43 Creative January Marketing Ideas to Start the Year Right

In this article, we’re sharing a full list of January awareness themes, holidays, and national days, tons of creative ways to use them for unique and meaningful marketing, and marketing planning tips and ideas to stay successful all year.

Contents

January awareness observances

January is the national month for:

#wearblueday occurs every January in support of anti-human trafficking.

Want more ideas? Get marketing, promotion, and social post ideas for every month of the year >> The Mega Must-Have Marketing Calendar

January holidays and national days

We’ve included the full list of January national days and dates at the bottom of this post, but here are a few highlights:

• Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (third Monday)
• Technology Day (Jan 6)
• Invisible Pain Day (Jan 7)
• Vision Board Day (second Saturday)
• Law Enforcement Appreciation Day (Jan 9)
• Cut Your Energy Costs Day (Jan 10)
• Clean Off Your Desk Day (Jan 10)
• Nothing Day (Jan 16)
• Get to Know Your Customers Day (third Thursday)
• Compliment Day (Jan 24)
• Library Shelfie Day (fourth Wednesday)
• Data Privacy Day (Jan 28)
• Backward Day (Jan 31)

January diversity, equity, and inclusion observances

In addition to MLK Day, we also have:

• Emancipation Proclamation Day (Jan 1)
• Louis Braille’s birthday (Jan 4)
• Korean American Day (Jan 13)
• Religious Freedom Day (Jan 16)
• International Holocaust Remembrance Day (Jan 27)

Creative and meaningful January marketing ideas

Here are some ways to use the awareness themes, holidays, and national days of January to connect with your audience.

Share holiday recaps and roundups

The holidays might be over, but don’t miss out on the opportunity to squeeze every last drop of cheer you can out of the last month! You can still make the holidays part of your January marketing by creating and publishing holiday roundup posts on your blog or on your social media sites.

Here are some ideas:

• Did your catering company work a holiday party? Post pictures or recipes!
• You can also take advantage of #tbt (Throwback Thursday) on Twitter and Instagram and post pictures from just a couple of weeks ago to share with your followers.
• Cleaning services or home goods shops can provide post-holiday cleaning or Christmas tree disposal tips.

The holidays are busy, and customers might have missed all you had going on, so this is an easy way to create content for your business while making sure they’re in the loop.

Free guide >> 10 Tangible & Free Ways to Get on the First Page of Google

Honor Martin Luther King, Jr. Day with a day of service

MLK Day, observed on the third Monday of January every year, celebrates Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday and commemorates his Nobel Peace Prize for Civil Rights leadership. Don’t use this holiday to promote your business. Make it a day of service, celebration, and education around this civil rights legend.

• Many communities create a day of service you or your team can participate in.
• Post quotes, photos, and facts about Martin Luther King, Jr. on social media.
• Post stats and raise awareness about civil rights on social media.
• Run your own day of service, whether for your community or in your company.

Image source

Get involved during Blood Donor Month

January is National Blood Donor Month, so get involved!

• Participate in a local blood drive or host one of your own.
• Run special promotions for those in your community who donate, such as a free gift, discount code, or special deal on your products or services.
• Raise awareness on social media and encourage your followers to give blood.

You can find blood drives in your area here.

Dish em’ out on National Compliment Day

Who doesn’t love a nice compliment? National Compliment Day occurs every January 24—here are some ways to celebrate:

• Show another business some love on social media or by writing a review (they may even return the favor!)
• Start a compliment train. Ask your followers to tag someone in your post and give them a compliment. The tagged person then tags another friend and gives them a compliment and so on.
• Give your employees hand-written compliments to show them you appreciate them.

Run fun weather-based promotions

Much of the United States is covered in snow in January. Love it or hate it, you can’t stop it, so use it to your advantage! Make the snowy weather a little less gray with content, promotions, and posts celebrating the cold.

• Daycares can share safety tips for playing or dressing children in the snow.
• Contractors, construction, and snow removal companies can write about winter hazards in the home—carbon monoxide detectors, salt versus sand for ice and snow, or how to winterize drafty windows.
• Give a snow-day discount. Anytime your city gets snow, offer a discount based on the number of inches you’ve received, like 20% off for 20 inches of snow!

• You can also keep your customers up to date on the latest snow closures on your social media pages.

Take part in National Clean Off Your Desk Day

With so many people working from home (and becoming obsessed with cleaning and organization shows), this holiday just may resonate with your audience. Here are some ways to take part:

• Tidy up your desk and share a before and after picture on social. Ask your audience to do the same.
• Give organization tips and ideas
• Run a contest or a poll. The person with the cleanest (or messiest) desk wins a prize!

