If you find it tough to come up with ideas for your photography blog or social media posts, I’ve got a tip for you! Have you ever thought about using national awareness days as inspiration for your content? Trust me, it’s a game-changer.

We’ve all been there, staring at a blank screen with no idea what to write about. It’s the worst feeling. But, since there are national awareness days happening all year round, every month there are events you could potentially hook onto for your content.

Awareness days give you literally hundreds of topics that you can potentially use to inspire great marketing content, and that will help you to get visible and to promote yourself and your photography. So why not give it a try? Who knows, you might just discover your next big idea!

Related reading: A step-by-step guide to using awareness days in your photo marketing content

Awareness days are invaluable as content prompts

So, how can you use awareness days? Well, each awareness day or event listed in my free awareness days guide has its own unique theme or topic that you can use as a prompt for your content. Whether it’s a day, a week, or a month-long campaign, there’s always something you can draw inspiration from.

So, next time you’re struggling to come up with an idea, try using an awareness day as your starting point. You might be surprised at how quickly the ideas start flowing! I’m confident that if you give it a go, you’ll be able to make awareness days work for your photography business.

Related reading: How to use awareness days to inspire photography content ideas

Free calendar and April awareness days 2024

If you’re reading this around the time this article was originally published, now’s the time to start creating content for your photography marketing channels for April!

In April there are many awareness days and campaigns, so I’m confident that you should be able to find some that are relevant and that could inspire content ideas you’ve not thought of yet.

Here’s a list of April awareness days that you might want to look out for in 2024:

Month-long awareness campaigns in April

There are numerous month-long campaigns during April including:

  • Stress Awareness Month
  • Bowel Cancer Awareness Month
  • Caesarean Awareness Month
  • National Pet Month
  • Move More Month
  • World Autism Awareness Month
  • National Decorating Month
  • Active Dog Month
  • National Poetry Month
  • National Couple Appreciation Month
  • National Garden Month

Pet photographers, a couple of these monthly themes are perfect for you! 

An example of how these could be applied…

  • National Pet Month

For example, you could use National Pet Month to inspire a whole month’s worth of pet-related content. Either content and tips you’d like to share related to photography, or keep it more generic and just talk about anything and everything pet-related. 

Since people love talking about their pets, why not shine the spotlight on those who follow you (and their pets!), or members of your online community or Facebook group if you have one?

Maybe once per day, you could feature a different pet and its owner on your social media accounts – either in a post or video? Maybe feature 30 different animals – one each day – or spotlight different dog breeds throughout the month. You could really have some fun with this, and leverage the power of user-generated content to fill your content schedule with ease!

  • Active Dog Month

During April, since it’s also Active Dog Month, you could create content – in the form of blogs or social media posts and videos – with a focus on pet health. 

Each day, you could share tips on how to keep your pet active and healthy; maybe talk about how you keep your own pet active and healthy or perhaps involve a local veterinarian to provide exclusive health-based content. You could also interview a professional dog walker for their top tips or, again, crowd-source other ideas from your online followers. 

You could either drip-feed content throughout the month on your socials and/or create a series of blogs (perhaps weekly) throughout the month.

Woman sitting at a desk using her phone

Awareness days and week-long campaigns in April

Now, let’s focus on April awareness days and week-long campaigns. There are around a hundred key dates in April including the following:

*Please note that the dates below apply predominantly to the U.K. in the year 2024, and are subject to change year on year. Although they are correct to the best of my knowledge at the time of publication, please check the dates of any awareness campaigns you plan to use.

Week-long campaigns in April include:

 

Awareness days in April 2024: A (non-exhaustive) list of key dates

01 April Fool’s Day

01 Fun Day

02 World Autism Awareness Day

02 International Children’s Book Day

03 World Aquatic Animal Day

03 Chocolate Mousse Day

03 World Party Day

03 Find a Rainbow Day

03 Tweed Day

04 Vitamin C Day

04 International Carrot Day

04 404 Day

05 Go for Broke Day

05 Walk to Work Day

05 Caramel Day

06 Tartan Day

06 National DIY Day

07 World Health Day

07 No Housework Day

08 Zoo Lovers Day

09 Unicorn Day

09 Winston Churchill Day

10 Siblings Day

10 Golfer’s Day

10 International Day of Pink

11 Love Your Pet Day

11 World Parkinson’s Day

13 Scrabble Day

14 Dolphin Day

14 Look up at the Sky Day

14 Gardening Day

15 World Art Day

16 Wear Your Pyjamas to Work Day

16 Save the Elephant Day

18 Pet Owners’ Independence Day

18 World Heritage Day

19 Bicycle Day

19 Poetry and the Creative Mind Day

19 Garlic Day

19 Education and Sharing Day

20 Husband Appreciation Day

21 World Creativity & Innovation Day

21 The London Marathon

21 National Tea Day

21 Drive It Day

22 International Mother Earth Day

22 National Beagle Day

23 St. George’s Day

23 World Table Tennis Day

23 English Language Day

23 World Book Night

23 National Lost Dog Awareness Day

24 World Stationery Day

24 Stop Food Waste Day

25 World Penguin Day

25 World Malaria Day

25 DNA Day

25 Love Your Thighs Day

26 Get Organised Day

26 National Help a Horse Day

26 World Intellectual Property Day

27 National Tell a Story Day

28 World Day for Safety and Health at Work

28 National Superhero Day

28 Global Pay It Forward Day

28 Pinhole Photography Day

29 International Dance Day

29 World Wish Day

30 International Jazz Day

30 National Honesty Day

 

