Readers and advertisers will love these holiday guides

Did you know Christmas Day is 107 days away? I know it seems like a long way away. But it’s actually the perfect time right now to lock in on your content and revenue strategy for the holiday.

I’m going to share a few of my favorite ideas that will please your readers and advertisers when it comes to making the holidays fun — and mostly — stress free.

Holiday eating guide

The idea: Create a holiday dining package that features the best places to eat at for the holiday, local bakeries that serve holiday treats, Instagram-worthy cocktails, and where you can place pre-made food orders.

Why readers will love it: Finding the best options for entertaining is always a priority during the holidays for families and all of these lists will make it easier to celebrate with ease.

What you could build: A holiday dining landing web page (or a spread in your November edition) that could include numerous sponsors (the restaurants and bars), as well as a newsletter series that could feature each of these lists (with the sponsors) throughout November.

Who should buy it: Restaurant groups, grocery stores, caterers, bakeries, breweries, and distilleries.

Holiday downtown guide

The idea: A downtown guide that features all of the great things families love about the holiday: tree lightings, parades, markets, Santa visits, shops to visit, and ice-skating.

Why readers will love it: This guide makes it easy for families to plan either a single trip or numerous trips to a downtown area.

What you could build: If you are in an area that has numerous suburbs, you could create mini pillar pages with all of these stories on them for that location.

+ Bonus idea: Create a branded content series that runs over a short amount of time but has several of these stories with branding for the city or downtown.

Who should buy it: Chambers of commerce, downtown development associations, city governments and anchor retailers.

Regional holiday travel guide

The idea: Regional travel guides featuring weekend trips within two to three hours. The content could include the best of the best in these places: Where to eat, stay and the best attractions. These stories also could center on specific themes opposed to everything in a city, like on a single attraction you should visit or the best restaurants to try.

Why readers will love it: Whether it’s a weekend getaway or something to do over several days during the winter break, this approach provides ways to have all of your planning done for you.

What you could build: These really are great branded content stories that could be spread across the last quarter of the year.

Who should buy it: Visitor bureaus, resorts, hotel groups, ski areas, and major attractions that want to attract holiday travelers.

Holiday church guide

The idea: A special guide that pulls together Christmas Eve and Christmas Day service times, special events, holiday concerts and choir performances.

Why readers will love it: Many families make attending church a regular holiday tradition so making it easy for them to know the schedule or events is useful.

What to build: A series of pages (maybe over a series of weeks) with service times in one edition and special events in another. These could also make for pretty interesting Reels.

Who should buy it: Large churches looking to reach new families, faith-based schools or organizations and businesses that want to be aligned with these kind of events.

Holiday home services guide

The idea: Families need help getting everything set up for the holiday, from light hanging to gift wrapping to catering delivery. So help them find the best options in your community.

Why readers will love it: The holidays can feel overwhelming and families want trusted local services solutions. This content accomplishes that.

What to build: There are lots of options, from branded content stories on these different resources featured over a several week period to a holiday service page featuring all of these places.

+ Bonus idea: One of the common themes through all of these ideas is that these are all guides that could be built organically with paid advertisers featured at the top with appropriate labeling. It’s a great way to place advertisers where readers are going to spend time.

Who should buy it: Home service companies (light hanging, landscapers, organizers), cleaning services, professional gift wrappers or boutiques, caterers and handyman services.

We can help create content you can monetize

We’d love the chance to share how we can help your team develop content strategies that truly get revenue results. Below is a flyer on our branded content services that could be used for many of these ideas above. You can download it here. Contact me at David@davidarkinconsulting.com today so you can learn more.