78 [Not Overused!] Holiday & Christmas Instagram Captions—with Templates!

How to make your holiday Instagram posts disappear:

1. Choose image.
2. Insert overused caption (I’m looking at you, “sleigh all day” and “tis the season”).
3. Hit publish.

Poof! Your followers won’t even know you posted.

The Instagram algorithm favors posts that get engagement, and the key to engagement is not just an awesome visual, but also an authentic and interesting caption. So if you want to make your posts shine, read on to find over 78 funny, inspiring, and interesting Instagram captions for:

• Holiday season Instagram captions
• Christmas Instagram captions
• Hanukkah Instagram captions
• Kwanzaa Instagram captions
• (New Year’s captions here!)

But first, let’s start out with some tips and tricks to come up with captions that stick.

Holiday Instagram caption ideas

Here are some general ideas for coming up with Instagram captions to spruce up your December social media campaigns.

• Use a lyric or quote, or put your own twist on it.
  Who cares if you’ve been bad or good when you have this precious face? [Photographer post]
• Do an online search for funny and creative holiday greeting cards.
  Whoever said “all is calm” has never been to our [house, office, gym, studio, etc]  around the holidays…

• Try alliteration, with a twist
  Chestnuts. Chimneys. Chocolate. Cheer. Chair pose. [Chihuahuas, CHEATERS!, etc. depending on the photo].
• Try rhyming
  You better not pout, but it’s okay to cry…when you run out of your [your product] supply.
• Ask questions
  Would you rather have your Spotify stuck on Dreidel, Drediel, Dredel, or Jingle Bells?
• Put a holiday twist on something un-holiday
  Straight. Outta. The North Pole.
  If at first you don’t succeed…turn to the pros! [picture of your bakery’s Christmas cakes].
• Search holiday hashtags and see what Instagram suggests. Or look at top posts for a particular hashtag and use it as your inspo!
  like start typing #funnyholiday… or “#inspiringhanukkah” 
• Get personal
  While this is a very happy holiday season for me, it hasn’t always been that way. To those of you struggling this season, know that there are better years to come!
• Share a memory
  When I was a kid I used to [something funny]. What about you?
• Give practical tips or helpful advice
  Keep Sparky safe this year! Chocolate, macademia nuts, and salty snack foods can be harmful to your pooch.
• Share a stat or fact
  Did you know there are 16 ways to spell Hanukkah?

🎁 Bonus tip: Use emotion!

Free download: 120 Words & Phrases for Marketing with Emotion

Christmas Instagram captions

Sometimes, all you need for original holiday copywriting is a little prompt or the ol’ fill in the blank.

• This holiday season, let us treasure what is truly important in all our lives, the reason for the season: [monkey bread/something funny]
• Christmas comes but once a year, but when it comes we [get into gear/tremble with fear/persevere].
• The best way to spread Christmas cheer is [an Instagram giveaway! / something funny/inspiring happening in your photo]
• We wish you a Merry Christmas and [lots of good beer! / a merrier
• [Describe scene]….yup, that’s about right.
• Oh the weather outside is frightful, but [these/my/our ___] are so delightful
• Oh the weather outside is frightful, but you know what’s really scary?
• And since we’ve no place to go [describe what’s happening in the photo/give recommendations]
• All I want for Christmas is you(r amazing cookie recipe)
• Christmas list when you were a kid: a piggy bank! a sleeping bag! a trampoline!
  Christmas list now: a mortgage loan. a good mattress. a nap maybe?
• “[Insert something relatable],” said no one ever.
• Silent night? More like [describe the opposite going on in your picture].
• My ideal 12 days of Christmas: [off you go].

Image source

Your Instagram marketing strategy just got a whole lot more fun now, didn’t it?

RELATED: 41 Ready-to-Publish Christmas Social Media Posts & Canva Templates

Funny Christmas Instagram captions

Now I’ll admit, some of this may be slightly used. They’re on the fence but they’re good enough to keep using in your fun and festive holiday marketing.

