Posts filed under 'calendar marketing'
December 17 is Clean Air Day ~ marking the 1967 passage of the U.S. Clean Air Act, a set of laws enacted to protect the nation from air pollution. It was the first law to place pollution controls on the auto industry. This is a day set aside to honor our clean air and to raise awareness of the many environmental issues that are changing our climate on earth. This is one of several official days to pay attention to your environment and the air we breathe. However, we should pay attention and do our part EVERY DAY.
Did you know that flowers and plants freshen the air? And it’s getting close to Christmas, Hannukah and Kwanza. Send flowers to honor the holidays and the environment.
December 17th, 2008
December 8th is International Shareware Day – Shareware is computer software developed for the public domain, which can be used or copied without infringing copyright. Programmers typically get paid a small one time fee from users who find the software useful. If your company develops shareware, it is a great day to start a shareware blitz around the world. If you don’t you can still find some online and pass it along – ask friends and colleagues for suggestions before doing so as some of the stuff out there is of poor quality or doesn’t do all it says it can.
December 8th, 2008
December 5th is Bathtub day – How about a bathtub race for charity? It can bring your company great publicity while doing good for the community. “Each year teams of stalwarts, idiots, call them what you will, leap into cast iron bath tubs and row like mad down the River Adur from Bramber to Shoreham, in a race against the elements and each other, all with the aim of having fun and raising funds for local charities.” The modern race began over 30 years ago when a member of Shoreham and Southwick Round Table, Clive Thorpe, had a bright idea to liven up proceedings for the year. The first race had eight teams, with all the men dressed as women, complete with stockings and suspenders; and a lot of fun was had by all contestants, culminating in a party. For more information on this historic British event, visit: http://www.bathtubrace.co.uk/
December 5th is also International Volunteer Day for Economic and Social Development - Find a new cause or volunteer for one you are already involved in. Celebrate other volunteers with a thank you note or pizza party. Create an event for your small business and recruit volunteers to help you plan and present the event to the public. Habitat for Humanity has created a wonderful Economic and Social Development program called Woman Build Program where they take volunteers to help build homes for people in dire need of housing. Check it out at www.habitatforhumanity.org.
December 5th, 2008
December is the time when many businesses send products around the globe to fulfill customers’ orders or offers in their personal letters to their client base/leads list. If you do this, do you remember to use a “lift note” in your packaging? A “lift note” is a a note you include in your letter/package designed to lift the response of your mailing.
Here are 5 tips to make your “lift note” more effective - 1. Have a big, bold headline like the front page of New York Times 2. Use a customer testimonial in your message 3. Include a guarantee 4. Put it on brightly colored paper or something that would “stand out” in the packaging 5. List the benefits to your customer - the WIIFM (what’s in it for Me - them) for doing business with you.
December 1- 8 is Recipe Greetings for the Holidays Week – send a recipe post card or email post card to your customers. Or use a play on words – and go with something like – What’s the perfect recipe for a great holiday season? You + (my business) = a recipe for success… You could have an open house this week and invite your clients to stop by for your “recipe for success” or other fare.
December 2nd, 2008
November 28th is Black Friday – the day after Thanksgiving Day in the United States, one of the busiest shopping days of the year. Many retailers open very early (typically 5 am or even earlier) and offer doorbuster deals and loss leaders to draw people to their stores. Although Black Friday, as the first shopping day after Thanksgiving, has served as the unofficial beginning of the Christmas season at least since the start of the modern Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in 1924, the term “Black Friday” has been traced back only to the 1970s.
“Black Friday” was originally so named because of the heavy traffic on that day (see below), although most contemporary uses of the term refer instead to it as the beginning of the period in which retailers are in the black (i.e., turning a profit) What type of promotion are you doing in your small business for Black Friday? (source: Wikipedia)
November 27th, 2008
November 23-29 is National Game and Puzzle Week - the Red Cross Oregon Trail Chapter created “Game Plan” – a locally developed Red Cross educational card game about preparing for and responding to disasters and emergencies. When players answer questions correctly, they receive resources to survive disasters. Earthquakes and tsunamis are two of the 15 disasters highlighted in the game. What kind of “game” could you create to help your community and draw attention to your company?
