Get To Know Your Customers Day – January
The autumn and early winter celebrations have come and gone. Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years have once again passed each small business by.
If you still haven’t caught your breath it’s too late, now is the time to start your New Year Marketing once again, there’s little time for small business to sit back and relax.
The 3rd Thursday in January is Get To Know Your Customers Day, a day that occurs once every 3 months in North America and probably in other regions around the globe. And while it does not command the attention of most small business like the big year end celebrations do the 4 Get To Know Your Customers Day may be the most important days in the life of a small business.
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National Screenwriters Day – Jan 5th
Nearly 10,000 searches in the U.S. each month are for the word Screenwriter, closely followed by Screenwriter Software (3600), Screenwriter Salary (1600) and Screenwriter Jobs (1000). These searches show there is a lot of interest in becoming a screenwriter as either a vocation or a random pondering of possible life changes. But no matter the reason, I suspect there will be lots of interest in National Screenwriters Day
The stories told in Films, Videos, TV, and Video Games are most written by screenwriters who have adapted books, articles and doodles on a napkin to a usable script, a script that can be produced and marketed to the general public. A screenwriter is the molder and creator of the stories we love and those we love to hate.
Celebrating Screenwriters Day fits into the category of celebrating creativity, of celebrating creators. This day gives those who are screenwriters to publicly stand up and shout i’m a screenwriter and I love it. It’s also an opportunity for small businesses to jump on an underutilized bandwagon as a way to market and promote their services and products.
Most small businesses owners and managers have an understanding of how their story can be a compelling and attractive piece to all their marketing campaigns, and if you don’t then it’s time to get on the board the story telling highway. Your customers want to engage with the stories surround not only your business but also the stories surrounding your products and services.
So what does Screenwriters Day have to do with me, what does it have to do with my products, services and most importantly what does it have to do with my customers?
Celebrating Creativity and Creators acknowledges the debt we owe to those responsible for the stories, products and services we tell and sell to our customers. Screenwriters Day is a bridge to those creators and to creativity overall.
Attaching your marketing to a day like this will up your profile with a group of customers you may not have reached. Screenwriters Day is a great opportunity to connect with other businesses and create a Coop Marketing Extravaganza.
Getting together with other businesses will magnify your marketing power and possibly open future opportunity for joint ventures you’ve not even thought about.
Create An Event
1. Rent out a local art gallery, library or museum for a series of lectures and exhibitions that showcase Creativity and Creators. Have the event run for a week and make it free to the public. If you are daring you can aim to make it a yearly event and because it happens in January you can play-up the new year, new start and realize your dreams aspect that surrounds a new year.
2. Create something creative such as a cafe modeled on the something from Paris in the 1930’s with the waitstaff made of of screenwriters and storytellers that can dazzle the patrons at each table by playing interesting characters. Serve simple food at a very low cost so everyone can afford to engage with the pop-up cafe. Setup easels and counter where you can showcase artwork, technology and creative ideas that the customers can view while they are eating. Run it for a week.
Of course creating an event that celebrates creativity and creators lends itself to an endless amount of options. you can go wild or keep things spartan, your choice. But remember to make what even you do a story people will talk about for a long time to come.
If Screenwriters Day has piqued your interest in either becoming a screenwriter or just in knowing more a good start is the info at Wikipedia. Click For More.
If you want to explore ideas like this for your small business marketing campaigns send us an email and we’ll happily setup a chat.
National Spaghetti Day – Jan 4th
Celebrate National Spaghetti Day
The Family of pasta has been commercially available since the 5th century according to historical texts, and I think we can safely assume that spaghetti Day wasn’t far behind. I’ve never met anyone who didn’t love spaghetti or more specifically pasta, though I’m sure there is a small percentage of those who don’t.
Check out more history of spaghetti and many different dishes made with it on Spaghetti At Wikipedia
Planning an event or series of events that celebrate Spaghetti Day together with your business can be a bit perplexing. Spaghetti is not something we usually think about when mapping out our marketing plan, I don’t think I’ve even heard of a Flash Marketing Popup that featured spaghetti.
For those not in in the know when it comes to Popup Stores or Popup Marketing here is a short article on Forbes titled Retail’s Uberization Is Already Here: It’s Called Pop-Up Stores And here is some info on catering spaghetti you can use for ideas before you call a catering company to partner with.
1. Plan on the Spaghetti Day running for 5 days with the last day be the official National Spaghetti Day. So from Monday to Friday your business will market itself around spaghetti.