• Keep your friends close, your enemies closer, and receipts for all major purchases closest.
• Apparently, being good for goodness’ sake was not enough motivation.
• That warm feeling isn’t the Christmas spirit. I think you left the oven on.
• It’s beginning to *cost* a lot like Christmas…
• You had me at hoho.
• I’ve decided to give everyone my opinion instead of presents this year.
• Ho ho ho? Oh no no no.
• Christmas has me feeling extra Santamental.
• December 25th: the only day I become a morning person.
• Gonna go lay under the Christmas tree to remind my family that I’m a gift.
• “There are three stages of man: he believes in Santa Claus; he does not believe in Santa Claus; he is Santa Claus.” – Bob Phillips
• I wonder what would happen if I only jingled half of the way?
• The only time of year in which one can sit in front of a dead tree and eat candy out of socks.

Inspirational Christmas Instagram captions

When in doubt, use a famous quote, a book or movie quote, or a lyric!

• “Nothing ever seems too bad, too hard, or too sad when you’ve got a Christmas tree in the living room.” – Nora Roberts
• “Christmas is most truly Christmas when we celebrate it by giving the light of love to those who need it most.” Ruth Carter Stapleton
• “Seeing is believing, but sometimes the most real things in the world are the things we can’t see.” – The Polar Express
• “Christmas will always be as long as we stand heart to heart and hand in hand.” – Dr. Seuss
• “Christmas is forever, not for just one day. For loving, sharing, giving, are not to put away.” Norman Wesley Brooks
• Maybe Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store. Maybe Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.” – Dr. Suess

 

RELATED: 60 Perfectly-Worded Christmas & Holiday Greetings

Hanukkah Instagram captions

Increase your Instagram engagement with these funny, warm, and inspirational Hanukkah captions and ideas.

• May your Hanukkah become brighter, lovelier, and happier each time you light your menorah.
• Nes gadol haya sham (A great miracle happened there).
• Keep your light shining bright year-round.
• Eight nights, eight lights—an eternity of happiness.
• “Look at how a single candle can both defy and define the darkness.” –Anne Frank
• “There are two ways of spreading light: To be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.”—Edith Wharton
• “A candle loses nothing by lighting another candle.”—James Keller
• This Hanukkah, I wish for the light of faith, the warmth of home, and the love of family.
• “Warmth of joy, the glow of prosperity, the sparkle of happiness”
• Eight nights, eight lights—way too many [word rhyming with lights].
• Dizzy as a dreidel over here.
• I can‘t speak for your Hanukkah, but mine is LIT!
• My secret to a happy, stress-free Christmas? I’m Jewish!
• It would be a Hanukkah miracle if we could all come to a consensus on how to spell “Hanukkah.”
• Let it glow.
• Deck the halls with matzo balls.
• Light, laughter, and lots of latkes.
• “A little bit of light dispels a lot of darkness.” -Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi

RELATED: 131 [Not Overused!] New Year’s Instagram Captions & Templates

Kwanzaa Instagram captions

Kwanzaa occurs every year from December 26 to January 1. It’s a celebration of African heritage focused on family, community, and social values. It has a slightly different tone from Christmas and Hanukkah, so these caption ideas are aligned with the seven principles of Kwanzaa: Unity, self-determination, cooperative economics, collective work and responsibility, creativity, purpose, faith.

• May the light of Kwanzaa bring a lot of happiness to your life. Happy Kwanzaa!
• May the light of your kinara fill your home with peace and light your new year with love.
• ​​There’s the holiday spirit Kwanzaa is a holiday of the spirit
• Unity. Self-determination. Cooperative economics. Collective work and responsibility. Creativity. Purpose. Faith
• Umoja. Kujichagulia. Ujima. Ujamaa. Nia. Kuumba. Imani.
• A family is like a forest when you are outside it is dense, when you are inside you see that each tree has its place.
• “We will never know ourselves if we do not know our history.” -Maulana Karenga
• Sticks in a bundle are unbreakable.
• Many hands make light work.
• Money won’t create success, the freedom to make it will.
• If you have a purpose in which you can believe, there’s no end to the number of things you can accomplish.
• Faith is like radar that sees through the fog.