Check out The Million Minute Family Challenge - an annual event sponsored by Patch Products, the company that publishes Blurt!, Malarky, Tribond, Talkin’ Tango and others. The goal of the event is to encourage families and friends to spend more time together playing board games.For some great game ideas, visit: Games Kids Play - Has 250 rules for games you played as a child.
People love games and puzzles. Small business owners who make it FUN to do business with, who create an experience for their clients and customers will stay top of mind especially when other businesses are in a downturn.
November 23rd, 2008
November 21st is World Hello Day ~
Anyone can participate in World Hello Day simply by greeting ten people. This demonstrates the importance of personal communication for preserving peace. People around the world use the occasion of World Hello Day as an opportunity to express their concern for world peace.
Beginning with a simple greeting on World Hello Day, their activities send a message to leaders, encouraging them to use communication rather than force to settle conflicts. As a global event World Hello Day joins local participation in a global expression of peace. In fact, 31 winners of the Nobel Peace Prize are among the people who have realized World Hello Day’s value as an instrument for preserving peace and as an occasion that makes it possible for anyone in the world to contribute to the process of creating peace. (source: http://www.worldhelloday.org)
What can you do to honor World Hello Day? Pick up the phone and call people! Just call your customers and say Hello. Imagine what would happen if you did! I bet none of your competitors will be doing it….unless they are reading this and do it too.
My staff and I plan to do just that!
November 21st, 2008
November 19th is Play Monopoly Day ~ In 1935 Parker Brothers launched the popular board game Monopoly which soon rose to the ranks of one of the most loved and most played board games of all times. Certainly the most recognized! In fact, versions of Monopoly have been used for more than just game-playing.In fact, my local chamber of commerce created a game called Chamberopoly which we used as a recruitment tool for our annual membership drive. We sold the board “spaces” to local business owners and carried that board with us to every meeting the chamber hosted for 3 months. That game became the symbol of welcome for our new members and the drive recruited more than 100 new business owners into our organization. And it was a lot of fun.
How could you use the traditional monopoly idea to promote your business? How about sending monopoly money to your customers with a note saying they can use it toward a future purchase? If you are a realtor maybe you could use the monopoly “houses” in your marketing plans….
Did you know: The most expensive Monopoly Set was created by jeweler Sidney Mobell of San Francisco in 1988. The $2-million dollar set is 23-karat gold and the dice have 42 full cut diamonds for spots.
November 19th, 2008
November 10-17 is World Kindness Week - Citizens Bank wants to promote good intentions by partnering with its employees and customers to volunteer in their communities. They do so by inviting their customers to participate in “Join Us” a volunteer program they originally designed for their internal customers, their employees.According to the bank “Asking customers to volunteer – is a great way to align your company with a variety of worthwhile causes and boost your brand identity.”
Join Us uses the tagline “We’ve noticed working in the community hardly ever feels like work,” and is promoted on their website with a listing of local nonprofits and projects their customers can get involved in. The program has garnered Citizens over a million hits as well as media attention. Mudd Jeans does something similar highlighting the community commitments of extraordinary teens and MINI has used similar campaigns directed toward its passionately loyal customer base.
November 9th, 2008
November 29th is Electronic Greetings Day ~
Post Free Funny, Edgy Video e-Cards On Social Networking Sites & Blogs with RattleBox www.rattlebox.com. Or send a traditional ecard for free from several sites including Smilebox.com DoozyCards.com or American Greetings.
My personal favorite are Jackie Lawson cards. These electronic greeting cards are not free but they are innexpensive (and worth it).
Like the real thing but don’t have time to go to the post office or local card store? You can sign up online for SendOutCards and send a REAL CARD that gets mailed to your recipient the very next day! SendOutCards are a wonderful stay-in-touch method to let people know just how much you care. You know that feeling you get when you go to the mailbox and in between all the direct mail soliticitations, and bills is a beautiful hand written greeting card? You see that and forget about all the other mail. All you want to do is tear that envelop open to see what’s inside. Real cards are no longer a lost art. Not since SendOutCards came on the scene. Try it out! See what I mean. Way better than Electronic Greetings because people can keep these cards, post them on their bulletin board or refrigerator.
And if you like what you see, you can sign up with SendOutCards www.SendOutCards.com/Heidi as a distributor. What a wonderful way to add you’re your monthly income stream.
November 2nd, 2008
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