Share and encourage New Year’s resolutions

No explanation needed for this annual favorite. Here are some ideas:

• Hold yourself accountable and share them with your audience. Then create content around them!
• Fitness centers can have a weekly accountability post to create a support community.
• Restaurants and catering services can write blog or Facebook posts with healthy recipes.
• Daycares can blog about toy organization ideas for playrooms and toy areas.
• Ask followers on social media what theirs are—you could even run a poll and then write a blog post providing tips and advice for the most common resolutions.

Check out our 135 [not overused] New Year’s Instagram caption ideas post for more resolution-related ideas!

Start a customer loyalty or referral program

Loyal customers not only bring you ongoing business, but they are also more likely to refer other customers to you. Providing the best customer service is the first and foremost loyalty marketing strategy, followed by intentional loyalty or referral programs. And with people feeling enthusiastic and motivated for the new year, this is the perfect time to start one.

Here are some ideas for your customer loyalty program:

• Create and print a simple stamp card for customers. Each purchase or service equals one stamp. After 10 stamps, customers can receive a free product, a discounted service, or a swag item.
• Offer current customers a discount for each new customer they refer.
• Create a tiered loyalty program so customers can move up in tiers based on their purchase history – the higher the tier, the better discounts.

As for referral programs, check out our 14 Referral Program Ideas to Land Your Best Customers Yet and these three referral marketing strategies to get the gears turning. And make sure to promote your programs on social media and in your location so customers can find out about it easily!

Blame Someone Else Day

This holiday changes every year. It’s the first Friday the 13th of the year, and in 2023, it falls in January! Toss the core values aside today and letterrip. Don’t actually do that. But you can have fun with this one.

• “When working in a book store you learn that sometimes books are just going to fall over. Usually on their own or sometimes because of…other reasons (*cough*Ryan*cough).
  Happy National Blame Someone Else Day!
  (No books were harmed in the making of this post).”
• “Friday the 13th: Me-ow.
  National Blame Someone Else Day: You-ow”
• “It’s okay to indulge, you can blame us!”

Or get serious…

Or use it as a creative way to celebrate a company milestone and thank your customers. Write a customer appreciation email, blaming them for your having to bring on more employees to keep up with the demand, and for your having to move to a bigger office, and your having to choose the signature drink to serve at your party celebrating your 1000th customer…and so on.

  Free Guide: 30+ Ways to Promote Your Business (On Any Budget!)

Essential but not-so-creative January marketing ideas

These aren’t the most fun marketing ideas, but they are essential if you want running your business to stay fun, through the month and year-round.

Start with a clean inbox

There’s nothing less exciting than seeing the number of new emails in your inbox when you get back from the holidays.

Actually, I lied because there is: It’s going through them. Did you know January 25-29 is actually Clean Out Your Inbox Week? Use it as motivation to get organized and start with a clean slate.

• Go through those old emails you “starred” and never followed up on…
• If you don’t already use folders for your emails, create some to help you keep your inbox organized.
• Go through the settings your email platform has to offer. There are integrations, color coding, rules, and more that can make your life a whole lot easier. That half hour could translate into hours saved this year.
• Create an ideas folder where you save marketing emails you’ve received that you like or find effective. You never know, you might just find your next great idea buried in your own inbox!

Solidify your yearly goals or marketing plan

Whether you’re an agency, business owner, or freelancer, it’s important to have both personal and professional goals for the year. Take some time at the beginning of the month to make sure your goals and your marketing plan are solidified.

As we know, things can change quickly, but having a documented plan or a growth strategy in place can make the difference between hitting your revenue goals for the year and missing them.

Download our free, editable growth strategy template to walk through seven simple steps for creating the right plan to grow your business.

Revisit what worked last year (and what didn’t)

Now that you have a full year of data available, take some time to see what worked in your marketing last year and what didn’t.

Here are some ideas of what to look at:

• What content or web pages performed best for you?
• What resonated with your audiences on social media – top posts, most engaging posts, etc.?
• What email subject lines got the best open rates?
• What marketing strategies, campaigns, or channels drove the most leads?
• What didn’t perform as well as you thought it would – and how could it be improved?

Read up on the latest marketing trends and predictions

With the new year comes a ton of new content around what to expect in the world of marketing and business in general. Find some articles or blog posts that will get you up to speed on what the experts expect to be big this year in your own industry—and jot down some ideas or trends that you might want to try out!

Announce your events for the year or coming months

Market your business both online and offline by highlighting upcoming events for the year. Some upcoming holidays include President’s Day, Valentine’s Day, Mardi Gras, and St. Patrick’s Day.

If you have anything planned for these events, like upcoming Valentine’s Day deals at your spa or a special Valentine’s menu at your restaurant, let customers know! A calendar of promotions is a great way to keep customers informed about upcoming promotions or events your business is sponsoring or hosting.

Update your Google Business Profile

Last, but not least, update your Google Business Profile. If you want to show up when local searchers are trying to find businesses like yours on Google or in Google Maps, a complete and optimized Google Business profile is the place to start.

