Marketing Ideas for April 2023

Planning your April marketing campaigns ahead of time is no joke! Remember to take a look and start planning well in advance. Get your copy ready and checked, get your materials designed and proofed, and set those social media posts to auto publish.

Below is a printable calendar for April 2023. Hopefully this easy reference can help you plan events, sales, and marketing. You certainly don’t need to create something for every day. Choose the dates that make sense for you. Every business is different.

April

1st – April Fools Day

Let the joking begin. This is a great day to create something shareable on social media or in store, as a joke. Customers react to the unexpected! If it’s something customers can share or take a photo of, even better.

1st – One Cent Day

A day that celebrates one cent, its creation by Benjamin Franklin and its iterations throughout history. Today would also be a great day for clearance, or “Second for a penny!” sales

1st – Reading is Fun Day

The intention of this day is to reintroduce young readers

1st – Sourdough Bread Day

Sourdough is attributed to French bakers introducing it to North America during the gold rush in North America. Today makes a perfect day to bring a special to a menu such as a Sourdough Egg and Cheese sandwich, Sourdough Bread Bowl soup, or toasting it and creating crotons for a delicious salad. Here is a website we found with some great recipes for Sourdough https://www.bonappetit.com/gallery/sourdough-uses

2nd – DIY Day

Do It Yourself Day, a day to focus on small home repairs, crafts, and fixer uppers. Today could represent a great day to focus on paint and take’s, paint and sips, or crafting terrain for your war gaming community.

3rd – World Party Day

Throw a party. Pick something to celebrate and have a party. This World Day is designed to bring joy and happiness to everyone and celebrate something special, or not special. Unwind and throw a party. The party could also be a special sale, release of a new product, or an announcement of growth in your business. All good reasons to party.

4th – National Carrot Day

Started in 2003 with the intention of celebrating a staple salad ingredient, today is a great day to celebrate the sweeter side of carrots, like carrot cake! If you have carrots in your menu, featuring them as a side would be great as well. Don’t forget to use it in your social media!

9th – Easter

While one of the most important events in the Christian faith, this holiday is also celebrated by children by finding candy and Easter Eggs left by the Easter Bunny. Getting a basket full of toys and treats from parents, or the Easter Bunny, is very popular as well. Don’t forget those pastel colors on your advertisements!

5th – Deep Dish Pizza Day

While I am a New Yorker and don’t understand how people enjoy their sauce on top of the pizza, I know that deep dish is wildly popular and worth starting the New York versus Chicago social media war. Start the debate, engage with your customers. Possibly hold a poll or vote and throw the winning choice a pizza party in your store. It’s also a good day to surprise your workers with some pizza.

6th – New Beer’s Eve

Store’s with beer licenses, this one’s for you. April 7th is National Beer Day (see below) and is a great opportunity to partner with a local brewery or push for an extra discount on cross-promotion advertising with your beer distributor.

6th – Twinkie Day

Started on April 6th, 2012, what is believed to be the anniversary of the invention of the Twinkie created by James Dewar. Today makes a great day to feature Twinkies or Twinkie clones like a vanilla cake or cupcake with a vanilla filling or frosting.

7th – National Beer Day

Welcome to National Beer Day! If your store already sells beer or your local laws allow beer to be introduced into your store for a limited time, this is a holiday for you. National Beer Day is the day that President Roosevelt took the first steps to ending Prohibition. It allowed people to brew and sell beer as long as it was below 4.0% alcohol by volume. Cross-promote with a local brewer or host an event at the brewery if you are not in your own store. Be sure to talk to your soft drink distributors for offers of non-alcoholic drinks to also promote.

7th – National Walking Day

This is a day to promote being healthy and active by walking. It’s a great chance for community building with the power of Pokemon Go. Plan a walk to hatch eggs, hit local stops. and a take over of some gyms. Pokemon GO is a F2P (Free to Play) game, so adding a service fee is possible if you are looking to monetize. It also helps that the beginning and end of the walk is your store, thus having potential customers visit twice in one day.

8th – National Zoo Lovers Day

People love zoo’s and the work they do in preserving wildlife and saving endangered species. This is a great day to host a fundraiser and donate to your local zoo, or to the WWF https://www.worldwildlife.org/ if you don’t have a local zoot. Be sure to check with your local government for non-profit charities that help preserve wildlife in your area.