More holiday Instagram captions & templates

• Nothing gets me into the holiday spirit like…
• Sending love and holiday wishes from our bubble to yours.
• May all that is meaningful be yours this holiday season and throughout the coming year.
• Hope this holiday season brings you many great memories and reasons to smile.
• This year we’re giving a whole new meaning to [tradition/cliche/song lyric].
• The modern-day version of [something out of a historic or 50’s holiday tradition or song].

Try out these creative holiday & Christmas Instagram captions

Use these holiday Instagram caption ideas, examples, and templates to be a refreshing change in your followers’ feeds this year.

Want more holiday content inspo?

• 60 Perfectly-Worded Christmas & Holiday Greetings
• 41 Happy New Year Wishes for 2023 (+Creative Word List)
• 86 Christmas Social Media Posts & Slogans for Your Merriest Marketing Yet
• The Only Holiday Facebook Ideas You’ll Need This Season (with Examples!)
• 101 December Email Subject Lines for Last-Minute ROI

Want other holiday content inspo?

• 76 [Actually] Creative Valentine’s Day Instagram captions
• 54 St. Patrick’s Day Instagram Captions (The Cliche-Free List)
• 40+ Mother’s Day Instagram Captions for Everyone in Your Audience
• 42 Respectful Memorial Day Instagram Captions (& Ready-Made Posts)
• 39 Inspiring Father’s Day Instagram Captions & Ready-to-Post Images
• 40+ Liberty Lovin’ 4th of July Instagram Captions & Images
• 56 Creative & Inspiring Labor Day Instagram Captions & Posts

The post 78 [Not Overused!] Holiday & Christmas Instagram Captions—with Templates! appeared first on WordStream.

* This article was originally published here

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18 Unforgettable Year-in-Review Email Examples (+How to Write Your Own)

Take a trip back to high school with me real quick. The day everyone looks forward to. The release of…

 🙌    the y e a r b o o k   🙌

You paid to be in it. You paid to get your copy. And now it’s yours. But do you start at page one? No no. The order is as follows: Your own picture. The senior superlatives. The teams or clubs you belong to. The rest.

My point is, we don’t just love to reminisce. We love to read about ourselves. See the fruits of our investments. Feel a part of something bigger. And it is with this point in mind that I’m sharing with you today how to write a year-in-review email for your customers that they will actually read! Read on to learn:

• Why write a year-in-review email
• How to keep it customer-centric
• Lots of ideas and examples to inspire you

Why write a year-in-review email?

In addition to being something people are generally interested in, sharing a recap also has business benefits. It can:

• Strengthen confidence in your business: Celebrating your growth and achievements from the year reinforces your dedication and competency within your industry and affirms your customers’ decision to choose your business over competitors.
• Maintain loyalty: Customers appreciate when you share what you’re proud of with them. It tells them they are a part of your community and you value their opinion. It also reminds them of how hard you work and gives them reason to continue supporting you. And on the flip side, when you express appreciation for their support, you strengthen the bond that keeps them coming back to you.
• Reduce churn: When your email tells your customers what they have accomplished, it reminds them how much your product or service helped them achieve success and inspires them to accomplish even more next year—keeping them engaged with your product.

Take a look at the example below by emagazine platform Texture, which shares a reader’s minutes reading compared to all users and even money and trees saved.

If I were a Texture customer, I’d be motivated to beat everyone’s average,
save more money, and spare more trees next year. (Image source)

End-of-year/year-in-review email ideas

There are a few different ways to write a year-in-review email. Depending on your industry, audience, and resources, you might choose one or any combination of the following:

1. Growth stats

Share stats and facts that show how you’ve grown, such as: reached x customers, welcomed x new team members, opened a new location, moved to a bigger office, launched a new partnership.

Avoid vanity metrics or offputting stats like number of social media followers or upgrades.

2. Milestones & achievements

Look back on some of the intangibles, like awards or nominations, successful events, new or improved products, features, or services,  anniversaries, or big projects like a rebrand, new site launch, or acquisition.

