As you’ll likely know, you need to keep your photography blog and marketing channels fresh and up-to-date in order to stay visible online. Continually coming up with new ideas for content can be a huge struggle though, right?
Awareness campaigns can help! Use them to inspire content ideas for the months ahead and to help you get your content planned out in advance, saving you time and hassle.
Intrigued? OK, great! Before I tell you more though, why not take a minute to subscribe to download my FREE awareness days guide if you haven’t already…
Access my FREE list of national awareness days and campaigns
I’ve created a free PDF guide in which I’m sharing some of the awareness days, key events and charitable campaigns that are happening in each quarter of the year.
My intention with this guide is to help you kick-start your content ideas brainstorming.
Related reading: How to use awareness days to inspire photography content ideas
Purchase the extended version of the guide for hundreds more!
With the events and key dates as prompts, you can potentially develop lots of ideas for your marketing content. (Keep reading to discover how to use them in your content).
Want more? Sure! I also have hundreds more available here. Buy your copy today and never run out of content inspiration again!
Awareness Days can inspire topical photo marketing content ideas
National awareness days have long been used by marketers and business owners. I’ve been using them since I started in PR almost 20 years ago, and I believe that they are still a great way to inspire fresh and engaging content that will help you promote your business.
Importantly, journalists, bloggers, influencers and content creators around the globe use them as the basis of news articles and social media marketing content. That’s because awareness campaigns are timely events and initiatives which, by their very nature, are topical and newsworthy.
When you look through the list of awareness days in my free guide, you’ll discover that some awareness campaigns are serious, and some are just for fun! The key point is that they create talking points and bring people together.
Whether you find awareness days, weeks or month-long campaigns in here that could somehow align with your business or personal life, these are a great way to forge a connection between you and the wider news agenda.
Now, just to be clear. You absolutely do NOT need to be affiliated with the awareness days or campaigns in any way to use them in your own marketing! If they relate to you or your photography business in some way, then you absolutely can use them to inspire your blogs, social media content, videos and podcasts.
The key to their effectiveness is in how you interpret them.
You can use an awareness campaign as a prompt to create content that’s aligned with your brand and key messages. Simply, link the theme of the event or campaign to your own business or identify a relevant personal experience that you could share.
Ultimately the potential success of this approach is limited only by your imagination!
How to use awareness days in your photo marketing content: A step-by-step guide
STEP 1: CREATE A SHORTLIST
Review the list of awareness days relevant to the months ahead that you have, by now, hopefully, downloaded. Then, determine which of these awareness days could be useful prompts for your content.
Tip: You don’t need to just use the photography-related awareness days. For example, yes, World Marriage Day would be ideal if you are a wedding photographer, but don’t be afraid to pick out other awareness days too – even the ones that don’t immediately seem relevant. You can use some of the more trivial topics to create light-hearted content that helps show off your personality.
Remember, through what you share online, you can help your audience to get to know you on a personal level. It’s important to build that know, like and trust and forge a connection with your ideal clients.
There’s no better way to do that than with a story that reveals an insight into who you are, how you like to spend your time outside of work, and experiences you’ve had or hope to have in the future, for example.
People buy from people, so don’t be afraid to talk about yourself in your marketing and use some of the awareness days as prompts to share personal stories and anecdotes that will help build a sense of connection and rapport.
All the better if you can use them in a way that encourages your followers and fans to share their stories and experiences too. Getting a conversation going is a great way to connect with your audience.
STEP 2: ADD YOUR SHORTLISTED AWARENESS DAYS/EVENTS TO YOUR DIARY
Mark in your diary the relevant awareness days that you plan to create photo marketing content around.
You may not end up creating content around every date that you identify at this stage, but add them to your calendar so at least you’ll have a bird’s eye view of when they’re happening and where they fit in relation to other key dates in your calendar.
STEP 3: VERIFY THE DETAILS
Do a quick Google search for the awareness campaign or event you’ve identified as relevant to verify the dates and source more information if you need it and look up any associated hashtags you could use on social media.
(Although the dates in my guide are correct at the time of publication to the best of my knowledge, and are collated in good faith, please do check to confirm before you use them).
Also, please note that the guide features mostly UK-specific dates, with some from other countries sprinkled in. Do be sure to check the dates for your specific country if you live outside the UK, as they may vary.
Just in case you’re wondering though, there are no rules around how you can use awareness days. If you’re based outside of the U.K., you can certainly still use awareness days or events happening in the U.K. to inspire content ideas, and this applies to campaigns happening elsewhere in the world too.
My advice would be to be inspired by the general theme of the event/campaign, rather than get hung up on whether it’s specific to your country or not. You may choose not to even mention the awareness day specifically in your content – you certainly don’t have to!
STEP 4: PLAN YOUR CONTENT CREATION TIME
Working backwards from each particular awareness day you’ve shortlisted, plot in a date for creating that content.
You may be the kind of person who likes to batch create your photo marketing content a month or more in advance, in which case you may choose to have a set day – such as the first day of every calendar month as your content creation day. Or, you may prefer to allocate a day per week or fortnight to creating content for the weeks ahead.
Whichever way you operate, the key is to ensure that you are setting aside enough time in advance of the event or awareness day to do everything you’ll need to do to get that piece of content ready for publishing. I’d recommend that you plan and create your content at least 1-2 weeks before the awareness day, as a general rule of thumb.
That’s because you need to come up with the blog copy/social media captions/video script, image/video assets and schedule the content too. Don’t forget how long this can all take!
N.B. If you are planning to use an awareness campaign as a prompt for PR pitches to the media or for guest blogs, you’ll also want to be mindful of the lead times that the media and others work to. It’s better to make your approaches well in advance rather than be too late!
STEP 5: BRAINSTORM CONTENT IDEAS
With time set aside in advance to create your content, now is the time to brainstorm ideas and draft the copy and other assets you’ll need. What will you share?
- Is the day/campaign led by a charitable cause you are passionate about supporting? Why is that? What personal story could you tell to your audience?
- Does an awareness day relate to an experience you’ve had (serious or funny)?
- Does the general topic of the awareness day spark a memory of something, or of a life or business lesson you’ve learnt? If so, share what you know now as a tip.
Visit this blog on my website for more content ideas.
The content opportunities are endless if you don’t overthink this!
STEP 6: CREATE, SCHEDULE & ENGAGE
The final step is to create and schedule your content for publication to tie in with the awareness day, and then to engage with any comments and positive interaction on the content on the day it’s published, and beyond.
Remember, use awareness days as prompts to add variety and personality to your marketing. Allow yourself to be inspired by the general topic, and then get creative with your interpretation of the theme. There is no right or wrong as to how you choose to use them in your content.
Good luck!
Related reading: How to use awareness days to inspire photography content ideas
Want even more awareness days to inspire your content?
Remember to subscribe here to receive the free list of awareness days. Then follow the steps I’ve outlined above to make use of them in your photo marketing content.
Don’t forget, I also have hundreds more available here in the extended version of the Quarter 2 awareness days guide. Buy your copy today and never run out of content inspiration again!
Join me on my next quarterly content planning workshop
Want more help with planning your marketing content? Then, why not join me on my next quarterly content planning workshop?
These content workshops are exclusively for photographers who are looking for support and accountability to get their content planned in advance. Visit the content planning workshops page for more details or click on the image below.
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