January. For some, it’s the holiday let-down season. For others, it’s the Monday of months. For us (and soon to be you), it’s the month of marketing opportunities! There’s Vision Board Day, National Mentoring Month, Squirrel Appreciation Day, and so much more!
In this article, we’re sharing a full list of January awareness themes, holidays, and national days, tons of creative ways to use them for unique and meaningful marketing, and marketing planning tips and ideas to stay successful all year.
We’ve included the full list of January national days and dates at the bottom of this post, but here are a few highlights:
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (third Monday)
Technology Day (Jan 6)
Invisible Pain Day (Jan 7)
Vision Board Day (second Saturday)
Law Enforcement Appreciation Day (Jan 9)
Cut Your Energy Costs Day (Jan 10)
Clean Off Your Desk Day (Jan 10)
Nothing Day (Jan 16)
Get to Know Your Customers Day (third Thursday)
Compliment Day (Jan 24)
Library Shelfie Day (fourth Wednesday)
Data Privacy Day (Jan 28)
Backward Day (Jan 31)
January diversity, equity, and inclusion observances
In addition to MLK Day, we also have:
Emancipation Proclamation Day (Jan 1)
Louis Braille’s birthday (Jan 4)
Korean American Day (Jan 13)
Religious Freedom Day (Jan 16)
International Holocaust Remembrance Day (Jan 27)
Creative and meaningful January marketing ideas
Here are some ways to use the awareness themes, holidays, and national days of January to connect with your audience.
Share holiday recaps and roundups
The holidays might be over, but don’t miss out on the opportunity to squeeze every last drop of cheer you can out of the last month! You can still make the holidays part of your January marketing by creating and publishing holiday roundup posts on your blog or on your social media sites.
Here are some ideas:
Did your catering company work a holiday party? Post pictures or recipes!
You can also take advantage of #tbt (Throwback Thursday) on Twitter and Instagram and post pictures from just a couple of weeks ago to share with your followers.
Cleaning services or home goods shops can provide post-holiday cleaning or Christmas tree disposal tips.
The holidays are busy, and customers might have missed all you had going on, so this is an easy way to create content for your business while making sure they’re in the loop.
Honor Martin Luther King, Jr. Day with a day of service
MLK Day, observed on the third Monday of January every year, celebrates Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday and commemorates his Nobel Peace Prize for Civil Rights leadership. Don’t use this holiday to promote your business. Make it a day of service, celebration, and education around this civil rights legend.
Many communities create a day of service you or your team can participate in.
Post quotes, photos, and facts about Martin Luther King, Jr. on social media.
Post stats and raise awareness about civil rights on social media.
Run your own day of service, whether for your community or in your company.
Who doesn’t love a nice compliment? National Compliment Day occurs every January 24—here are some ways to celebrate:
Show another business some love on social media or by writing a review (they may even return the favor!)
Start a compliment train. Ask your followers to tag someone in your post and give them a compliment. The tagged person then tags another friend and gives them a compliment and so on.
Give your employees hand-written compliments to show them you appreciate them.
Run fun weather-based promotions
Much of the United States is covered in snow in January. Love it or hate it, you can’t stop it, so use it to your advantage! Make the snowy weather a little less gray with content, promotions, and posts celebrating the cold.
Daycares can share safety tips for playing or dressing children in the snow.
Contractors, construction, and snow removal companies can write about winter hazards in the home—carbon monoxide detectors, salt versus sand for ice and snow, or how to winterize drafty windows.
Give a snow-day discount. Anytime your city gets snow, offer a discount based on the number of inches you’ve received, like 20% off for 20 inches of snow!
You can also keep your customers up to date on the latest snow closures on your social media pages.
Take part in National Clean Off Your Desk Day
With so many people working from home (and becoming obsessed with cleaning and organization shows), this holiday just may resonate with your audience. Here are some ways to take part:
Tidy up your desk and share a before and after picture on social. Ask your audience to do the same.
Give organization tips and ideas
Run a contest or a poll. The person with the cleanest (or messiest) desk wins a prize!
Share and encourage New Year’s resolutions
No explanation needed for this annual favorite. Here are some ideas:
Hold yourself accountable and share them with your audience. Then create content around them!
Fitness centers can have a weekly accountability post to create a support community.
Restaurants and catering services can write blog or Facebook posts with healthy recipes.
Daycares can blog about toy organization ideas for playrooms and toy areas.
Ask followers on social media what theirs are—you could even run a poll and then write a blog post providing tips and advice for the most common resolutions.