3. Account-specific reports

People love when someone else talks about them or celebrates their achievements. Spotify’s Wrapped is a quintessential example of this type of year-end recap, but it’s great for any device, app, or account with individual stats,

This is also popular for SaaS platforms with analytics.

Image source

4. Superlatives

Sharing stats and data for every account can be resource-heavy and sometimes runs the risk of syncing issues or data not loading. Instead, you might take a look at your behavioral data and identify trends from your customer insights, like the top-selling products, most popular blog posts, most shared social media posts, most popular product of each month, and more.  

5. Industry stories

Some businesses will have access to more interesting information than others for the above ideas. If you can’t quite come up with something compelling, consider recapping some top stories or interesting stats of the year in your industry and for each one, share a brief reflection, action you took, or relevant tip. 

📫 Free email templates!  >> 30 Free Small Business Email Examples & Templates

Year-in-review email tips

In addition to regular email marketing best practices, follow these tips to make your year-end email the best it can be:

1. Keep it separate from your holiday greeting or promotional emails

A year-in-review email should be different from your customer holiday greeting email and promotional emails. Your greeting email should be 100% customer-centric, focused on appreciation and gratitude. Your promotional emails will of course be conversion-focused. Your YIR email falls in the middle of those two, showing appreciation but in a way that encourages the reader to continue using your business. 

2. Use numbers

You’ll notice in just about all of these examples there are numbers. The people love the numbers and the tangibles.

3. Visualize it…

Don’t just give your readers a bunch of text. Create a timeline or a journey path, include pictures or graphics, or even create a video.’

4. …but keep it mobile-friendly

This is a great visual by Big Cartel, and even though it appears as though it has a link to a page with the graphic and perhaps more details, the image in the email requires zooming and shifting, not a natural scroll.

Image source

5. Make it customer-centric

Always make it about them! This is easy if you have customer data or achievements to share, but not necessary. The example above reads:

2015 was a huge year for Big Cartel –  not only for our team, but for the army of talented artists who build their businesses with us. Thank you for making our favorite moments from this year possible, and for being a part of this incredible community.

The example by Wix below does this as well, saying, “Before we jump into 2018, let’s look back at the most memorable moments of last year and see what we achieved together.”

Image source

So frame your accomplishments as achieved because of your customers—through their support, their use of your product, their reviews, feedback, votes, social shares, and more. 

5. Thank your readers

Do NOT forget this part. The Wix email above nails the “togetherness” but fails to thank its customers. I’m sure the post it links to includes this, but it’s still important to include it in the email itself.

Thank you for choosing Texture for all your reading needs!

It’s all possible because of our incredible community of customers and contributors! THANK YOU!

Great work this year and thank you for being such an integral part of our growth in 2021.

6. Don’t create a landing page disguised as a thank you

Remember, frame this email as a celebration of growth, achieved with or made possible by your customers. The email below has an attractive, clean, and readable design, but although it reads “A year in review,” and “Thanks for being a part of our creative community,” the email copy does not support that.

Moreover, it closes with “Haven’t taken a class yet? Start today and join our growing number of students!” with a CTA to enroll.

Great design, not a year-in-review. (Image source)

The numbers could still work in a year-in-review email, but the language is not framed as accomplishments made together. It feels like a sneaky disguised landing page—a good way to lose customers.

7. Make it actionable

There are a number of ways to make your year-in-review email actionable:

• Provide recommendations based on the information you include.
• Share only a snippet and include a link for them to view the full review in a blog post—a good way to drive traffic to your site.
• For B2C, give them the option to share their numbers on social.
• For B2B, make it easy for them to share the report with the rest of their team. 

Image source

Year-in-review emails are great for generating leads and conversions, engaging your audience, and retaining customers. This is not your holiday thank you greeting to your customers, so it’s also okay—and encouraged—to include a call to action phrase, such as to

• Sign up for your newsletter
• Follow your social channels
• Shop your store
• Learn about an upgrade
• Continue using your platform or app

That’s a wrap for 2017. But we can’t wait to share what next year has in store for creators, brands, and video lovers like Y-O-U. Until then, upload away and keep our screens glowing bright.

