Small Business DIY Marketing Tip: Create a Custom ‘National Day’
I don’t know if this is ironic or merely appropriate, but someone made up the special day, “Make Your Own Holiday Day,” and it falls on March 26 of every year.
Whatever else it might be, for small business owners it’s certainly a reminder that if handled properly, you can get a lot of free publicity by creating your own special day. Further, in most cases it doesn’t take an act of Congress to get a special day on one of the calendars that keeps track of those things.
Let me give you the places to propose your special day right now and then we’ll discuss some ways you can use your custom special day to get some publicity for yourself. Here are the places to submit or register your special day application:
If you know of others, mention them in the comments below!
Keys for free publicity
As you consider creating your special day, remember that it has to be “big” enough to warrant national attention – even though you’ll probably be using it to get the attention of your local media. So don’t tie it to your location or something that is peculiar to your area. Make sure that it plays in Pomona just as well as it plays in Poughkeepsie.
For example, the small business owner of a local print shop might declare a “National Business Card Day.” It could be a day when business people are urged to give their cards to at least 10 people and review their cards to make sure everything is up to date. A local printer could also sponsor a contest that awards a prize to the professional with the best business card. This printer could also write an article that gives examples of great business cards and very poor business cards, or business cards through history.
I can see it now: The lowly business card forever honored by its own special day!
And if this were your idea, as you begin submitting it to the places listed above, you’d want to put out a press release and follow up with calls to your local media outlets, telling them that you’re trying to get a new “national day” on the calendar. That would certainly warrant some kind of mention, don’t you think?
Build interest for your special day
Get others in your industry and your community involved. As with any holiday, the more people who participate, the better. Hey, the greeting card people have based an entire industry on promoting special days – some of which weren’t all that special until the greeting card manufacturers got involved! You can do it too.
You know that I’m all about inexpensive, yet powerful, DIY marketing schemes, and I think establishing your own special day is one of the best.
Let me know what you come up with.