One of the best ways to market a product or service is to build a promotion around a holiday, day of observation or current event!
Promotions tied to an event or holiday generate buzz, provide great search engine content by tapping into existing media articles about the holiday/event and give you the opportunity to get your creative marketing juices flowing!
You might only think that there are a few of the ‘big name’ holidays to tap into – Back-to-School, Mother’s Day, Valentine’s Day… and that “little” upcoming event on December 25th, Christmas. 😉
But in fact there are hundreds of holidays, events and observations that happen each year that you can build a promotion around – events that you may not know exist (or have never thought of building a promotion around).
Did You Know?
In October 2010, the world was flooded with a plethora of promotions for 10/10/10 (October 10, 2010) – a date that happens once every 100 years.
But in addition to that centennial event, October is the month that boasts such holidays as:
- National Cake Decorating Day
- Universal Music Day
- Columbus Day
- Canadian Thanksgiving Day
If you sell cake pans, National Cake Decorating Day is the perfect day to run a promotion.
Sell musical instruments, market and promote your event around Universal Music Day.
No matter what day of the month it is, there’s an event or date to build a promotion around!
How to Creative an Event Based Promotion
The best thing about event based promotions is they give you a LOT of room for creativity.
In fact this is the reason that I love this strategy – it allows you to do something different, unique, creative with your marketing!
But there’s something even more import… your customers love it too.
Event based promotions work!
People love shopping during promotions tied to events. It’s more fun, people get into it and it’s much more engaging than the humdrum “Save 20% until Thursday” promotion. (yawn)
If you sell baking supplies, cooking products, recipe books, birthday themed products, running a National Cake Decorating Day promotion will generate added excitement for the baking enthusiast who visits your site.
Event based promotions are always a great way to promote your sales in a niche!
In November, National Real Jewelry Month is a perfect way to promote your pre-Christmas jewelry gifts. Oktoberfest holds tons of fall merchandising possibilities. And “Have a Bad Day” Day – November 19th… well everyone deserves a discount or special promotion on this kind of day. 🙂
September is baby safety month and a perfect time to run promotions and events for your baby products. Craft sellers could build some awesome promotions for Sewing Machine Day, June 13th.
Not to mention events like the Academy Awards, the opening of baseball season and more! There are thousands of them to choose from!
Now you may be wondering where to go to find out about all these events/holidays/observations. The folks here at Holiday Insights.have done a great job of putting together a comprehensive list by month. You can also Google the keywords “events celebrations calendar” or “national day” or “observations daily”
Look at the Promotion Possibilities for October!
Take a look at all these events you can promote around in October! (Courtesy of the folks at Holiday Insights)
October Observations by Month:
- Adopt a Shelter Dog Month
- American Pharmacist Month
- Apple Jack Month
- Awareness Month
- Breast Cancer Awareness Month
- Clergy Appreciation Month
- Computer Learning Month
- Cookie Month
- Domestic Violence Awareness Month
- Eat Country Ham Month
- International Drum Month
- Lupus Awareness Month
- National Diabetes Month
- National Pizza Month
- National Vegetarian Month
- National Popcorn Popping Month
- Sarcastic Month
- Seafood Month
October Weekly Celebrations:
