How To Strategically Use National Days In Your Content

Content Creation
Written By Natalie Davis

Have you ever been scrolling through social media and come across a post that’s like “happy national dog day!” or “it’s national chocolate chip cookie day!” and you’re like “wow, a random day like that exists?!”

It’s true! A lot of very random national days like this exist and I actually encourage my clients to use national days in their content - as long as they do it strategically.

National days are very similar to holidays in the fact that they feel fun and relatable for your audience. It captures their attention in a new way and allows you to connect your overarching message to something that isn’t totally related to your industry.

With that said, you don’t want to post about a national day just for the heck of it. You want it to feel intentional and be aligned with your brand and your message.

People don’t like randomness, but they DO like relatability!

How To Incorporate National Days Into Your Content Strategy

To help you incorporate national days into your content strategy in a way that feels relatable instead of random, here’s a peek into how I do this with my clients:

1. Go to NationalDayCalendar.com and look at the list for the next 3 months

I always plan my long form content one quarter at a time, but if 3 months doesn’t feel doable for you, stick to one month for now!

2. Jot down ANY national day that catch your eye

For now, don’t think about how you can create content around it. If you see a national day that you vibe with, simply write it down!

3. Audit your list

Once you have your list for 1-3 months, it’s time to audit the list and think about how you can create content that relates to that national day specifically.

Is there a way you can connect the random day to your brand or one of the values that you have? Does the national day directly correlate to your industry? Can you connect the national day to your overall message?

For some of the days, you’ll be able to easily connect it to your brand or your message, but some of them will be scraps that you don’t take action on.

Be honest with yourself during this audit! The last thing you want is to force content around a national day that you personally love instead of it seamlessly fitting into your content plan.

4. Use the quarterly blog content calendar template to organize your blog content with ease

Finally, this is how you’re going to keep your blog content organized!

I love a spreadsheet, so to help you save time, you can snag the quarterly blog content calendar template I use for myself and for my clients to help you plan your blog content in advance.

This helps you remember which national days you definitely want to use, you can house all of your content topic ideas in one place and you can take note of anything you don’t want to forget so that your writing process goes much smoother when it’s time.

One huge thing to note about incorporating national days into your content is that the national days don’t necessarily have to be called out in the blog post itself.

You want your blogs to remain as evergreen as possible so that no matter when someone lands on the blog, it will be relevant. Instead, the national day can spark a blog topic idea and then guide a social media post!

And sometimes the national day might not connect to a blog at all. It might just be something that you post about on social media to provide value to your audience in a new and exciting way.

How you do it is up to you, but the key is that you’re remaining on brand and on message when you use this strategy!

National Day Content Ideas

To help you see this in action, I did the above process for 4 industries and chose 3-5 national days that correlated with each.

From there, I created potential blog topic ideas that could easily connect with the national days while also remaining on brand.

Marketing

Copywriters I’m looking at you! (talking to myself with this one).

A blog topic that could easily go along with this national day could be The Power of Proofreading and you could go in depth about your specific writing/editing process.

I envision this being used on social media as a way to provide tips centered around the process that happens after you write and how to get your copy projects finalized for publishing.

This one is pretty broad, so you can use it in a variety of ways, but some ideas that come to mind include: How To Get Out Of A Creative Slump, 5 Ways To Tap Into Your Creative Genius or Top Platforms To Use To Bring Your Creativity to Life.

I personally love this one and think it’s a great chance for marketers to educate on: Why Brand Photos Are So Important, How Showing Your Face Can Increase Conversions or Top Tips For a Brand Photoshoot.

Hey social media manager - take notes on this one! I definitely couldn’t leave this one out of the mix because it’s a great way for social media managers or really anyone who works in social media to grab their audience’s attention in a new way.

Educate on Why Social Media Presence Matters as a Business Owner, specific tips for certain platforms or take the general social media topics a bit further by speaking on How to Create Boundaries Around Social Media as a Business Owner.

Restaurants

Who else remembers Pi day in high school? Everyone would bring a pie to math class and we would have a pie party with fun Pi games. I absolutely loathed math, yet I still remember this day pretty vividly.

This is a perfect opportunity for restaurants to capitalize on and offer some sort of special pie dessert at a special price for their customers paired with a blog post featuring a special pie recipe that people can download or save to Pinterest!

Who doesn’t drool over a yummy chip and dip appetizer?! Again, this is a great opportunity for restaurants to provide a discount on an existing appetizer or offer a special appetizer for this day only.

For the blog, I’d keep it similar to Pi day and feature a special dip recipe that people can save to use later!

I am an absolute sucker for mimosas, but I find it highly annoying that you have to pay $8 for one at a restaurant. 😂 So consider this my public plea for restaurants to cut us all a deal on National Mimosa Day and offer bottomless mimosas at a reasonable price.

I also envision this being a whole event possibly centered around Mother’s Day where moms and daughters can enjoy brunch and a mimosa bar with a cute photo op! Mimosas With Mom anyone?!

The blog topic could be How To Create A Mimosa Bar For Your Next Event or it could feature a special mimosa recipe with a downloadable recipe card.

Lastly, restaurants or wineries could use National Wine Day to educate on Wine Pairing Tips or Wine Serving Hacks For Your Next Event and offer a special wine tasting with a purchase on this day.

Beauty

I love this national day for any kind of salon that offers spray tans! It’s a perfect reason to have a “spray tan party” and offer fun specials and deals all day long.

Additionally, I think there are so many informative blogs you could do around this, including: How To Properly Prep For a Spray Tan, How to Make Your Spray Tan Last Longer, Products That Pair Perfectly with Your Spray Tan.

This is another super random day that the beauty industry can capitalize on. I’m thinking of estheticians or anyone that works with skin care products for this one specifically!

I would argue that one of the products/serums that women don’t fully understand is Vitamin C, so you have chance to plan content for this day that informs your audience on: Why Vitamin C is a Vital Step In Your Skincare Routine, Where Vitamin C Should Fall In Your Skincare Routine or How To Choose The Vitamin C Serum That’s Best For You.

Travel/Outdoors

For this category, I’m thinking of Airbnb owners, real estate agents that want to create content about their local area or even an outdoor store that sells products, but also wants to create useful content.

With this day falling in March, it’s the perfect way to highlight local parks in your area that allow for people to enjoy the outdoors!

If people are visiting your area, they’re likely already Googling things like this, so you have the opportunity to be among the many search results and be seen as a local expert for your area.

Use this day to focus on a road trip itinerary that’s specific to the area you’re located in. I think this is absolutely perfect for AirBnb owners to not only plug their property, but also encourage people to explore specific places nearby.

Similar to above, use this opportunity to call out the best trails in your area and provide all the information that someone would be looking for. How long is the hike? Is it kid friendly? Which trail has the best view?

Creating content in this way allows you to become the go to source in your community and you quickly become the person that people trust!

Overall, I’m a big fan of incorporating national days into your content, but if you’re going to do this, remember this: don’t overdo it.

There’s a national day almost every single day and it’s tempting to go overboard. Instead, choose the ones that make the most sense for you to highlight and feel relatable, NOT random.

When you're planning out your content, I would advise no more than 3-4 national days each month!

I’m curious - do you already implement national days into your content? If so, I’d love to see it in action. Connect with me on Instagram so I can take a look!

And if you don’t already do this, do you think you’re going to start? If so, let me know so I can cheer you on!

If you need some help incorporating national days for your specific industry, this is one of the main things we cover in 1:1 Strategy Calls! CLICK HERE to schedule yours.

Natalie Davis
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