August 7th is National Purple Heart Day. October 15th-19th is National Business Women’s Week. September is Self-Care Month. The list of important calendar months, weeks, and days is endless and so are the opportunities to take advantage of them!
Here are 3 surefire ways to use national as well as little-known and quirky holidays to boost engagement with your audience:
1. Contributed articles and guest posts
There are so many media outlets that not only accept, but appreciate contributed articles and guest posts because it means good content and less work for them, while at the same time increased exposure and a potentially new audience for the author/expert – a win/win for everyone! Tying in a special holiday with an article gives the outlet timely material with SEO and could fill in some much needed content for a particular time frame.
2. Listicles
Never heard of a listicle? Check out this super in-depth article on what a listicle is and how to write one. This blog post is a listicle – and they are easy and effective. You can tie in your special day with posts like “3 Ways to Shake it Up for National Margarita Day,” or “5 Tips on Making Easter Special with Your Family.” Media outlets snatch these up because their readers love them and listicles are super easy to read since they are just… well, short lists. They make great sidebars for existing articles as well as self-contained pieces on their own.
3. Social Media
Feeling bored with your current content? Tired of asking people to go to your Amazon page and buy your book? Spruce up your social media feeds with interesting and thought-provoking trivia about a current special holiday or monthly theme. Use an infographic like this one for March into Literacy Month created by one of our interns. This doesn’t directly increase sales for your book, but it sure might engage someone who sees the post, causing them to like, comment or SHARE, which then gives you and your fabulous bit of trivia, statistic, or infographic to a whole new group of eyes. Then they may trace it back to the source (you) and follow you and then buy your book, because you are so clever and current.
These are just a few tips and tricks that we use in our own social media and pitching our clients to writers, editors and producers. You can find calendars with dates like these here and here.