- Week 1 Get Organized Week
- Week 1 Customer Service Week
- Week 2 Fire Prevention Week
- Week 2 Pet Peeve Week
- Week 3 Pastoral Care Week
October Observations by Date
1 World Vegetarian Day
2 International Frugal Fun Day – first Saturday of the month
2 National Custodial Worker Day
2 Name Your Car Day
3 Oktoberfest in Germany ends, date varies
3 Techies Day
3 Virus Appreciation Day
4 National Golf Day
4 National Frappe Day
5 Do Something Nice Day
5 World Teacher’s Day
6 Come and Take it Day
6 Mad Hatter Day
6 Physician Assistant Day
7 Bald and Free Day
7 World Smile Day
8 American Touch Tag Day
8 World Egg Day – second Friday of the month
9 Curious Events Day
9 Fire Prevention Day
9 Leif Erikson Day
9 Moldy Cheese Day
10 National Angel Food Cake Day
11 Columbus Day – second Monday of month
11 It’s My Party Day
11 Take Your Teddy Bear to Work Day
12 Cookbook Launch Day
12 Old Farmer’s Day
12 Moment of Frustration Day
13 Emergency Nurses Day- date varies
13 International Skeptics Day
14 Be Bald and Free Day
14 National Dessert Day – take an extra helping, or two
15 White Cane Safety Day
16 Bosses Day
16 Dictionary Day
16 International Newspaper Carrier Day -date varies each year
16 Sweetest Day Third Saturday of month
17 Wear Something Gaudy Day
18 No Beard Day
19 Evaluate Your Life Day
20 Brandied Fruit Day
21 Babbling Day
21 Count Your Buttons Day
21 National Pumpkin Cheesecake Day find a recipe, too.
22 National Nut Day
23 Make a Difference Day- fourth Saturday of the month, an opportunity for neighbors to help neighbors.
23 National Mole Day
23 Tv Talk Show Host Day
24 Mother-In-Law Day – fourth Sunday in October
24 National Bologna Day
24 United Nations Day
25 Punk for a Day Day
25 World Pasta Day
26 National Mincemeat Day
27 National Tell a Story Day – in Scotland and the U.K.
27 Navy Day
28 Plush Animal Lover’s Day
29Frankenstein Friday – last Friday in October
29 Hermit Day
29 National Frankenstein Day
30 National Candy Corn Day
30 Mischief Night
31 Carve a Pumpkin Day – no surprise here
31 Halloween
31 Increase Your Psychic Powers Day
And this is just for the month of October!
Now it’s your turn! What event/holiday/observation are you going to build a promotion around this month? Let me know below…
-Lisa
Who knew there were so many wacky days out there – LOL! And they say Hallmark invented Valentine’s Day!
Thanks for this great info, Lisa. I will definitely be participating in Plush Animal Lover’s Day, as I have a ton of plush in my store :0)
Hi Serena,
Yes! That’s perfect! And of course it sets you apart from your competition, because most people only know about the “big” holidays.
– Lisa
Holy Cow !! What a great huge amount of business data. There are dozens of mind set help along with more holidays or events that you could ever have guessed.
A great resource for all of us. Thank You, Lisa
Great post Lisa, as always you deliver such valuable and useful information !
Thanks so much! 🙂
Hi Lisa,
I am a HUGE fan of yours but I have one problem which I need to point out to you as I know that we are not all perfect and that we all have room for improvements in all that we do if only someone had pointed out the flaw.
The problem is with the frequent lack of proper grammar in your writings that is quite distracting.
eg.
we through in an extra 10% savings off your total order!
“Through” should have been “threw”.
I learn a lot from you but these malapropisms often distract me.
Mike.
Ontario
Canada
Hi Mike,
Thanks for your great feedback on the content! Actually the problem is not my grammar, it’s typos and proofreading due to the extremely rapid pace that I think and read.
You see, I think and read extremely fast. I can read through an entire page and comprehend the content in the time it takes most people to read the first 3 or 4 sentences. It’s a blessing in that I read VOLUMES of data each day, comprehend it, analyze it, apply it to business and bring it to my students/clients/readers.
The problem is that I can’t type accurately as fast as I think – and when I go back and proof it, I “see it” as it should be in my head. It’s actually very common on the way our brains think. Our brains will fill in words and letters as they “should be”.
To proofread, I have to force my brain to slow wayyyy down -and even then I have to proof something 4-5 times, because “slow reading” for me is still too fast for proofreading.
When I speak – I can be 5 concepts ahead in my mind, but still need to be delivering concept #1. It’s the same thing, I have to slow my mind down to get the entire thought out to my audience. That’s why I’ve often joked about my frustration that I can’t just download info to people from my brain with a Firewire cable. Speaking just slows me down. LOL!
The downside of thinking and reading so fast is that it shows up in my writing – because my fingers FLY across the keyboard as well – but not as fast as my brain thinks the thoughts. 🙂
However, I do realize typos can be distracting for people – so I try and keep them to a minimum.
But I’m glad you brought this up because now people know I’m not a poor speller, just a lightning fast reader/thinker!
(Which I have to say I prefer! That and an on-staff proof reader!)
-Lisa
Hi
You are not alone. It happens to me all the time. I can proof read someone else’ work but not my own. I also talk fast.