Do you lack inspiration when it comes to creating new content for your photography blog or social media posts? When you sit down at your computer to create marketing content, do you feel all out of ideas?

If so, don’t worry, I’m here to help! National awareness days are a brilliant resource and I’m going to show you how to use them as content prompts to inspire content ideas. Trust me, using awareness days is a game-changer!

Use national awareness days to inspire photography marketing content

We all know how hard it can sometimes feel to come up with engaging content to showcase our photography and nurture our audience into paying clients. Well, if this is something that you struggle with, honestly, awareness days are going to be a great help to you.

With countless awareness days taking place each month of the year, they offer a treasure trove of potential topics for your marketing content. Once you know how you’ll be able to effortlessly generate exciting content ideas that resonate with your audience and promote your photography products and services.

Get ready to say goodbye to writer’s block and hello to a wealth of content inspiration!

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

Awareness days are invaluable as content prompts

Be inspired by awareness days, and you can potentially develop hundreds of ideas for your marketing content. Yes, it can be that easy!

How, you may wonder? Well, because each awareness day, event or campaign is based on a theme or topic. You can simply brainstorm how that topic might link with something that you’d like to share about yourself, your work or your photography business, and therein come up with something to share.

Whether it’s a single day, a week- or a month-long event, an awareness day or campaign can spark endless ideas. And the content that you come up with? Well, this can be based on stories, anecdotes, personal experiences….you name it, anything can be shared if it feels appropriate to you.

The variety of content ideas that awareness days can inspire will add colour to your marketing content, and help you to build up that all-important know, like and trust with your online audience. So, tap into the potential of awareness days and see for yourself how easy content creation can feel as a result!

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

Free calendar and July awareness days (2023 edition)

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 July!

In July, 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 July awareness days that you might want to look out for in 2023:

July Awareness Days

Month-long awareness campaigns in July

There are month-long campaigns during July including

  • Plastic Free July
  • National Picnic Month
  • Independent Retailer Month
  • National Ice Cream Month

Woman sitting at a desk using her phone

Awareness days and week-long campaigns in July

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

*Please note that the dates below apply predominantly to the U.K. in the year 2023, 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.

Awareness days in July 2023: A (non-exhaustive) list of key dates

01 Canada Day

01 International Reggae Day

01 International Joke Day

01 Clean Beaches Week

01 Second Half of the Year Day

01 Tour De France (until 23rd)

03 International Plastic Bag Free Day

03 Bereaved Parents Day

03 Compliment Your Mirror Day

04 Independence Day (USA)

05 Bikini Day

06 Kissing Day

07 World Chocolate Day

07 Tell the Truth Day

07 Global Forgiveness Day

09 British Grand Prix

10 Don’t Step on a Bee Day

10 Kitten Day

10 Teddy Bear Picnic Day

1 World Population Day

11 All American Pet Photo Day

12 Simplicity Day

12 New Conversations Day

14 Shark Awareness Day

14 Nude Day

15 World Youth Skills Day

15 Social Media Giving Day

17 World Emoji Day

17 National Tattoo Day

17 Global Hug Your Kids Day

18 Black Leaders Awareness Day

18 World Listening Day

20 Lollipop Day

21 Be Someone Day

23 Gorgeous Grandma Day

23 Marine Week

23 Parent’s Day (USA)

24 24/7 Samaritans Awareness Day

24 International Self-Care Day

24 Tequila Day

24 Cousins Day

25 Wine & Cheese Day

26 Disability Independence Day

26 Dog Photography Day

26 Aunt and Uncle Day

28 Milk Chocolate Day

28 Love Parks Week

29 International Tiger Day

29 Rain Day

29 Lipstick Day

30 World Friendship Day / International Friendship Day

Ideas on how to use these July Awareness Days

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

1st July

  • Second Half of the Year Day – Unbelievably, we’re already at the mid-point of the year! The start of July might be a significant time for you in your business or for your clients, so you could reference this in your marketing content. You could use this mid-point in the year to talk about successes within your business that happened during the first half of the year or to share what’s ahead in the second half. 

For example, pre-promote new services (such as autumn mini sessions) or pre-sell a product that will be available in the coming months (2024 photo calendars etc.), or just share some personal reflections or learnings to build a stronger connection with your audience. 

Or, talk about things that your audience is likely to be going through at this time of year (e.g. holidaying, juggling work and children, trying to keep babies and pets cool in the summer etc.), to demonstrate empathy, and use the opportunity to share relevant tips that might help them. 

3rd July

  • Compliment Your Mirror Day – This is a great one for portrait photographers and particularly boudoir and beauty photographers who empower their clients through portraits. 

You could encourage your followers to say something positive about themselves on this day, or share inspirational quotes to inspire and motivate them to feel good about themselves. It’s also an opportunity to speak more broadly about the importance of having professional portraits taken since portraits make your clients look and feel amazing!

4th July

  • Independence Day – If you’re based in the USA or are an American-born photographer, Independence Day is an awareness day in July that you won’t want to miss.

Use it as a prompt to share an insight into how you’re celebrating personally, or what you’re doing work-wise on this day. Or, perhaps talk about your backstory – how you came to be a photographer and how you love being an independent photography business owner.

If you’ve done any Fourth of July-themed photoshoots, obviously share these too!

Camera on a white desk with pink flowers

6th July

  • Kissing DayThis one could work for portrait and wedding photographers, and perhaps even pet photographers! Share examples from your portfolio of people embracing and kissing each other during emotional exchanges such as at a wedding, or the natural moments captured on a family photoshoot.

26th July

  • Dog Photography Day – A perfect awareness day for pet photographers! Share in your content anything and everything to do with your pet photography. For example, reveal how and why you got started in this photography niche, share tips on how to get the best shots when photographing pets or talk about your favourite or most memorable sessions. 

You could also share stories and pet portraits on social media that your audience will love (perhaps cute or funny ones) and ask for them to interact with your content by asking simple questions and using polls and interactive stickers to drive engagement.

You could also consider running a competition to win a pet photography session in the lead-up to this day. Or, interview a pet behaviourist or pet groomer in your blog, or on a podcast or video channel if you host one (or chat on other pet-related podcasts), to add value to your pet-owner followers. 

Also, don’t forget All American Pet Photo Day, that’s also happening in July (11th). 

Related reading: Celebrating Dog Photographers on Dog Photography Day

29th July

  • Rain Day – You could use this awareness day to inspire some photography content ideas for social media or your blog around what happens if it does rain on the day of a scheduled photo shoot. This would be a useful piece of content to create as it addresses a question that outdoor portrait and wedding photographers get asked by clients all the time! 

Or, you could share creative examples of photographs taken in the rain and dispel any common myths or concerns about bad weather and how it may affect a client’s shoot. 

July awareness days can inspire tons of content 

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

Don’t overthink this!

Remember, there are many more awareness days in July than those listed above. Cherry-pick a few of the July awareness days that speak to you and that feel relevant to your photography business. Feel free to interpret them however you wish, and to inspire ideas for your marketing content.

P.S. Keep checking back to this blog for more similar articles. This is the seventh instalment of a monthly blog series that I’ve created focused on awareness days.

Related reading: June Awareness Days

Good luck with your July content planning! Do comment below to let me know which of the July awareness days you’re planning to use as prompts for your marketing content.