Loyal customers not only bring you ongoing business, but they are also more likely to refer other customers to you. Providing the best customer service is the first and foremost loyalty marketing strategy, followed by intentional loyalty or referral programs. And with people feeling enthusiastic and motivated for the new year, this is the perfect time to start one.
Create and print a simple stamp card for customers. Each purchase or service equals one stamp. After 10 stamps, customers can receive a free product, a discounted service, or a swag item.
Offer current customers a discount for each new customer they refer.
Create a tiered loyalty program so customers can move up in tiers based on their purchase history – the higher the tier, the better discounts.
This holiday changes every year. It’s the first Friday the 13th of the year, and in 2023, it falls in January! Toss the core values aside today and letterrip. Don’t actually do that. But you can have fun with this one.
“When working in a book store you learn that sometimes books are just going to fall over. Usually on their own or sometimes because of…other reasons (*cough*Ryan*cough).
Happy National Blame Someone Else Day!
(No books were harmed in the making of this post).”
“Friday the 13th: Me-ow. National Blame Someone Else Day: You-ow”
“It’s okay to indulge, you can blame us!”
Or get serious…
Or use it as a creative way to celebrate a company milestone and thank your customers. Write a customer appreciation email, blaming them for your having to bring on more employees to keep up with the demand, and for your having to move to a bigger office, and your having to choose the signature drink to serve at your party celebrating your 1000th customer…and so on.
Essential but not-so-creative January marketing ideas
These aren’t the most fun marketing ideas, but they are essential if you want running your business to stay fun, through the month and year-round.
Start with a clean inbox
There’s nothing less exciting than seeing the number of new emails in your inbox when you get back from the holidays.
Actually, I lied because there is: It’s going through them. Did you know January 25-29 is actually Clean Out Your Inbox Week? Use it as motivation to get organized and start with a clean slate.
Go through those old emails you “starred” and never followed up on…
If you don’t already use folders for your emails, create some to help you keep your inbox organized.
Go through the settings your email platform has to offer. There are integrations, color coding, rules, and more that can make your life a whole lot easier. That half hour could translate into hours saved this year.
Create an ideas folder where you save marketing emails you’ve received that you like or find effective. You never know, you might just find your next great idea buried in your own inbox!
Solidify your yearly goals or marketing plan
Whether you’re an agency, business owner, or freelancer, it’s important to have both personal and professional goals for the year. Take some time at the beginning of the month to make sure your goals and your marketing plan are solidified.
As we know, things can change quickly, but having a documented plan or a growth strategy in place can make the difference between hitting your revenue goals for the year and missing them.
What marketing strategies, campaigns, or channels drove the most leads?
What didn’t perform as well as you thought it would – and how could it be improved?
Read up on the latest marketing trends and predictions
With the new year comes a ton of new content around what to expect in the world of marketing and business in general. Find some articles or blog posts that will get you up to speed on what the experts expect to be big this year in your own industry—and jot down some ideas or trends that you might want to try out!
Announce your events for the year or coming months
Market your business both online and offline by highlighting upcoming events for the year. Some upcoming holidays include President’s Day, Valentine’s Day, Mardi Gras, and St. Patrick’s Day.
If you have anything planned for these events, like upcoming Valentine’s Day deals at your spa or a special Valentine’s menu at your restaurant, let customers know! A calendar of promotions is a great way to keep customers informed about upcoming promotions or events your business is sponsoring or hosting.
Update your Google Business Profile
Last, but not least, update your Google Business Profile. If you want to show up when local searchers are trying to find businesses like yours on Google or in Google Maps, a complete and optimized Google Business profile is the place to start.
Take a minute to make sure your profile is claimed and then take it a step further by optimizing your listing:
Make sure to respond to all reviews.
Add some images or a video that showcase your business.
Populate the Q&A section of your profile with frequently asked questions.
The digital marketing world is never in a resting state. Set a goal for yourself to build on your existing marketing skills or develop new ones. Here are some great resources for doing so:
Hmm, looks like our next roundup will need to have 10…
See? Creative January marketing is easy
January can often be a stressful time for business owners, but with the right marketing ideas and plan in place, you can relieve some stress without losing out on new customers and engagement. Happy New Year! Interested in more marketing ideas for every month of the year? We can help with that. Check out our creative ideas for:
Stephanie is the Associate Director of Content for LocaliQ and WordStream. She has over 10 years of experience in content and social media marketing and loves writing about all things digital marketing. When she’s not researching the latest and greatest marketing news and updates, she’s probably watching reality TV with her husband, reading, or playing with her two pups.
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