8. Get customers excited for the new year

Having a CTA at the end adds in the element of a continued relationship with your customer into the next year, but you can turn things up a notch with a little teaser.

In a weird way, 2018 was all about 2019. We can’t tell you everything that’s coming this year, but take our word for it—there’s never been a better time to upload and do more with your videos.

Image source

Year-in-review email examples

Let’s take a look at a few more year-in-review email examples that you can steal ideas from. 

1. SiteGround—coverage turned into a contest

SiteGround’s year in review also doubles as a raffle for a pair of custom Bose headphones. It takes you through a journey of updates, announcements, and milestones, collecting points for you along the way. The further you scroll down the page, the more points you collect and then those points go into your raffle. This is a great way to highlight your accomplishments and brag a bit about your business while keeping it customer-centric.

2. Vimeo—engaging, but one thing missing

Vimeo’s Top 18 Hits of ‘18 email shows some impressive design work:

View the full email here.

It’s clean, colorful, and readable, and shares a mix of information types. But while this year-in-review email is engaging, it’s all about Vimeo. There is no customer appreciation!

We couldn’t be more excited for 2019. But before we get ahead of ourselves, lets remember that a lot happened in 2018. Like, a lot. Let’s wrap an amazing, video-opacked year with our greatest Vimeo Hits.

I’d be willing to bet that Vimeo had a separate end-of-year customer appreciation email, but it’s still important to incorporate it here as well. 

3. Campaign Monitor—superb customer centricity

This is actually a blog post, but Campaign Monitor does such a fantastic job of sharing its growth and achievements of the year in a customer-centric and creative way, I had to share it. 

View the full recap here

Some key callouts:

• When sharing platform usage stats, Campaign Monitor makes its customers feel proud by calling them “curious subscriber scientists,” “customer experience architects,” “email artisans,” and more. In fact, we could add these to our power words list!
• Instead of boasting that its platform was used by 416,422 marketers to send 30.7 billion emails in 192 countries—the simple heading of “Your subscribers turned to the inbox more than ever,” shifts the tone to celebrating its customers’ importance.
• Before sharing the new features it released each month, the heading turns it into a collaborative achievement with “You asked, we answered” and what its customers “tapped into.”
• Campaign monitor shows genuine appreciation for its customers with phrases like: “When times got tough, Campaign Monitor customers got smarter,” and “You rose to the occasion with tenacity and ingenuity, ” and​​​​ “We were honored to be with you every step of the way.”
• “It’s all possible because of our incredible community of customers and contributors! THANK YOU!”
• Finally, you get something to look forward to:

Look forward to a long list of new tools, resources, and inspiration coming in 2021, starting with our much-awaited annual Email Marketing Global Benchmarks Report. Keep an eye out for it early January!”

4. Wix—short & (mostly) sweet

Wix’s approach makes this a short and sweet email that grabs your attention at the start and sends you to its website to view more.

Image source

Again, the full post most likely ends with an expression of gratitude, but there’s enough information here for a reader to leave it at that, so something like “Check out the sweetest moments of 2016, made possible by you!”

5. Strava—comical, relatable, watchable

As a cycler myself, I appreciated this email example. Plus, not only did Strava make the email more engaging with a recap video and super conversational tone, but it also included some numbers right in the email to make it satisfying on its own.

Image source

It’s time to celebrate your 2017 on Strava. You toed the line, you dug deep, you achieved (and maybe made some crazy faces and noises along the way). Check out this personalized recap of your year, and kudos for being a part of Strava’s incredible community of athletes.

6. Classy- top blog posts

This email starts with:

Grow, engage, convert. Fundraising tips and donor relations were the top themes on Classy this year. In case you missed ’em, here they are again…the 10 most popular posts from 2016.

Image source

7. Maison Miru—conversational & cute

This email is the perfect example of how to write emails like a human being. Just the right number of emojis, parentheses, puns, and exclamation points to give the copy and the CTAs a friendly, personable feel.

