Awareness days, weeks and months are holidays created by charities, organizations and businesses to highlight social, cultural and economic issues. Including them in your nonprofit marketing strategy can be an effective engagement technique.

Here are five tips to help you implement awareness days.

#1: Do Your Research

Showcasing awareness days allows you to spread your message, reach new audiences and support your beneficiaries.

Awareness holidays vary by country and region. A search will provide you with countless websites with lists of those dates, so take time to review which days are relevant to your charitable efforts.

Consider awareness events that relate directly and indirectly to your nonprofit. For example, a humane society could promote Animals Rights Awareness Week because it’s linked to their cause. That same nonprofit could also promote Wildlife Conservation Day despite not interacting with wild animals.

#2: Build a Campaign

Once you’ve selected an awareness day or month, you’ll need to decide what kind of marketing elements to include.

Here are some steps to consider:

1. Give yourself a few months to plan your campaign for an awareness holiday.
2. Determine which marketing channels will be the most effective for your cause, such as social media marketing, email marketing or an experience-driven event.
3. Set a goal. Do you want to increase brand awareness and, if so, for what ultimate reason? Do you need to raise funds or boost email subscriptions?
4. Incorporate relevant hashtags in your related social media posts to connect your content to a larger audience interested in the topic.
5. Schedule your content to run before, during and after the awareness day or month.

#3: Establish an Authentic Connection

Overusing awareness holidays in marketing campaigns can make your brand seem insincere or superficial. That’s why it’s important to highlight the occasions that align with your nonprofit’s mission statement and goals.

Share your organization’s story and show how it connects to the awareness day. Your authentic interest will help you connect with current and potential target audiences and build trust.

Participating in large-scale awareness campaigns, especially on social media, can provide you with opportunities to start conversations, engage users and direct traffic to your website.

#4: Implement Consistent Branding

Your content marketing ideas should align with your nonprofit brand guidelines, whether you’re posting on social media or crafting an email campaign. That allows you to create focused messaging that makes a greater impact on your audience.

Brand elements include:

• Images and photos
• Logos
• Fonts
• Color palette
• Word choice and tone
• Packaging

#5: Create Your Own Awareness Day

There are always new awareness days cropping up, so you could establish your own for your nonprofit. Select a date that’s relevant or sentimental to your organization. If you want to make your awareness day official, you can submit a proposal at National Day Calendar. A committee reviews all applications and selects submissions for approval every year.

Making an awareness day can help you tell your story and use different marketing techniques to attract and educate a bigger audience. Craft your own hashtags and include them in social media posts to create an online library of content for users to view.

It will take time to build momentum for a new awareness event, so set realistic goals for your campaign.

Nonprofit Marketing in Toledo, Ohio

MadAveCollective offers marketing services to help you reach your goals, engage your target audience and serve those in need. Whether you need a website or video for a campaign, our team will help you get started. Call 419-725-6500 or send us an email to schedule a meeting.