12th – National Grilled Cheese Sandwich Day

Grilled Cheese Sandwiches are one of the top comfort foods in the United States. If you are a game cafe model store, having a high profit margin item is a great way to market a special product. Feel free to make a very special “today only,” or “this week only” variant of the sandwich. Like a Gruyere, bacon, and tomato grilled cheese.

13th – National Scrabble Day

Scrabble is a great game! It can be used as a teaching tool to expand vocabulary and strategize for the triple word scores! Be sure to focus on the classic or branded versions of the game like the ones from The OP. https://theop.games/brands/scrabble/ While games of Scrabble are quite long, try and offer a demo of the game by playing one round, or explaining the basics of the game. Don’t forget to highlight your add-ons or upsells of accessories.

19th – National Banana Day

Bananas are one of the most consumed fruits in the world, let alone the United States. While extremely popular, they inspire games and food of all kinds. It’s also a great day to cross promote with a bakery for Banana Bread or Banana Cream Pie.

18th – Tax Day
Every business is different. Please consult your CPA or lawyer on your specific needs. April 15th is when most personal income taxes need to be filed by the Federal Government. Most States align with this date as well. This year falls to April 18th because the 15th is a Saturday and not a working business day.

20th – 420 Day

Agree with the use of Cannabis or not, 420 day is a widely advertised and popular day. Marketing around or to 420 and Cannabis users can be slightly tricky depending on your local and state laws. As a reminder, Cannabis is still outlawed by the Federal Government as of writing this.

20th – Cheddar Fries Day

Convenient that it is the same day as 420 Day, Cheddar Fries day is a pretty straight forward day for those who serve food. Fries and Cheddar are common ingredients and most likely in your kitchen already.

22nd – Earth Day

Earth Day is a great moment to have your business do good for a cause. Plan a day to walk a neighborhood and do a community clean up, hold a fundraiser for a non-profit organization aligned with Earth Day, or plan a tree planting event with your community. Even if your event or fundraiser isn’t a huge draw for your community, every bit helps when it comes to trying to help the environment.

23rd – World Book Day

Books are knowledge. Knowledge is power. Books inspire many of the games found in the hobby retail industry. Adventures of the poor girl who found out she was a powerful sorcerer and defended the city from the evil necromancer exist in the pages of imagination. Books hold all of our stories and history. World Book Day is a great way to highlight stories or adventures of popular characters. It is also a perfect day to team up with your local school and get books donated to their library or better yet, help raise money for them.

23rd – Take a Chance Day

This day is normally about taking a chance, making a major risk, or flipping a coin on a decision. With some creativity, you could turn this into a random discount day. Please consult your lawyer about the legality of a random discount based on your city and state laws. You could also turn it into a new game day. Take the chance on a new board game, card game, miniatures game, or comic! For the restaurant style stores, take a chance on a chef’s special or craft beer. For the roleplaying stores or book stores, take a chance on a new adventure, story, or dungeon dive.

27th – Babe Ruth Day

Babe Ruth had an amazing career and still has legendary status among baseball fans. He was one of the first five men to be inducted into the baseball hall of fame. On this day we celebrate his legacy and his contributions to baseball history. Stores that sell sports cards should at least use this day for social media posts and engagement with customers. Looking for a spring event? Host a baseball day and have fans show off their favorite baseball players’ photos or memorabilia. Add a sale on Red Sox, Yankee, or Brave’s merch as well, as those were the three teams he played for.

28th – National Superhero Day

“Heroes are ordinary people who make themselves extraordinary.” ~ Gerard Way

Today is a big day for comic stores! Today celebrates all superheroes! Throw a party, share an event, have a cosplay contest. Anything that gets your customer base excited for superheroes!

28th – National Arbor Day (Last Friday in April)

Trees are sometimes called the lungs of the Earth. Today is a day celebrating and planting trees. They help topsoil from eroding, provide oxygen, and are where wildlife thrives. Consider doing a community project of planting trees or fundraising for a local arbor non-profit organization. You can also raise money to donate to The Arbor Day Foundation https://www.arborday.org