Hi Stephanie!
Another crazy year (almost) in the books. We’re just feeling so lucky we get to do what we do. Some highlights of our year:

1. We launched our now-signature Nap Earrings 😴 (Poke free and designed for 24/7 wear!)
2. Our team grew! We hired 2 new awesome Customer Care Associates: Bobbi and Sophie.
3. We launched 100 Days of Ear Parties, an amazing campaign where we get to spotlight our creative community of dreamers, thinkers, and makers.

We don’t want to make any promises we can’t deliver on for Christmas shipping (pun intended) – but it’s never too late for a gift card! No shipping required, no stress involved.

It’s also never too late to get yourself a little something for being such a great and thoughtful gift-giver this year. There’s no deadline to treat yourself and you totally deserve it.
With ❤️  from NYC,
Trisha

9. Todoist—a personalized & practical churn buster

Todoist nails it with its “Your Year in Productivity” email, leaving you practically begging to renew your subscription for next year.

View the email here

There are three CTAs in this email, but they all work nicely together. The first is to view your report. The report itself is packed with stats, superlatives, and comparison information that will inspire you to use the platform even more in the coming year, and the preceding copy encourages this:

“How did your productivity fare this trip around the sun? Did you rank in the top stratosphere of Todoist users, or did you fall off the shuttle? See how you did in 2017 and prepare to embark on a new mission in 2018.”

It then has a CTA to enroll in a free class to improve your productivity in the coming year, and to claim a discount for certain industries.

The only thing it’s missing is a thank you! A little customer appreciation goes a long way!

 

Share your year-in-review emails!

As you can see, year-in-review emails are a gem of a method to drive business goals at the end of the year while also engaging and delighting your customers and readers. Plus, they’re fun. What yearly recap emails do you look forward to receiving? Let me know in the comments!

Want more email ideas and templates? Head on over to these copy-and-paste email templates for any business or download our free PDF: 30 Free Small Business Email Examples & Templates. Enjoy!

The post 18 Unforgettable Year-in-Review Email Examples (+How to Write Your Own) appeared first on WordStream.

* This article was originally published here

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43 Easy & Creative January Marketing Ideas to Stand Out (with Examples!)

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…

January 21. Squirrel Appreciation Day. Mark your calendars.

Read on to find:

• A full list of January awareness themes, holidays, and national days.
• Tons of creative ways to use them for unique and meaningful marketing.
• Marketing planning tips and ideas to stay successful all year.

Let’s dive in!

January awareness

January is the national month for:

• Bath safety
• Blood donation
• Braille literacy
• CBD
• Hobbies
• Hot tea

• Mentoring
• Oatmeal
• Slavery and human trafficking
• Slow cooking
• Soup
• Sunday supper

 

#wearblueday occurs every January in support of anti-human trafficking.

January holidays & national days

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 & inclusion

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 & 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 & 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.

 

Image source

Get involved during Blood Donor Month

January is National Blood Donor Month, so get involved!

• Participate in a local blood drive or host one of your own.
• Run special promotions for those in your community who donate, such as a free gift, discount code, or special deal on your products or services.
• Raise awareness on social media and encourage your followers to give blood.

You can find blood drives in your area here.

Dish em’ out on National Compliment Day

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 & 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.

Check out our 115 [not overused] New Year’s Instagram caption ideas post for more resolution-related ideas!

Start a customer loyalty or referral program

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.

Here are some ideas for your customer loyalty program:

• 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.

As for referral programs, check out our 14 Referral Program Ideas to Land Your Best Customers Yet and these three referral marketing strategies to get the gears turning. And make sure to promote your programs on social media and in your location so customers can find out about it easily!

Blame Someone Else Day

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.

✅  Free Guide: The 30 Best Ways to Promote Your Business (With or Without Money!)

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.

Revisit what worked last year (and what didn’t)

Now that you have a full year of data available, take some time to see what worked in your marketing last year and what didn’t.

Here are some ideas of what to look at:

• What content or web pages performed best for you?
• What resonated with your audiences on social media – top posts, most engaging posts, etc.?
• What email subject lines got the best open rates?
• 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.

Get more tips to optimize your Google My Business profile here.

