Marketing: 15 Content Ideas in 15 minutes, January 2021

Hi, everybody. Mintie members and whoever is watching this. It’s Nicola Jayne Little and Michelle Rose.
And we’re here with our 15 ideas for content in 15 minutes, we’re going to start with January, 2021,
which we can’t wait for January. Let’s face it. We just can’t wait. So why don’t we start with the first
one?
I think January new year’s day, new year, we’ve got to all put some content out about that. Cause we’re
going to be so excited to probably get rid of 2020 and go into 2021. So, idea one. What are you putting
on for new year’s day, Michelle?
Well, schedule that one if you want to. My sort of idea, it was you, are you chilled? Are you in the fresh
air? What are you doing? Are you actually working on work? And so your new year’s day, but also those,
those couple of days where it’s a bit of downtime, schedule. So if you’re sitting there with your socks on,
take a picture, schedule it for new year’s day or the day after, but also it’s a nice time to go live, that
new year’s day, second, go live, talk to people, just engage. So that would be my, because it’s, I think
there’s a lot going to be out there, a lot of noise, but if you can break through and talk to people, they
might like that.
So that’s idea one. Go live, do something, take pictures of your socks, new year’s day. We’ll be with you
on it. So watch out for all the socks from me, Michelle.
Right, on the 3rd of January, Michelle, it’s the festival of sleep day. So we’re going to keep sharing some
of these awareness days with you. Now, there is a calendar, if you bought the Mint planner, we’ll put
the link in there, but I think it’s nationalawarenessdays.com or something like that. I’ll check that one for
you. But on the 3rd of January, everybody, it’s the festival of sleep day.
Love it. So I would say that’s a day when you maybe just go dead natural, you talk to people from bed,
you show them the real you that’s like no filters, no makeup, you know, that sort of, you know, and a lot
of us, a lot of Minties work from home and a lot of Minties work from home around their physical and
mental health and probably spend a lot of extra time sleeping. So that could be a good time to talk
about you and your business and how you run your business.
What about for those of us who work better at night? So the festival of sleep day, it could be, well,
actually my productivity is better at midnight and that’s when I work. So this festival of sleep, you can
come at it from that angle. And if you’re in any of the wellbeing, you know, field at all, then obviously
you can talk about sleep and how important it is and how much we need. You can share tips on getting
the best sleep. You can ask questions. How, how much does anybody who’s an entrepreneur actually get
any sleep? Do you sleep properly? I mean, there’s so many angles to come at on the 3rd of January for a
festival of sleep, it could be just, you know, if it sits with your brand and you’re like having loads of fun,
taking a picture from your bed, right. Or your cup of tea in your bed. So there’s so many angles of that.
Well-being, entrepreneurial, you know, service providers, you know, all of that, but remember festival of
sleep, 3rd of January
And that’d be good if you could do something, say on Instagram, then look for some relevant sleep
hashtags. So your normal hashtags, you’d probably then mix them up with like power nap or Nana nap
or like healthy sleep. I don’t know, you research them. And again, like Nic says, this is about what
resonates with you. You don’t have to necessarily do everything, but take inspiration from what we’re
telling you.
Absolutely it must fit with your brand. So Michelle, on the fourth of January it’s world braille day, and I
think that anybody, if Michelle Dobson is watching anybody who works with people with disabilities,
anybody with disability in the family, anybody who celebrates difference anybody who’s interested in
language and how you read, you know, if we’re talking about braille and all of that kind of stuff there are
a lot of links you might not think is really obvious at first, but depending on where your business sits.
Yeah. Again, if you’re in wellbeing, you know, for your Keiron, Michelle,
I was thinking of Nathalie, you know, I know that I didn’t realise that sort of sign language, British sign
language and American sign language. I thought it was a universal. So I don’t know how braille works
internationally. So those of us who are tutors, linguists, we’ve got quite a few and that that’s about
communication. And you know what, 2020 has taught us how important communication is. So that
could be a real springboard of, of looking forward about just, just how you are going to communicate
with, with a much wider, diverse audience, because your audience doesn’t always look like you.
Sometimes you are your own perfect person, but not always.
Not always. And also it’s probably a moment to, to, to make sure that you are reaching as many people
with hidden things, if we may, as possible. So we’ve got experts in the club who will help you do an audit
on your website or who will help you understand, you know, what your social, or maybe what your
website certainly needs to be doing to make sure it’s inclusive for everybody.
Yeah. Sorry for interrupting it. But I know that in my courses, I need to have the captions and subtitles
and I know they’re not accessible yet. So that’s even when you’re listening to us, the content ideas might
also give you ideas for other stuff you need to do in your, in your marketing.
