8 Types of Timely Content To Use in Your Campaigns

illustration of a laptop on a blue background with symbols for timely content hovering around it

CopyPress

September 13, 2021 (Updated: March 8, 2023)

Adding timely content to your marketing plan is a strategic approach to reaching more leads, and quickly. As the name suggests, these pieces have an expiration date. Your audience cares about them for a short time before they move on to something else. The more enticing you make your timely campaigns on social media, through your blogs, and other types of digital and print marketing, the more leads you can attract before your content gets replaced by the next hot topic. Today, we’re looking at eight types of timely content to add to your campaign plans:

Product Launches
Events
Newsjacking
Promotions
Seasons or Holidays
Studies
Brand Updates
Year-End Recaps and New Year Predictions

1. Product Launches

Product launches are a perfect example of timely content. Even with pre-launch events, the real unveiling of a new product or service takes place within one day. Creating timely content to hype the drop date lets your brand build anticipation and generate interest from your target audience. Throughout the campaign, encourage followers and subscribers to share content about the launch on their own feeds or stories.

You can also work with influencers and provide early access, and have them share their experiences using the new products or services before everyone else. This strategy works for timely content because once the product or service goes live to everyone, the exclusivity of the influencer content isn’t relevant anymore.

2. Events

Events that your company hosts or sponsors are also perfect for timely content campaigns. Similar to product launches, you tease and promote the event in advance. This type of content may include sign-up forms, articles about guest appearances or entertainment, or behind-the-scenes preparation content. Take the campaign a step further by creating additional content on the day or days of the event, such as exclusive interviews with speakers or live look-ins on the event for people who couldn’t attend.

3. Newsjacking

Newsjacking is a fancy term for taking a timely, newsworthy topic and making it relevant to your brand. Most brands found a way to newsjack during the COVID-19 pandemic. Amazon Web Services (AWS) found a cute way to incorporate pandemic content into its marketing with its “Your Age” commercial. In the ad, a little boy explains to his sister how life was different when he was her age, seemingly before the pandemic. He touches on topics like picking up the dog’s food, mom’s exercise classes, and dad’s cooking habits, and how they’ve changed in just a few years.

This is a clever way to show off all the services AWS provides and how people could take advantage of them from home. Newsjacking may boost your SEO, increase your social media engagement, and expand your brand reach by taking advantage of touching on customer pain points related to a timely topic.

4. Promotions

Having a sale? You can create timely content. Holding a giveaway, contest, or poll? Also, a chance to use timely content. Product or service promotions run for a finite amount of time. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be special. Use content to generate as much interest as possible within the promotional window and get as many respondents and engagements as you can. When you share promotional content, people pay attention because they’re getting something out of the deal, from discounts to prizes or bragging rights.

5. Seasons or Holidays

Though winter, spring, summer, and fall may come to mind when you think of seasonal content, there are plenty of other seasons for content creation depending on your brand, industry, and location. Health companies may create content related to allergy season, while travel agencies care about hurricane season. Promoting these yearly occurrences is a way to appeal to a broad audience. No matter your audience segment, seasons affect everyone, making this kind of content prime for universal campaigns.

Related to seasonal content, holiday content is most powerful right before and on a given holiday. The holidays you focus on in content will depend on your business, company culture, and audience locations. In the U.S., many companies create content for national holidays, like the Fourth of July and Thanksgiving. Others also create content for unofficial “national days” that recognize smaller, fun topics like ice cream or pets when a national day relates to its brands.

6. Studies

Talking about newly released studies is a form of timely content because study data can change quickly. For example, a report about social media statistics and trends in March may differ from the same study results in April. If your company continuously runs studies and generates industry data, this type of timely content is perfect for your brand. Not only does it set your company up as a trusted source and thought leader on specific industry topics, but it also gives you a nearly endless supply of content to create.

7. Brand Updates

Brand updates are highly relevant announcements that affect your brand and its followers. They include any immediate or upcoming changes your audience needs to know. For example, companies that only operate a certain number of months out of the year may announce the opening and closing dates for the season. In-person store locations may announce times changes, construction projects, or new amenities in their buildings. Updates serve as timely content because the changes aren’t new forever. Once they become commonplace, you won’t need to talk about them anymore.

8. Year-End Recaps and New Year Predictions

Year-end and new-year content are most popular in December and January near New Year’s Eve and Day. Different from holiday content, end-of-year content may consist of round-ups or recaps from the previous year. For example, brands may list their most popular or best-selling products of the year. New-year content often focuses on looking forward to the next adventure for the company, or yearly predictions. Many brands use programs like Best Nine for Instagram or other social media tools to collect their most popular photos from the year and share them as new content.

Christy Walters

CopyPress writer