you should follow up on.
This is a technique that we find useful when creating content for Parkinson’s Life – the magazine we produce on behalf of the charity Parkinson’s Europe. In an interview about body positivity, an interviewee started talking about the impact Parkinson’s had on her experience of pregnancy.
After asking some extra questions on this topic, we were inspired to write a follow-up article on her story, which included gaining some fresh perspectives from other past interviewees to chart their respective experiences of pregnancy with Parkinson’s.
Want to find out how to implement a best-in-class editorial strategy that connects your organisation with your always-on audience?
Contact Charlotte from our client services team: charlottewillis@speakmedia.co.uk