Definitely. So moving on, you see we’re on a right lick here. We’re going to keep on with it. On the fifth
it’s national bird day. Now this is a day for our photographers.
Not birds like us?
No, not, not like that. No, no, Michelle, but that’s so funny because you could write, in your content,
about how man, my bird does this. That’s a North Eastern thing I think by the way. I was thinking very
specifically for our, our members who are out and about. Like our Nathalie Paris who walks every day
and spot robins every day or for Phil the photographer, anybody, you know, anybody who’s into
photography specifically and maybe art and drawing and painting. On a day like national bird day, which
is the fifth of Jan, you know, there’s loads. I mean, you could share your favourite bird.
Yeah. And Dr. Rebecca has probably got, you know, that certain birds, if you see certain birds, that
means certain things. We have got artists in the group. So that’s just quite a nice one. A lot of you, you
know, use it as an excuse. If you go for a walk or you’ve got some photos on your phone, just, just share
it. These, these days are maybe even if you don’t actually post content, you can go on whatever your
chosen platform is, Twitter, Insta, and search up those days and search for people to start conversations
with, to follow who might then follow you back. So it’s, we’re not necessarily giving you lots of work to
create it yourself, but you can go and get involved.
Yeah, for sure. Yeah. You never know who you’re going to find, do you? And people with just similar
interests to you, whether it’s in work or at work.
And you’re going to love this one, national cuddle up day on the sixth. Now for me, that is about
bringing in something from home into work. You know how we’re always talking about authenticity and
sharing behind the scenes and you know, anything like that. So if you’re cuddling your pet or cuddling
your child and they’re in your marketing and if you’re cuddling your partner and they’re in your
marketing. If you’re cuddling your favourite Teddy and it’s got some meaning, you know, I don’t know
your favourite blanket or whatever, there is an authentic piece in this that you can bring some behind
the scenes stuff into your marketing.
And like Louise Heaps. Louise could be doing all the different words for cuddle. Like what you know, can
she do a poem? And actually, when you said national cuddle up day that really hit a nerve because what
have we not been able to do in 2020? And what might we not still be able to do on the 6th of January?
It’s less than a month away. So me and Nic have always tried to be really positive during COVID also
being authentic when we’ve been scared and worried. And I really hope that there’s actually hope
coming out in 2021, but this cuddle day could be really emotive. So those of you who work in mental
health, those of you who support people, who, who, you know, struggle on a day-to-day basis, but then
being isolated and they cannot. Like me and Nic, not being able to cuddle each other, man. Yeah. It’s just
so yeah,
That one is a big one.
Yeah. There’s a whole context there of, of COVID, which brings me on to like, the next idea is if you’re
someone who is followed, someone who leads, someone who people look up to, so that’s even
Charlotte with Mini Mixers, you know, other wannabe bakers will be looking at Charlotte, will be
following her and people like me and Nic who train. What was your year? How did you run your year?
How was your business successful? What was your COVID strategy? Can you blog about it in your, what
am I going to tell people about my year? Because actually people want to read it, want to be inspired.
The ups, the downs, the highs, the bumps. And so for people like say Dr. Rebecca, the girls at brand
makery who sells stuff, your people want to trust in you that you’re selling stuff. They want to see your
year. It doesn’t have to be the best year, but I would share potentially my year and review and do a blog,
do a video or something like that. Yeah.
Yeah. I mean, we’re up to our first week in January and I think any kind of, any kind of review of the year
before, but keeping it positive, you know, we can go, yeah. Phew, we’re really pleased 2020 is finished.
But like I would, I would, in content terms, I would pick out some of the really key, positive messages to
put out there for sure.
Yeah. I mean the innovation, the way that people have continued to sell. So here’s another one. As a, as
a content idea, can you sell in January? Can you put out those call to actions? And I would suspect, we’ll
tell you this in February, March, April, please don’t forget to sell. And especially Nic, I’m jumping ahead a
little bit, but I know sometime around the 17th is give up your resolutions day. So those of you who are
encouraging people to eat better, to drink less, to exercise, more, to meditate, more, to have more,
come and have a chiropractor session, whatever it is and all those things that we say we’re going to do,
what day is that Nic? The 17th or something?
17th. Ditch new year’s resolution day is the 17th. Okay.