Commit to growing your skill set

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:

• The 7 Best Local Business Marketing Resources (All Free!)
• The 8 Best Facebook Ads Courses for Every Learning Level
• The 9 Best Google Ads Training Courses for Every Level

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:

• February
• March
• April
• May
• June
• July
• August
• September
• October
• November
• December

Full list of January social media holidays and dates

As promised, brought to you by National Day Calendar

January 1
New Years Day
National Bloody Mary Day
National Hangover Day
National Play Outside Day – First Saturday Every Month

January 2
National Buffet Day
National Cream Puff Day
National Personal Trainer Awareness Day
National Science Fiction Day

January 3
National Chocolate Covered Cherry Day
National Drinking Straw Day
National Fruitcake Toss Day
National Thank God It’s Monday Day – First Monday in January

January 4
National Missouri Day
National Spaghetti Day
National Trivia Day

January 5
National Bird Day
National Keto Day
National Screenwriters Day
National Whipped Cream Day

January 6
National Bean Day
National Cuddle Up Day
National Shortbread Day
National Technology Day

January 7
National Invisible Pain Day
National Bobblehead Day
National Tempura Day

January 8
National Argyle Day
National Bubble Bath Day
National English Toffee Day
National JoyGerm Day
National Winter Skin Relief Day
National Vision Board Day – Second Saturday in January

January 9
National Apricot Day
National Balloon Ascension Day
National Law Enforcement Appreciation Day
National Static Electricity Day
National Sunday Supper Day – Second Sunday in January

January 10
National Bittersweet Chocolate Day
National Cut Your Energy Costs Day
National Oysters Rockefeller Day
National Save The Eagles Day
National Clean Off Your Desk Day – Second Monday in January

January 11
National Arkansas Day
National Human Trafficking Awareness Day
National Milk Day
National Step in a Puddle and Splash Your Friends Day
Shop for Travel Day – Second Tuesday in January

January 12
National Curried Chicken Day
National Kiss A Ginger Day
National Marzipan Day
National Pharmacist Day

January 13
Korean American Day
National Peach Melba Day
National Rubber Ducky Day
Stephen Foster Memorial Day
National Sticker Day

January 14
National Dress Up Your Pet Day
National Hot Pastrami Sandwich Day
Ratification Day

January 15
National Bagel Day
National Booch Day
National Hat Day
National Strawberry Ice Cream Day
National Use Your Gift Card Day – Third Saturday in January

January 16
National Fig Newton Day
National Nothing Day
National Religious Freedom Day
National Without a Scalpel Day

January 17
National Bootlegger’s Day
National Hot Buttered Rum Day
Martin Luther King Jr. Day – Third Monday in January

January 18
National Michigan Day
National Peking Duck Day
National Thesaurus Day
National Winnie The Pooh Day

January 19
World Quark Day
National Popcorn Day

January 20
National Buttercrunch Day
National Cheese Lover’s Day
National Disc Jockey Day
Get to Know Your Customers Day  – Third Thursday of Each Quarter

January 21
National Granola Bar Day
National Hugging Day
Squirrel Appreciation Day

January  22
National Blonde Brownie Day
Celebration of Life Day
National Sanctity of Life Day

January 23
National Handwriting Day
National Pie Day

January 24
Beer Can Appreciation Day
National Compliment Day
National Peanut Butter Day

January 25
National Florida Day
National Irish Coffee Day
National Opposite Day
Plan for Vacation Day – Last Tuesday in January

January 26
National Green Juice Day
National Peanut Brittle Day
National Spouses Day
Library Shelfie Day – Fourth Wednesday in January

January 27
National Chocolate Cake Day

January 28
National Blueberry Pancake Day
Data Privacy Day
National Have Fun At Work Day
National Kazoo Day
National Big Wig Day – Last Friday in January

January 29
National Corn Chip Day
National Puzzle Day
National Seed Swap Day – Last Saturday in January

January 30
National Croissant Day

January 31
National Backward Day
National Hot Chocolate Day
National Inspire Your Heart With Art Day
National Bubble Wrap Day – Last Monday of January

The post 43 Easy & Creative January Marketing Ideas to Stand Out (with Examples!) appeared first on WordStream.

* This article was originally published here

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