2. This all happens at the beginning of the new year so I’m recommending that this becomes a give-a-way to those in need or those by themselves. This could happen in a different nursing home each day or a different church basement or even different schools.
3. Partner up with a catering company or a couple of catering companies and come to some sort of agreement on what percentage of their costs you’ll cover. Maybe you cover the food costs or just the labor costs. It’s important that they bear some of the cost since they also will benefit greatly in the marketing success. But it is your marketing so if you want most of the control you’ll need to do most of the heavy lifting when it comes to cash etc.
4. You’ll want to connect with all local media and online social media at least a month before the launch and the earlier you connect the more value you’ll get.
The story you’ll be telling both the media and any catering business you hope to partner with is that over the course of 5 days you are setting up one or two Spaghetti Day Giveaways. Each popup will be a colorful booth that serves food to anyone who shows up. To make it workable you’ll need to limit the hours it serves food.
Each popup will promote the food, the giveaway and your business at the same time. Lots of great graphics on the booth and hanging banners at entrances and exits etc.
Because it is the beginning of the new year you can promote the power of giving within each businesses community and how powerful the message is to all involved as well as the larger community and surrounding communities.
This becomes a multi pronged marketing event that pays off to not only those receiving but also to the businesses and media involved. If done with loads of enthusiasm it will build visibility, marketing chops and community recognition.
This particular marketing campaign also lends itself to being repeated expanded each year. Think about having is intergrated into all your local locations from 2 to 200 hundred small business branches. And think about also inviting 2 or 3 other business to join as it grows, even competitors.
NATIONAL MAPLE SYRUP DAY – DECEMBER 17
NATIONAL MAPLE SYRUP DAY – DECEMBER 17
Maple Syrup Day ranks as one of the easiest national day to hook onto to promote your small business. And it comes along at the perfect time of year both the weather and the holidays (for those who celebrate the Dec dates) are rolling forward together. There is a brisk and festive air surrounding most cities and towns in North and South America.
I suggest holding a Sugar on Snow luncheon for all your customers (RSVP Required) and their friends.
- Luncheon Hosting: Host the luncheon with that is built around an atmosphere for kids and kids at heart, make it fun. Encouraging your customers to bring their children is a win for you and a win for the parents. And how may sugar on snow events will parents get to take their children to while they are young? Answer: Very Few
- Connect with a local museum or library (great idea) that has a good size hall and offer to pay them for it’s use but also include them in the planning and execution of the event. They can offer volunteers to help out and save you from spending lots of cash hiring a catering hall. Besides it good to get kids interested in Libraries and Museums.
Sugar On Snow is easily made and served with just a bit of planning ahead. The great folks at Cabot Cheese in New England have created a nice informative recipe page for creating Sugar On Snow for your customers, friends and family. Check It Out. And of course it includes Vermont products but any good syrup will be fine for the Maple Syrup Day celebration.
Here is a video about a sugar on snow celebration at the University of Vermont along with information about maple research happening in Vt. I’m biased about Vermont Maple Syrup since I’m from there, but any real maple syrup will make your customer event for Maple Syrup Day a sure hit.
28th Annual Sugar on Snow Celebration
World AIDS Day —
Uniting people across the world to to fight HIV, to understand those living with HIV and to remember those who have died from illnesses related to AIDS. World AIDS Day is a moment to stop, reflect and act.
It’s estimated that more than 35 million people across the globe are living with HIV – AIDS today and that over 36 million people have died from illness related to HIV – AIDS. It’s a sobering thought and one that calls out to be remembered and kept in the light.
World AIDS Day is also an opportunity for business owners to show their support for the continuing fight around the world and quite possibly in your town and city to educate your customers about treatment, research and the rights of those with HIV – AIDS.
Join with other business owners during the week before, and the week after World AIDS Day. Offer your customers information and a chance to donate to national and international organizations. And while we all need to act with a measure of dignity when promoting World AIDS Day it’s ok to be upbeat and express gratitude to all those who have contributed to this day for over 30 years and to those who will follow in their compassionate footsteps.
Make sure you have sensibly vetted any organizations you are connected with before recommending to any friends or customers that they donate time or money. It’s unfortunate but at this time of year many creeps come out of the woodwork with scams.
World AIDS Day 2018 — December 1
Check out the documentary on HBO titled Mapplethorpe Look At Pictures for more about Robert Mapplethorpe. NOTE: some may find the content provocative.