If you struggle to know what to write about on your photography blog or on your social media channels, then have you considered using national awareness days as content prompts? If not, I highly recommend it!
There’s nothing worse than staring at a blank screen, knowing that you need to create content to promote your photography, but not having a clue what to write. Right?!
This is when awareness days can prove so valuable. There are many hundreds of awareness days happening each and every year and one hundred or more each month. So, that’s hundreds of potential topics that you could piggyback on as a content idea!
Related reading: A step-by-step guide to using awareness days in your photo marketing content
Awareness days are invaluable as content prompts
An awareness day based on a particular theme or topic could be all you need to come up with hundreds of photography marketing content ideas throughout the year.
Used literally as prompts, you might find that the theme of a particular awareness day, awareness week or monthly awareness campaign inspires you and sets the cogs in your brain turning. You might go on to recall a story worth sharing with your audience on that theme or topic, or you may conjure up a memory of an experience that might interest them, for example.
Simply because of the variety of awareness days that are happening each calendar month, I’m confident that if you applied yourself and open your mind to the possibilities of how awareness days might be helpful to you, you’ll be able to make them work for your photography business.
Related reading: How to use awareness days to inspire photography content ideas
Grab your free guide to 2022 awareness days
Before I get onto the list of October awareness days that you might want to look out for in 2022, do take a minute to grab my free printable guide of awareness days. There are literally hundreds in there!
October Awareness Days
Grabbed your awareness days guide? Great! Let’s get started!
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 October!
In October, there are many awareness days and campaigns, so I’m confident that you should be able to find some that are relevant and which could inspire content ideas you’ve not thought of yet.
Month-long awareness campaigns in October
There are month-long campaigns during October including:
- Photographer Appreciation Month
- Black History Month
- International Walk to School Month
- ADHD Awareness Month
- Go Sober for October
- Breast Cancer Awareness Month
As an example of how some of these could be applied…
Photographer Appreciation Month
This is an obvious to start with! This monthly campaign is all about YOU getting recognition for the incredible work that you do. A simple idea on how to leverage this would be to ask your past customers to show their appreciation of your photography services by leaving a Google review.
Even if happy clients have said previously that they would submit a glowing testimonial for you onto Google, very often it can get forgotten about and doesn’t get done. They’re only human, after all! It’s natural that even the happiest of clients go back to their day-to-lives and your photography doesn’t stay top of mind for long.
Throughout October then, why not remind them with a series of social media posts or even send direct messages or emails to those clients who you certain would be happy to submit a review of your photography services? Just a little nudge could result in you receiving more Google reviews which will play a part in helping to attract more future clients, and could also be shared on social media as well!
Awareness days and week-long campaigns in October
Now, let’s focus on October awareness days and week-long campaigns. There are almost 50 key dates in total in October including the following (be sure to grab the free guide for the full list):
*Please note that the dates below apply predominantly to the U.K. in the year 2022, 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 October include:
- International Babywearing Week (from the 1st)
- Backcare Awareness Week (from the 3rd)
- National Arthritis Week (from the 7th)
- Baby Loss Awareness Week (from the 9th)
- National Work Life Week (from the 12th)
- National Baking Week (from the 14th)
Awareness days in October
2nd October
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Grandparents Day – This is a useful awareness day to piggyback on if you’re a family portrait photographer. Quite simply, you could create a blog article and social media posts inspired by this that emphasise the importance of having portraits taken with, or of, grandparents.
Show examples of grandparent portraits and intergenerational family photographs you’ve captured for clients. Perhaps make an Instagram Reel, with some emotive music overlaid, and with a call-to-action that inspires viewers to book a grandparents’ or family session.
4th October
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World Animal Day – Whether you photograph animals for fun or professionally, World Animal Day is an event that you could certainly use to inspire animal-themed content.
Since this is a broad topic, there’s lots of scope to make this work for your business if you take photographs of animals or pets. You could share funny pet portraits or images of wild animals in their natural habitats, you could talk about your own animal(s) or share your origin story about how you came to photograph animals for a living.
Some other ideas: Light-hearted social media content could be anything from “caption this” pet/animal portrait, to asking questions such as “If you were an animal, which would you be?” (use Instagram stickers to get direct feedback from your followers), or “what’s your favourite animal and why?”.
On a more serious note, you could create photography content inspired by this day to raise awareness of the plight of endangered animals that you may have photographed or a charitable cause that supports animals or wildlife. Or, tell a compelling or emotive story about an experience you’ve had involving animals, whether at home or abroad.
7th October
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World Smile Day – This is another great opportunity for photographers! Portraits of happy, smiling people – whether photographed on location, in your studio, or during an event or wedding – are eye-catching and aspirational. Don’t forget to share portraits of happy-looking pets too!
Beyond the sharing of your images, on this day you could also share tips within social posts or a blog on how to look good in photos or how to achieve a natural smile. Or, if you’d prefer that your clients don’t necessarily smile during a portrait session – perhaps you’re a documentary-style portrait photographer – you could create some content to explain your rationale behind this.
12th October
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National Work Life Week – Throughout this week, you could share some behind-the-scenes content that reveals what a typical day in the life of a photographer is or that discusses how you balance life and work commitments as a busy working parent, perhaps.
Alternatively, could you share tips about work-life balance with other photographers in online communities you are part of? Or, you could pitch an article idea to a local business newspaper, magazine or website that may be keen to feature local entrepreneurs. For example, “Five things I wish I knew before I started my photography business”.
31st October
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Halloween – Arguably, the spookiest day of the year!
This is a day to share fun content. Perhaps show behind the scenes of you at work, particularly if you’ve decked out your studio or workspace with Halloween decorations or love dressing up for the occasion! Or, reveal portraits you’ve captured during any Halloween-themed sessions you’ve run.
I LOVED this Halloween-inspired boudoir photoshoot Johanna Elizabeth and her team created last Halloween! Totally inspired!
If you’re a food or drink photographer, have you photographed any Halloween-themed confectionary or drinks, for example, this year? Could you share a recipe for a Halloween-themed cocktail, or if you’re a home interior photographer, could you share some stunning Halloween-inspired table settings or seasonal home decorations you’ve photographed?
October awareness days can inspire tons of content
I hope that this may have helped to show you how you can use some of the October awareness days in your marketing content this year. Of course, these are just some ideas I’ve put together, and are 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 October than those listed above. Download your free guide, cherry-pick a few of the October 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 tenth instalment of a monthly blog series that I’m creating throughout 2022, focused on awareness days.
Related reading: September Awareness Days
Good luck with your October content planning! If you need more help, why not join my next content planning workshop? Perhaps see you there!
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