World Book Day used to strike fear into my heart as a parent, usually as the school seemed to decide very last minute that the kids needed to go in fancy dress.
Thankfully my kids are beyond that age now! And I think for many small businesses it’s a great day to drive some really unique and engaging content. I mean, yes, you and your team could still dress up as your favourite characters, that’s definitely one approach to take. But here’s a few more ideas for (primarily) written content for different kinds of businesses.
Food Brands
What about writing about cookbooks that inspired you in creating your product? Or cookbooks that have recipes that your product can be used in?
There’s so much you can spin off this: written, video, photos. Do all three off one recipe.
If your product has a particular location story, then you could feature books about that area. I always love the way Peter’s Yard bring to life different elements of life in Sweden, the spiritual home of their crispbreads. They don’t have to go after just cookbooks; they could be Swedish fiction authors, guides to Sweden or even the best Swedish phrasebook.
Drinks Brands
Possibly following a similar theme, drinks businesses could go after the best cocktail books around. Again this allows you to create all kinds of content, not just talk about the book. There are guides to bars around the globe, or the country, where you could pull out places your product is stocked, or you’d like it to be.
Maybe yours is a non-alcoholic drink, but the above could still apply, even if you’re in the tea business. But you might want to include guides to tea rooms as well. Or tell the stories of tea rituals, tea growing, tea leaf reading. Again, this doesn’t just have to be written content, think about images and video as well.
Restaurants and Coffee Shops
Of course, you could take a similar angle to the ideas I’ve suggested for food and drinks brands. But you could also think about your customers who spend time with you. You might even have customers who’ve written a book. Think how they’d feel about being the focus of your content. Or you could ask your regular customers what their favourite book is.
And who doesn’t love to see their name in print? Well, if it’s in print for the right reasons I guess! It certainly gives them a good reason to share your content.
Beauty and Grooming Brands
There are so many fabulous books by the world’s best makeup artists. The question might be how can you find a different angle? I mean, it’s easy to list Bobbi Brown or Lisa Eldridge’s books on makeup. But what about Joan Collins on beauty? Or even Barbara Cartland. Or maybe makeup books from different eras? If nothing else it’ll give your customers a bit of a laugh, and good content can be entertaining, not just educational.
Sorry though to those of you running men’s grooming brands. I can’t find any random celebrities for you to feature, but I’m sure if you do your research you can find some.
Wellness Brands
There are so many books in this territory that the first decision has to be about your focus. Perhaps it could be guides to the most relaxing places in the world, at least according to you and your team. It could be your favourite meditation guides. You could even think about beautiful photography books, of images that contribute to wellbeing.
Now, there’s nothing to stop you going for the dressing up route as well. Why not? Just don’t forget to make some content from it as well.
World Book Day is 1 March, so a week tomorrow. Time to get your thinking caps on and get your content ready and out there. What have you got planned? Are you planning to take part or not?
