As summer winds down and the focus changes to returning to school, so should your marketing priorities. 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 August 2021. Hopefully this easy reference can help you plan events, sales, and marketing. You certainly don’t need to create something for every day, do what feels right for your store.
1st
- DOGust 1st
- This is considered the universal birthday for shelter dogs without paperwork. Each year countless dogs are put into shelters. Many shelters use the “Dog Days of Summer” or “DOGust” to run campaigns to find homes for loving shelter dogs. Contact your local shelter to see if you can cross-promote their efforts. Also consider running an event where the entry is dog food or treats that can be donated to a shelter. Even though this is geared towards dogs, don’t forget the cat treats too.
- Sisters Day
- Celebrate your sister! Consider running an event for pairs or teams of two. Connect with game publishers that have team games or co-op games and look to have sisters team up or face against each other.
- Spider-Man Day
- Introduced by Stan Lee on August 1st, 1962, Spiderman is a common household name and a sure fan favorite no matter who the current actor is for the big box film. Look to run a special on anything involving Spider-Man and cross-promote with some Marvel merchandise. Be sure to share on social media so your community can like and share as well.
2nd
- National Coloring Book Day
- As game and hobby stores become more diverse in their offerings, coloring books have become a huge hit. Take today to showcase your coloring books. You could also offer a free coloring page event in store. Crayola offers some great free coloring pages.
4th
- Chocolate Chip Cookie Day
- Celebrate by eating cookies! Chocolate Chip is a staple cookie flavor. If you sell cookies, this is a great day to feature and sample your chocolate chip cookie. If you don’t, work with a local bakery to cross-promote or give away to customers.
7th
- Play Outside Day
- Playing outside and being physically active is healthy and needed. Put together a community walk, hike, or take over of a local playground.
- Disc Golf Day
- Quite a few hobby stores have diversified into selling disc golf gear. Most state and Federal parks have a disc golf course on them as most governments are looking to increase physical activity. Disc golf is a great, inexpensive activity. All you need is some discs. If you are a reseller of disc golf, today is the day to promote yourself or hold an event explaining how and why disc golf is a great activity to get into.
13th
- International Left Handers Day
- Take a moment to celebrate your left handed friends. Approx. 10% of the population is left-handed!
15th
- National Back to School Prep Day
- As summer is drawing to a close students slowly start to prepare for the fact that school will be starting soon. National Big Box Stores have already likely started their back to school advertising and huge displays of notebooks and pens. You could do a “it pays to get grades” club. If a student has A’s or B’s across their report card, reward them with a gift card, entry into an event, or a low cost product of their choice. You also could hold an event to help students in need where entry into the event could be school supplies, which are donated directly to the school or an organization that will disperse them to those who need.
26th
- Women’s Equality Day
- On this day the 19th Amendment was signed into law giving women the right to vote in the United States. Use today to celebrate the achievements and success of women, especially those you have in your community or employment.