Take a minute to make sure your profile is claimed and then take it a step further by optimizing your listing:

• Make sure to respond to all reviews.
• Add some images or a video that showcase your business.
• Populate the Q&A section of your profile with frequently asked questions.

Get more tips to optimize your Google Business Profile here.

Commit to growing your skill set

The digital marketing world is never in a resting state. Set a goal for yourself to build on your existing marketing skills or develop new ones. Here are some great resources for doing so:

Hmm, looks like our next roundup will need to have 10…

See? Creative January marketing is easy

January can often be a stressful time for business owners, but with the right marketing ideas and plan in place, you can relieve some stress without losing out on new customers and engagement. Happy New Year! Interested in more marketing ideas for every month of the year? We can help with that. Check out our creative ideas for:

Full list of January social media holidays and dates

As promised, brought to you by National Day Calendar

January 1

• New Years Day
• National Bloody Mary Day
• National Hangover Day

January 2

• National Buffet Day
• National Cream Puff Day
• National Personal Trainer Awareness Day
• National Science Fiction Day

January 3

• National Chocolate Covered Cherry Day
• National Drinking Straw Day
• National Fruitcake Toss Day

January 4

• National Missouri Day
• National Spaghetti Day
• National Trivia Day
• National Play Outside Day – First Saturday Every Month

January 5

• National Bird Day
• National Keto Day
• National Screenwriters Day
• National Whipped Cream Day

January 6

• National Bean Day
• National Cuddle Up Day
• National Shortbread Day
• National Technology Day
• National Thank God It’s Monday Day – First Monday in January

January 7

• National Invisible Pain Day
• National Bobblehead Day
• National Tempura Day

January 8

• National Argyle Day
• National Bubble Bath Day
• National English Toffee Day
• National JoyGerm Day
• National Winter Skin Relief Day

January 9

• National Apricot Day
• National Balloon Ascension Day
• National Law Enforcement Appreciation Day
• National Static Electricity Day

January 10

• National Bittersweet Chocolate Day
• National Cut Your Energy Costs Day
• National Oysters Rockefeller Day
• National Save The Eagles Day
• National Clean Off Your Desk Day – Second Monday in January

January 11

• National Arkansas Day
• National Human Trafficking Awareness Day
• National Milk Day
• National Step in a Puddle and Splash Your Friends Day
• National Vision Board Day – Second Saturday in January

January 12

• National Curried Chicken Day
• National Kiss A Ginger Day
• National Marzipan Day
• National Pharmacist Day
• National Sunday Supper Day – Second Sunday in January

January 13

• Korean American Day
• National Peach Melba Day
• National Rubber Ducky Day
• Stephen Foster Memorial Day
• National Sticker Day

January 14

• National Dress Up Your Pet Day
• National Hot Pastrami Sandwich Day
• Ratification Day
• Shop for Travel Day – Second Tuesday in January

January 15

• National Bagel Day
• National Booch Day
• National Hat Day
• National Strawberry Ice Cream Day

January 16

• National Fig Newton Day
• National Nothing Day
• National Religious Freedom Day
• National Without a Scalpel Day
• Get to Know Your Customers Day  – Third Thursday of Each Quarter

January 17

• National Bootlegger’s Day
• National Hot Buttered Rum Day

January 18

• National Michigan Day
• National Peking Duck Day
• National Thesaurus Day
• National Winnie The Pooh Day
• National Use Your Gift Card Day – Third Saturday in January

January 19

• World Quark Day
• National Popcorn Day

January 20

• National Buttercrunch Day
• National Cheese Lover’s Day
• National Disc Jockey Day
• Martin Luther King Jr. Day – Third Monday in January

January 21

• National Granola Bar Day
• National Hugging Day
• Squirrel Appreciation Day

January  22

• National Blonde Brownie Day
• Celebration of Life Day
• National Sanctity of Life Day
• Library Shelfie Day – Fourth Wednesday in January

January 23

• National Handwriting Day
• National Pie Day

January 24

• Beer Can Appreciation Day
• National Compliment Day
• National Peanut Butter Day

January 25

• National Florida Day
• National Irish Coffee Day
• National Opposite Day

January 26

• National Green Juice Day
• National Peanut Brittle Day
• National Spouses Day

January 27

• National Chocolate Cake Day
• National Bubble Wrap Day – Last Monday of January

January 28

• National Blueberry Pancake Day
• Data Privacy Day
• National Have Fun At Work Day
• National Kazoo Day
• Plan for Vacation Day – Last Tuesday in January

January 29

• National Corn Chip Day
• National Puzzle Day
• National Seed Swap Day – Last Saturday in January

January 30

January 31

• National Backward Day
• National Hot Chocolate Day
• National Inspire Your Heart With Art Day
• National Big Wig Day – Last Friday in January