Marketing Ideas for October 2024

With back to school anxiety over with and life hopefully getting back into a rhythm, October is a great month to start pushing holiday campaigns beginning with Halloween.

Below is a printable calendar for October 2024. Hopefully this easy reference can help you plan events, sales, and marketing. You certainly don’t need to create something for every day, do pick the days that work best for your business and brand.

1st

Breast Cancer Awareness Month
- Pink Ribbons, Pink sports jerseys, Pink everything. Pink Ribbons everywhere are a reminder to women to get checked and often in the fight against breast cancer. During this month, consider setting up an event that is a donation to the National Breast Cancer Foundation.

2nd

Rosh Hashanah
- The start of a New Year in Judaism and is the start of a ten day penitence, ending on Yom Kippur.
National Name Your Car Day
- Who doesn’t have a name for their car? A great way of interacting with customers and clients without directly marketing products to them. Get some discussion going on social media. Maybe even have a contest looking for the coolest car name.

4th

National Taco Day
- Like pizza and cheeseburgers, tacos are a staple in the food pyramid. Take the day to celebrate those crunchy delights and generate some engagement. Chain restaurants usually offer some sort of deals on this day as well. If you have a cafe built into your business, offer that special deal on tacos!

5th

National Get Funky Day
- Get Funky Day isn’t just about funk music or culture. It’s also about getting out of your comfort zone and letting loose. Find a way to break out of your comfort zone and encourage others to do the same. Maybe it’s trying a new game or hobby, offer your customers a chance at a demo or paint and take of something new.
Do Something Nice Day
- Today is a great day to check in one-on-one with each employee. Or, if you’re able, give back to your staff. Provide lunch, a private screening of the newest blockbuster movie, whatever feels right to make a positive impact and lift them up. For your customers, a small inexpensive give away, like any left over stickers from Sticker Day in January (link to January marketing). Today also makes a great day to use as a volunteer or fundraiser for a local charity.

6th

Inbox Zero Day
- Emails, we all get them. I’ll bet most of us have hundreds, if not thousands of emails sitting in our inboxes. Take today as a challenge to focus on getting through some of those emails. As time is quickly disappearing for the fourth quarter, take the moment to clear out what you can of your email inbox.
Change a Light Day
- The spirit of the day is to reflect on how energy efficient your lighting is. While that is a great idea, I want to focus on shortening daylight and making sure your lights are replaced and ready to highlight products. Spot lights are a great way to focus eyes onto product displays.

8th

National Hero Day
- Today isn’t necessarily about celebrating super heroes, but celebrating those people in our lives that we see as personal heroes. Maybe it’s recognizing an employee that went above and beyond, maybe it’s about a customer who did something extra. Find those people and celebrate them today.

9th

National Bring Your Teddy Bear to Work Day
- Nothing is more comforting than your old teddy bear pal. Teddy could have been any animal or form! Stores with any kind of plush or stuffed toy can take advantage of this day by promoting their soft plush friends.

10th

World Mental Health Day
- Talking more about mental health takes the stigma away and encourages more people to reach out for help. Gaming and hobbies are often escapes from mental stress. It’s important to create safe spaces both in store and on social media.

12th

Yom Kippur
- One of the holiest days in Judaism. Yom Kippur is the end of a 10 day New Years religious holiday starting on Rosh Hashanah.
National Chess Day
- As one of the original board games, Chess has existed in one form or another since the fifth century. Promote those special edition chess sets, set up a learn to play table, and invite customers to learn more about this classic game.

13th

International Day for Failure
- Originally started as an experiment at the Aalto University in Finland to help increase small start-up businesses, which in turn increases economic growth. Take today to look back at this year and look at what events, clearance days, sales, coupons, email campaigns, social media posts, or any other aspect of your business that has been a total failure and pick out the things that have and haven’t worked. For the start of your next year’s plan, build upon those failures and make them work it. “”I haven’t failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” – Benjamin Franklin

14th

Indigenous Peoples’ Day/Columbus Day
- While Columbus Day is a federal holiday, many states now celebrate Native American Day or Indigenous People’s Day to celebrate the tribes and cultures of those living in America before colonists arrived. Larger retailers will use this long weekend for sales.

16th

National Boss’s Day
- If you are reading this you are likely a small business boss and should really take a moment to thank and appreciate your bosses; your customers and staff. Create a celebration around them! Small give away, catered food, or something as simple as an open letter posted to your website and social media, thanking your “bosses” for all of their support and hard work.
Support Your Local Chamber of Commerce Day
- If you’re a member of your local Chamber of Commerce make a shout out to them and all they do to help businesses and the community. If you’re not, take the time to learn what your local Chamber is all about and see if it’s a right fit for you.

17th

Mulligan Day
- Designed to be a golf term and supposed to be a golfing day, we can take a spin on this and look at ways we can create some custom tournaments for today. Offering a mulligan in a game that normally doesn’t allow a mulligan is an interesting way to take a current game you are offering and putting a spin on it. Offer for an entire tournament of Yu-Gi-Oh that once per game, they can toss their entire hand, shuffle, and draw a new starting hand. For any of the dice based games such as Warhammer or Dungeons and Dragons. Offer a once per game or long rest the ability to reroll once, for any reason, as part of the event.
Get to Know Your Customers Day
- Building better relationships with your customers helps to build a better business. Ask your customers questions, follow up on recent purchases, and talk with other businesses on what their approach is. As a reminder, this event is listed four times per year, once per quarter! It’s always a good idea to take a moment and find out what your customers want, need, and their concerns.

18th

Chocolate Cupcake Day
- Chocolate is great. Cupcakes are great. Put them together, wonderful! Use this as a chance to work with a local bakery to cross-promote. If you sell baked goods as part of your business plan, add chocolate cupcakes to your specials or advertisements. At minimum, hit up a bulk warehouse store and pick up a dozen or two cupcakes to reward staff with a sweet treat.

19th

New Friends Day
- While Make a Friend Day is in February, this is more focused on the new friends you have. For us, today is a great day to refocus on new releases as the fourth quarter is in full swing. Refresh your demo tables, schedule a learn to play event, or focus on a new beginners league that you already run.

20th

National Youth Confidence Day
- Believe it or not, competitive tabletop gaming like Magic or Pokemon helps build youth confidence. Being able to accept losing a game or a match and continue to play and work on getting better has a positive effect on confidence. Today would be a great time to remind others of this connection.

21st

Back to the Future Day
- Today is the day Marty McFly traveled into the “future” to 2015. Back to the Future is one of the all time great movie classics and a geek icon. You can’t go wrong with celebrating this day. Feel free to engage with your social media followers to try and predict the future.
Count your Buttons Day
- While this is a more older dated fun day, where you are quite literally supposed to count the buttons you see in the day, every pair of pants, button up shirts and so on. We can take a different approach on this and create a small marketable event. Create a button day! Bring in a button maker and create and give away buttons of various cards or print off a bunch of your businesses logo and make them into buttons. Turning bulk cards into buttons is a fun and great way to thin your bulk down as well.

22nd

Make a Dog’s Day
- Do we need another reason to set up a charity event to help your local animal shelter? Yes. Always.

29th

National Cat Day
- When they’re not breaking the internet with cute videos, cats also make great companions. Shelters are full of cats that need homes. If you have one nearby, connect with them and see if you help promote their efforts to find loving homes for these adorable animals.

31st