Sometimes it’s hard to promote sales during the Christmas season for products or services that sell year round, have everyday use, or are decidedly unromantic. How do you find freelance writers who can put a holiday spin on such products? Between blog writers, article writers, or technical writers, what kind of writer would serve you best?
What will work best depends on the type of product you have and who your customers are. Blog writers give opinions, article writers tell stories, technical writers discuss details. You can, of course, use a combination of the three. Let’s look at some examples.
Spinning a Product
My father once bought my mother a vacuum cleaner for her birthday. Granted, it wasn’t Christmas, but the effect on her was the same. She hated it. Far from being charmed that he was making her work easier with a great vacuum cleaner, she associated it with more work around the house. This gift was not handled well.
How would a good writer promote such a gift? If your product is a household workhorse, this anecdote could be used in a blog giving advice on how to ensure it is well received. Your blog could encourage decorating it in a Santa outfit, accompanying it with a bottle of quality wine and a certificate for one year’s supply, or committing to do the work yourself for six months with hugs and kisses to go with it.
For articles, if your product’s sales usually pick up around the holidays, a good article writer could research the history of holiday sales of the item and speculate on why that is such a popular time to buy. Or if it picks up at another time of year, but the reason for it applies to Christmas also (or could), a good writer could draw a parallel in their writeup. Or they could write about a historical holiday drama related to your product.
If your product can relieve typical holiday mishaps (like too much dishwashing from parties, pets left out in the cold, or cats climbing the Christmas tree), a good technical writer can spin your product specifications to include the benefits in purchasing it for the holidays. A vacuum cleaner that is quiet (low decibels) could let you clean up Christmas tree needles around sleeping children, for example.
Identifying a Writer
Some crowd-sourcing sites allow a business to ask writers for ideas before hiring anyone. This gives you a really good way to choose both the writer and an idea. But first you will need to think carefully about which of your products or services can be equated with Christmas. If you only have one, it’s easy.
In your writer solicitation, include a link to the product/service in question. Tell writers you want to especially promote this one for the holidays. Let a technical writer self select. For blog and article writers, ask for ideas and choose the ones you like best.
Susette H is a freelance writer available on WriterAccess, a marketplace where clients and expert writers connect for assignments.
