Do You – Three Tips for Authenticity – The Eclectic VO Podcast
My morning routine is pretty set. I get up, take my son to work, go through Starbucks, come back and dive into orders, recording anything that’s waiting in the inbox before turning to correspondence. I clear out my personal email then deal with business. Both Dreamtime Illustrations (my children’s book business) and True Voice Productions (my voice over business). Today I had some last minute changes to complete for three picture books (more about that later) that will be coming out soon. The review of my TVP email inevitably flows into working my social media platforms. Then I check on orders, revisions and do auditions before jumping into marketing.
I’m sure you all understand how important marketing is for a business . But sometimes marketing is a drag. It’s a lot of work and you can go days, months – dare I say even years – and sometimes feel like you’re talking into a void. And that makes it no fun. But some days… Some days, you run across something that just makes you smile . Something so out of the box and creative, you just want to do it!
I love finding unique marketing ideas. I just adore them. And today I ran smack-dab into one I want to share with you.
So to start my marketing chores for the day, I opened up wincalendar.com to see what holidays are coming up this week before we get to Martin Luther King Junior Day on the 17th.
What I found was that today is:
- Natl. Milk Day, celebrating the day we think the first home milk deliveries in glass bottles were made in the US.
- Natl. Human Trafficking Awareness Day, a very important cause to raise awareness of a devasting crime affecting the entire globe.
- Natl. Shop for Travel Day: I would guess this was created by some businesses to encourages you to start planning our next vacation.
- Natl. Arkansas Day, celebrating the day Arkansas joined the Union.
- And my favorite – Natl. Step in a Puddle and Splash Your Friends Day. I mean, why not! Now if you’re going to celebrate this one, I hope you live in the South where you actually have puddles. If you live in the North, you’re going to have to bring that snow inside to the tub and melt it first. Then you have to be very, very careful because you do not want to slip, fall, or hit your head on anything.
I digress.
Looking for what other holidays are coming up, I found out that’s Sunday, January 16th, is Appreciate a Dragon Day. And I have to tell you as a lifelong Anne McCaffrey, Pern nerd, I love this! Appreciate a Dragon Day seeks to celebrate Dragons and the many tales and stories they have brought to us. It was created in 2004 by Donita K. Paul to promote her book, DragonSpel,l and the series, The DragonKeeper Chronicles.
This idea is so creative! And there’s a cheap way of doing it . And then there’s the not so cheap, right way of doing it.
How does one create a holiday ?
The cheap way: you make it up and then you tell everyone about it. Hit your social media and blast the crap out of that thing. Make it fun. Maybe create a prize drawing to encourage people to post and share. And make posters send postcards . This is the grassroots way of making a holiday . No one will know about it unless you tell them about it.
The not so cheap, right way of doing it?
Do everything mentioned above, and apply for official recognition by National Day Calendar. Applicants submit a brief online form which then goes before a committee who review it. They must unanimously agree on the day for it to be featured on the calendar. But this is not cheap . It can cost $2,300 to $4,500 if you want National Day Calendar to help promote this new day you’ve created.
So, pour yourself a glass of milk. Say howdy to your favorite Arkansan. Splash in a puddle if you can do so safely.
What national day would you create? Let me know. Maybe I can help you celebrate it!