Every Day Marketing Ideas for Marketing Your Business Every Day

A few years ago, when researching to write my first ever marketing calendar I realized that for every day of the year there is some kind of marketing topic, or, more accurately, there’s a topic that you can turn into another excuse for marketing for your business.

When you put every day marketing ideas into play every day, you will  have a valid reason to interact with your customers, members of your target markets and your online audience 365 days a year in ways that entertains them and at the same time enlightens them about your business, products and services — in a way that doesn’t feel like “selling.“

We’re all pretty much aware of the “big” holidays that we can –and should – include when planning out the coming season or next year of marketing (Christmas, New Years, Valentines Day, Mothers Day, Fathers Day, Halloween, etc.)

But what you may not know is that there are less well-known holidays and observances that maybe give you even more ability to entertain and engage your customers and your social media audience, email readers (a.k.a. “future customers”) than do the big, well-known major holidays.

Highlighting obscure and sometimes silly-sounding observances like “Talk Like a Pirate Day” aren’t necessarily going to cost you big in terms of marketing expenses, but they do give you the excuse to engage on social media in ways that are interesting simply because your customers and other members of your target markets haven’t already seen them a ba-zillion times already. 

Gathering those lists of obscure days provided the basis for writing 365 Days of Marketing which does, in fact, provide marketing ideas for online and offline marketing for observances and holidays you’ve heard about, and probably many that you (and your customers and prospects) have not already exhausted when it comes to marketing.

You can, literally, talk about every day of the year and thereby have the means to be marketing your business every day. 

You can relate these obscure, weird, odd and silly-sounding observances to your business and your target markets in some way that gives you the means to connect with them, engage them, entertain them and intrigue them to want to know more about you and your business. You give people reasons beyond what they buy from your business to let you into their lives.

Let’s take the coming week as an example.

Sunday, November 4^th.  Daylight Savings Time Ends

Beginning Saturday (that’s today!) if you did not start earlier, you can be reminding people about the need to turn their clocks back 1 hour.  Daylight savings time officially ends at 2:00 AM on Sunday morning.  Ask people what they’re going to do with this hour they’re getting back.  Remind them they can enjoy an extra hour of sleep if they want.  Make a list of Top 10 Ways they can use the extra hour (and it wouldn’t hurt if one or more of these top 10 ways had something to do with your products and services!)

Monday, November 5^th – National Donut Day

Post trivia about donuts on your social media or have a donut trivia contest.  Give away donuts as a free gift with purchase. Partner with a local donut store for cooperative (you do a campaign or special offer together) or cross (you each extend offers to one another’s clients) marketing.

Tuesday, November 6^th – National Election Day

Hold a mock election for superiority among your products or services.  Write campaign speeches on behalf of your products or services touting their accomplishments and telling people what they intend to do if elected (purchased).  Provide people with respite, retreat or refreshments who are suffering negative campaign fatigue.

Wednesday, November 7^th – Magazine Day

Based on the interests of your client base or people in your target markets, talk about what’s popular right now or on trend in the types of magazines they are likely to be reading.  Post a list of the Top 10 Favorite Magazines of your staff or take a poll of your customer’s favorite magazines via in-store survey at the point of sale, email, online voting form or social media.  Create a magazine about your business or your products and services as a type of corporate brochure, annual report or catalog which can be utilized in direct mail marketing, given away as bag stuffers, used in cold calling or sales meetings or placed as a digital version online.

Thursday, November 8^th – X-Ray Day

X-Rays let you see what’s on the inside and not viewable by the naked eye.  Talk about your business, products or services as though you were able to X-Ray them and tell your audience about the benefits they may not be able to see with the naked eye, but which are nevertheless very real to those people who choose to do business with you.  Tell people about the people behind the scenes in your business who they may never see but who are vital to the process.  Take time out to honor and recognize employees who work behind the scenes who find ways to improve the customer experience.

Friday, November 9^th – Parade Day

When people go out shopping, they’re the ones on the move. When they’re at a parade, they get to stay still and see everything pass before them.  Here are ways that you can parade your products and services in front of your customers and prospects:

• A series over time of social media posts putting the spotlight on products or services, one at a time
• Blog posts with Top 10 Lists of customer’s favorites, staff favorites, gift ideas, ways to use your products or services ideas, product or service benefits, local relevance, ways your business benefits the local community, etc.
• A featured product or service of the month which is featured in point of sale displays, email marketing, on your website, in social media posts, etc.

Saturday, November 10^th – U.S. Marine Corp. Established November 10, 1775

With Veteran’s Day just 2 days away, why not start honoring local military heroes early.  Post trivia about the Marine Corp or hold a trivia contest via social media or online or in-store entry forms.  Hold a drawing for a grand prize winner and give matching gifts to a local US Marine Corp member or their family or a local Veteran’s organization.

Create a month-long or permanent military member discount.  Give away a free gift with purchase to card carrying members of the military (or their family members).  ‘Adopt’ a local US Marine or a military family for a shopping spree, day of free services or even for a year’s worth of free services or products.  Highlight the accomplishments of local people who are or have served in the Marine Corp or other military branches with distinction.

Talk about your support of the military online and create in-store displays noting the same. Write press releases for any of the special efforts, charitable gifts, free items or discounts extended to military, etc.

There you have it – every day marketing for marketing your business every day during the first week of November, 2012.  Once you get the hang of taking local observances and turning them into big and small campaigns it becomes easy to engage and entertain your customers and build a bigger role for your business in their lives. 

It’s going to be a great year!