Well, that day and sell are two ideas in there,
But sure, for sure. But like, what we’re saying is if you’re going to start the beginning of setting your
resolutions, which is another idea, but you can have many different kinds of resolutions. You know, if by
the 17th you have ditched them all, then it’s just that journey through those 17, 18 days about why you
said you want to do it and why you’ve given up on it. So there’s loads of content in, in that, in itself. But I
think if we’re talking about resolutions in our business, we want to be careful about whether we want to
go, right? I’ve said I was going to do this. And now seventeen days later, I can’t be bothered or is it that I
set this resolution in January and I’ve already realised that it’s just not appropriate for me, and this is
why? And this content then gets our conversation flow all about the fact that it’s OK to change your
mind about something you’ve already said in January for your business. So that whole idea of goal
setting.
And is that also what was, what were my resolutions in 2020? And how are my resolutions in 2021,
actually maybe the same or significantly different. So Nic’s come at it, it’s really interesting because Nic’s
come at it from one content idea where my idea was those of us who sell services, what people would
normally give up, drink and or drink less, exercise more, eat more healthily, you know, do more hobbies,
make more me time. Those of you who provide those services. When you know, people are giving up,
you want to pick them up, like, come with me, I’m going to help you. Yeah,
Absolutely. So this idea of these days, right? Whichever way you look at it, you can always, you can, you
can always twist your content to make sure it’s fitting with something that is going on out there in the
world. But, but also keep that absolute relevancy for your business. But then you can go off and meet
lots of new people, new businesses, potential customers. Use a hashtag or two, as Michelle said earlier,
that you would not have searched on before. So what we’re trying to do and what we are doing in these
sessions is just starting our brains to go, Oh, actually I never would have thought of using that kind of
day in that way for my business, because there’s always many, many slants. It’s multifaceted on how you
could adopt one of these ideas. And these days, Michelle, I’m just going to check in how many, how
many have we done, you’ve been ticking furiously
About 11, I think 11. And I’ve got another one, which is, this might be 11, have a theme. So we’re talking
to you about giving you different ideas, but maybe you have a theme for January and you have
something that you want, all of your videos, all of your blogs, all of your podcasts, whatever it may be.
You’re just a guest on podcasts. But you’re only talking about resolutions. Have a theme and base your
content around that. You might, you know, you might not even look at anything else, but that’s okay to
do. And that’s what if you’re an exercise person, you know, a fitness trainer or whatever, think about
that. And that this part of this has given you the freedom to create what you want. And it’s just then
having the consistency to do it. And if you do one blog, a short five minute live video a day, if you’re a
gym person, a trainer and you start doing that, if you’re doing a few Insta stories showing like a new
exercise a day, have a theme and make the month yours.
Yeah, for sure. For sure. I’m going to come back to a resolution. Could you set yourself a resolution or a
goal to try new things? Like if you’ve never used stories, Michelle has just said, put it in your story. Could
that be a story of your resolution to try and use stories single day and see where you are by the end of
January? So you can theme that up. You know, if you think about the magazines, they follow a very
strict, same time table of content every year. So every year we’re encouraged to eat loads of sweets and
cake, right up until new year’s day. Drink loads and then on new year’s day, you’re encouraged to stop
eating loads and to stop drinking it. And I get fit and healthy and it is in my mind and always has been
one of the most nonsenses when you start looking at it. But it’s the same every year, every year, you’re
encouraged to do dry January. You’re encouraged to get fit, but, but the, the pattern of the content in
the magazines and that calendar is the same. So into February Valentine’s and loving, March, mother’s
day, spring, right? So you can almost, and we used to do this at Daisy Green and have a calendar that
runs like a magazine editorial and fit around that. And of course we want to do February, March for you
anyway.
So this one is, we’ve given you sort of about 11 content ideas, but then Nic mentioned stories. I’ve
mentioned hashtags specifically. So this is not as much a content idea, but you try a different, if not a
whole different platform, try a different tool on that platform. So if you’re always using the same
hashtags, do some hashtag research and Deepa can help with that. Some of you were starting to use
Reels and are like, how do you do the whole pointing thing? You know? And again, so just, and then
what you can do with that is look back and look at what content you did last year or the year before, and
redo the same content effectively, but using a different tool. So if you posted a static image on
Instagram, do a Reel, do a story, just mix it up. And that’s not lazy. That’s not being unimaginative. That’s
using your time really well and reusing and recycling your content.