Ideas of how you could use these April awareness days 

Now let’s look at some ways that you could intepret these events, days and themes to your photography marketing content: 

1st April

  • April Fool’s Day / Fun Day – The perfect excuse to have a bit of fun with your content!  It’s traditional to play a prank or ‘fool’ someone on this first day of the month. There’s no limit to what you could do! 

Be creative! Maybe, edit a photograph or portrait you’ve taken in an unexpected way to make your online audience have to look twice to believe what they’re seeing. Or, focus more on the fun aspect. In a blog or social media post, share how you have fun in your work or how you make photoshoots fun for clients.

Perhaps reveal some of the tried-and-tested tricks you have up your sleeve for getting the cooperation of moody teenagers, if you’re a family photographer. Or, create a fun Reel or video about a behind-the-scenes process within your photography business that will draw your audience in and make them want to watch. 

10th April

  • National Siblings Day – This one is ideal for newborn, baby and family photographers. If you photograph siblings together during a typical baby or family photoshoot, you could share examples of your work on this day, mentioning the awareness day if you wish to.

Discuss why you welcome the opportunity to photograph siblings together (remember, your client may not realise that you offer this during their new baby’s newborn photoshoot, for example). Share tips and advice that your ideal client will appreciate in advance of the photoshoot; anything that will educate and inform them about what to expect, and how a session will run if siblings are to be involved. 

Or, make it personal, and talk about your own siblings. Perhaps you have a fun or unusual story that your audience might find amusing or that will help to build a stronger connection between you and them. Perhaps you’re a twin? Or, you’ve extensive experience photographing twins or triplets. 

Some other ideas: Show your best examples of sibling portraits on your social media platforms on National Siblings Day (whether humans or pets). Share inspirational quotes about the love between siblings or even take a more cynical view and post an amusing or relatable meme about quarrelling siblings – real life, right?!

2nd April

  • Look Up At The Sky Day – Are there any professional or budding astrophotographers reading this? If so, this is one you won’t want to miss!

Wow your online followers with your latest photography of the sky. Perhaps share an image which is a personal favourite of yours, or reveal the story behind a series of photographs you’ve taken that show incredible star formations or the Milky Way.

Maybe you’ve captured the aurora borealis, an eclipse or some incredible cloud formations? No doubt, your followers would love to know more of the stories behind your photography, and this awareness day is a great opportunity to talk about this. Maybe even run a promotion to win a photo print or share how they can purchase your photographs. 

N.B. Don’t forget that there’s also International Dark Sky Week so there are plenty of opportunities to talk about this!  

15th April

  • World Art Day – Another perfect content opportunity for photographers!

This World Art Day, why not take your online audience behind the scenes of your photography business? Show them your working environment, or discuss your unique photography style. Perhaps share how this has developed over time, or mention your influences – who inspires you and what motivated you to become a professional photographer. 

27th April 

  • National Tell A Story Day – What story could you tell on this day with your photographs?

Although they say a picture is worth a thousand words, try to resist the temptation to just share a photo on your social media channels and leave it at that! Tell the story behind it too!

Give context to the photo and reveal interesting tidbits that will attract the attention of your audience, and which will help them to learn more about you and your photography business. 

29th April 

  • International Dance Day – Dance photographers, this one is yours for the taking! On this awareness day, dance is taking centre stage (pun intended!), making it the perfect opportunity to share your dance photography and to talk about what you do.

Why not reveal what happens during a typical dance photoshoot with some behind-the-scenes content? You could keep a ‘day-in-the-life’ diary and publish this as a blog article perhaps, or create an engaging Reel showing the before and after shots.

Or, you could talk to the camera about your photography style, share an insight into why and how you use elements such as water to create dynamic dance images, and discuss how you choose locations or how you create creative lighting effects in your studio.

Maybe you could interview a dancer you’ve photographed and feature this on your blog to share their perspective of being in a dance photoshoot? Or, talk about famous dance photographers who inspire you.

Aim to convey the joy you gain from creating dance photos and to build a deeper connection with your ideal clients through your marketing content.

April awareness days can inspire tons of content 

I hope that this may have helped to show you how you can use some of the April awareness days in your marketing content this year. Of course, these are just some ideas I’ve put together and they are shared just to give you some quick-fire inspiration on how to apply them to your content.

Don’t overthink this! Simply cherry-pick a few of the April awareness days that speak to you and then interpret them however you wish.

P.S. Keep checking back to this blog for more similar articles. This is the fourth instalment of a monthly blog series that’s focused on awareness days and how to interpret them to develop photography content ideas. 

Related reading: March Awareness Days

Good luck with your April content planning!