5 ways to use calendar dates in your business

Whilst a lot of things might be a moveable feast in 2021. We can get some planning and certainty together with some key moments and calendar dates for our business. Here are a few tips of how I put together a big of a marketing and content plan together for both my clients and I. Whether your batch your content or shoot from the hip, these tips should help you to maximise our key calendar dates download.

 1.     Have a monthly marketing meeting

Even if this is just with yourself as a solopreneur. Have a good look at what key dates are happening in your business and in the upcoming national dates to see if there is a relevant newshook in your business. Plot in the activity for yourself and look where you might be having some content gaps that you want to fill to make sure you are giving yourself plenty of consistency in what to talk about. 

Set yourself some goals e.g. x4 blog posts, x1 monthly newsletter, x1 podcast pitch etc and break it down from that month to what you need to do week by week to keep up your targets. 

Think about whether you can create a blog post, newsletter, social media content to accompany.

Example: I’m using national heart disease awareness month to launch our charity fund for Great Ormond Street Hospital and share my journey with my audience. 

2.     How can you hijack what is happening this month to raise your profile in the media?

Some calendar dates are going to be quite comical and others more serious. Regardless there WILL be a date that works for your business. On a really basic/beginners level can 

you create a blog post / newsletter / social media content to accompany?

For those of you who want to push yourselves could you be pitching to planning desks for TV/radio as a case study for these features?

 Example 1: Holly June Smith messaged her local BBC radio station ahead of New Year to pitch for her stance on New Year’s resolutions. She was able to speak on the show a few weeks later. 

 Example 2: When I worked with fish & chip shop Sutton & Sons we created a picture story for a seasonal twist e.g. battered sprouts or battered mince pies. We would pitch this as a national/local/food news as a picture story and get a bunch of coverage. 

3.     What is happening in the next 3-6 months?

Do you need to be planning activity for six-month’s time by pitching to monthly magazines e.g. Christmas in July?

What might be a key theme for you to be pitching to weekly magazines. 

Make sure you are keeping an eye on upcoming dates particularly if you want to pitch a talk or a workshop to somewhere like a shared workspace who typically work a good few months in advance. 

Example: pitching to a features desk on the future of work happiness if you are a happiness consultant to go with National Happiness Day or pitching a guest post to a magazine / podcast. 

4.     Stop selling and start sharing

If we are thinking of your personal brand like a magazine, which content pillars are your readers looking for e.g. horoscopes, recipes, fitness tips, agony aunt columns. 

Some calendar dates on first glance might seem quite random and unrelated to your business but actually taking about things we like, sharing stories and giving a glimpse of our personality helps our audience to emotionally connect with us.

Example: National doughnut day is not related to PR expertise – but I love doughnuts and might do a selfie post on that day with a doughnut talking about ways I treat myself OR I might share some of my favourite PR stunts I’ve seen from doughnuts brands who tap into the zeitgeist. 

5.     One size fits no-one

I might have got you started but what are your own personal dates that you can plot in?

When is your business birthday?

Do you have a product / service launch anniversary? What can you share of behind the scenes / growth

Tools like Instagram are great for flashing up your memories from a year ago, don’t forget to reuse and reshare your most engaged content. 

Who are your favourite experts / celebrities / TV shows / songs? Don’t forget to plot these in with relatable occasions.

To download our FREE key calendar dates PDF, click here. If you find this or any of our advice useful and would like to support our charitable fund our read our story please click here.