And this is why I was so excited for the session because it’s completely unplanned, but I knew we’d sort
of just go off and get into it. Because what we haven’t mentioned of course is if you do look back at last
January and stuff you’ve been putting out there, you could look at the best performing content you put
out last January and bring that into this January, right? So you go back last year and this works really
well, but that, that content didn’t work at all. It fell on deaf ears, but this video worked really well. Or
that content worked really well. Or, Oh, yes. I remember putting that out in January and I got a new
client from it. So Michelle is right. It’s about looking back and thinking what was really cool. And last
January, what could I reinvent, redo, reshape? Cause nobody’s going to remember what you put on last
January. You know? So it’s about time management in that, right? Cause I don’t know how many
minutes we’ve had and I think we’re over 15, which was always going to be the way. Shall we just chuck
a couple of others in here, Michelle? Because
Do, go on. I want to mention blue Monday, which is on the 18th, which is a day when people are feeling
really miserable. So I’d love to see you all putting really cheer up messages out there. I would. But then,
My idea that I wrote, my extra idea was quotes. So I think quotes do look lovely in your brand on
Instagram. People will pick them up and share them into their stories. So think about your, you know,
and that might be a day where on Instagram, you know, you do put out three, four, five, six quotes that
people can pick up on blue Monday or you go live and you, you share. So I would, I love that Nic takes
something where people were like, Oh, just give yourself permission to feel rubbish the next day. No I’ve
got, yeah, we’ve got you. You’re, you’re, you’re okay. You know, and so to me, blue Monday would be
celebrating gratitude and me and Nic were talking a couple of days ago and we were saying things have
been hard this year. And the quote that I’d been using with my little girl was, you know, not every day is
good, but there’s good in every day.
And so I’d have to put that on my Instagram. My daughter on blue Monday,
I’m going to do two more, right? Because I have no idea if we’re close to 15. The 27th of January is
chocolate cake day. I mean, there’s nothing to be said about that is there? Is you bake, share it, if you
eat it, chare it. Buy some cake and share it next to your branded book, show your cake next to you. And I
don’t know pen and pad and create one of those lovely overlays. Put, put your kid’s face in the cake. I
mean Michelle could have a hellish time with three kids and loads of cake and faces and all sorts, right?
But there’s Charlotte. Charlotte can do a sales thing. You know, coming back to that sales, anybody in
January go, Oh I just had a month off. I didn’t really sell because I didn’t want to annoy people. You can
sell in January. And that gives Charlotte, knowing she’s running up to the 27th that you know, even on
the 18th, on blue Monday, she could start promoting chocolate cake sales for national chocolate cake
day and have pictures where she’s literally got 80 orders behind her. So
Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate cake. People do chocolate cake. You have permission because on the
17th, you’ll have been giving up all your resolutions. Can you imagine that? You have your resolution to
get fit. On the 17th you give it up and on chocolate cake day, you stuff, your face it’s brilliant, man! Who
created these awareness days?
Last one, Michelle, inspire your heart with art day on the 31st. Now half of our members are creative as
in like create products and sell. The rest of us that don’t do that, but are still really creative. How much
fun could you have with inspire your heart with art? Your favourite art, draw some yourself, your kids,
art. If you are an artist, of course you should be sharing and selling, back to Michelle’s point, your art.
But there is so much in that. Like everybody, no matter what you do, you know, everybody loves
different kinds of art. Whether it’s painting, whether it’s prints, you can bring music in there and bring in
those conversations and poems. And you know, you don’t have to stick to just the stuff that’s on the
wall like that, right? Art is all around. We could have a discussion about art. What does all that mean to
you? To me, to that person? Oh my goodness.
All artists, photography, watercolors pencil, make sure you’ve got testimonials, get pictures. You know,
this could be one of your marketing habits to get testimonials, to get pictures of your art in people’s
houses. And so that people can, you can then on that day, share testimonials, video ones, written ones,
ones of how your art inspires other people’s hearts and how that fills your heart. So that’s like a, you
know, it’s a, it’s a, it’s a salesy thing because you said, look, literally my stuff fills other people’s hearts.
My art does that. You can use it maybe that way as well. I’ve got at least twenty.
I mean Danielle and her stationary. 20 have we done? Okay. We’ll stop now. Cause we’ve got to go
straight into February. So we really hope that there’s 15 ideas or maybe 20 ideas. And it might be 20
minutes, no 15 minutes, but we’ll see how we’ll go. We really, really hope that will help get your creative
juices, flowing, get some stuff out there. And if you stop, just keep coming back to the video and keep
listening.
There’s no such thing as a wrong idea or a too random idea, capture them all.
Just make sure it sits with your brand, your values and your voice. Make sure you’re using your own
voice and not just copying like what other people are saying and how they’re saying it, make it relevant
to you. And remember your audience always, because your content is for them. It’s for you to enjoy to
publish. It’s for you to enjoy the right, to draw whatever, but your content and its purpose is to raise the
profile of your business. So people understand you, your business, your values, who you are and, and
encourage them to buy. Okay.
So much love, much love. We’ll see you for February.
Bye.