43+ Creative January Marketing Ideas to Start the Year Right

January. For some, it’s the holiday let-down season. For others, it’s the Monday of months. For us (and soon to be you), it’s the month of marketing opportunities! There’s Vision Board Day, National Mentoring Month, Squirrel Appreciation Day…

January 21. Squirrel Appreciation Day. Mark your calendars.

Read on to find:

• A full list of January awareness themes, holidays, and national days.
• Tons of creative ways to use them for unique and meaningful marketing.
• Marketing planning tips and ideas to stay successful all year.

Let’s dive in!

January awareness

January is the national month for:

#wearblueday occurs every January in support of anti-human trafficking.

January holidays & national days

We’ve included the full list of January national days and dates at the bottom of this post, but here are a few highlights:

• Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (third Monday)
• Technology Day (Jan 6)
• Invisible Pain Day (Jan 7)
• Vision Board Day (second Saturday)
• Law Enforcement Appreciation Day (Jan 9)
• Cut Your Energy Costs Day (Jan 10)
• Clean Off Your Desk Day (Jan 10)
• Nothing Day (Jan 16)
• Get to Know Your Customers Day (third Thursday)
• Compliment Day (Jan 24)
• Library Shelfie Day (fourth Wednesday)
• Data Privacy Day (Jan 28)
• Backward Day (Jan 31)

January diversity, equity & inclusion

In addition to MLK Day, we also have:

• Emancipation Proclamation Day (Jan 1)
• Louis Braille’s birthday (Jan 4)
• Korean American Day (Jan 13)
• Religious Freedom Day (Jan 16)
• International Holocaust Remembrance Day (Jan 27)

Creative & meaningful January marketing ideas

Here are some ways to use the awareness themes, holidays, and national days of January to connect with your audience.

Share holiday recaps & roundups

The holidays might be over, but don’t miss out on the opportunity to squeeze every last drop of cheer you can out of the last month! You can still make the holidays part of your January marketing by creating and publishing holiday roundup posts on your blog or on your social media sites.

Here are some ideas:

• Did your catering company work a holiday party? Post pictures or recipes!
• You can also take advantage of #tbt (Throwback Thursday) on Twitter and Instagram and post pictures from just a couple of weeks ago to share with your followers.
• Cleaning services or home goods shops can provide post-holiday cleaning or Christmas tree disposal tips.

The holidays are busy, and customers might have missed all you had going on, so this is an easy way to create content for your business while making sure they’re in the loop.

Honor Martin Luther King, Jr. Day with a day of service

MLK Day, observed on the third Monday of January every year, celebrates Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday and commemorates his Nobel Peace Prize for Civil Rights leadership. Don’t use this holiday to promote your business. Make it a day of service, celebration, and education around this civil rights legend.

• Many communities create a day of service you or your team can participate in.
• Post quotes, photos, and facts about Martin Luther King, Jr. on social media.
• Post stats and raise awareness about civil rights on social media.
• Run your own day of service, whether for your community or in your company.

Image source

Get involved during Blood Donor Month

January is National Blood Donor Month, so get involved!

• Participate in a local blood drive or host one of your own.
• Run special promotions for those in your community who donate, such as a free gift, discount code, or special deal on your products or services.
• Raise awareness on social media and encourage your followers to give blood.

You can find blood drives in your area here.

Dish em’ out on National Compliment Day

Who doesn’t love a nice compliment? National Compliment Day occurs every January 24—here are some ways to celebrate:

• Show another business some love on social media or by writing a review (they may even return the favor!)
• Start a compliment train. Ask your followers to tag someone in your post and give them a compliment. The tagged person then tags another friend and gives them a compliment and so on.
• Give your employees hand-written compliments to show them you appreciate them.

Run fun weather-based promotions

Much of the United States is covered in snow in January. Love it or hate it, you can’t stop it, so use it to your advantage! Make the snowy weather a little less gray with content, promotions, and posts celebrating the cold.

• Daycares can share safety tips for playing or dressing children in the snow.
• Contractors, construction, and snow removal companies can write about winter hazards in the home—carbon monoxide detectors, salt versus sand for ice and snow, or how to winterize drafty windows.
• Give a snow-day discount. Anytime your city gets snow, offer a discount based on the number of inches you’ve received, like 20% off for 20 inches of snow!

• You can also keep your customers up to date on the latest snow closures on your social media pages.

Take part in National Clean Off Your Desk Day

With so many people working from home (and becoming obsessed with cleaning and organization shows), this holiday just may resonate with your audience. Here are some ways to take part:

• Tidy up your desk and share a before and after picture on social. Ask your audience to do the same.
• Give organization tips and ideas
• Run a contest or a poll. The person with the cleanest (or messiest) desk wins a prize!

Share & encourage New Year’s resolutions

No explanation needed for this annual favorite. Here are some ideas:

• Hold yourself accountable and share them with your audience. Then create content around them!
• Fitness centers can have a weekly accountability post to create a support community.
• Restaurants and catering services can write blog or Facebook posts with healthy recipes.
• Daycares can blog about toy organization ideas for playrooms and toy areas.
• Ask followers on social media what theirs are—you could even run a poll and then write a blog post providing tips and advice for the most common resolutions.

Check out our 115 [not overused] New Year’s Instagram caption ideas post for more resolution-related ideas!

Start a customer loyalty or referral program

Loyal customers not only bring you ongoing business, but they are also more likely to refer other customers to you. Providing the best customer service is the first and foremost loyalty marketing strategy, followed by intentional loyalty or referral programs. And with people feeling enthusiastic and motivated for the new year, this is the perfect time to start one.

Here are some ideas for your customer loyalty program:

• Create and print a simple stamp card for customers. Each purchase or service equals one stamp. After 10 stamps, customers can receive a free product, a discounted service, or a swag item.
• Offer current customers a discount for each new customer they refer.
• Create a tiered loyalty program so customers can move up in tiers based on their purchase history – the higher the tier, the better discounts.

As for referral programs, check out our 14 Referral Program Ideas to Land Your Best Customers Yet and these three referral marketing strategies to get the gears turning. And make sure to promote your programs on social media and in your location so customers can find out about it easily!

Blame Someone Else Day

This holiday changes every year. It’s the first Friday the 13th of the year, and in 2023, it falls in January! Toss the core values aside today and letterrip. Don’t actually do that. But you can have fun with this one.

• “When working in a book store you learn that sometimes books are just going to fall over. Usually on their own or sometimes because of…other reasons (*cough*Ryan*cough).
  Happy National Blame Someone Else Day!
  (No books were harmed in the making of this post).”
• “Friday the 13th: Me-ow.
  National Blame Someone Else Day: You-ow”
• “It’s okay to indulge, you can blame us!”

Or get serious…

Or use it as a creative way to celebrate a company milestone and thank your customers. Write a customer appreciation email, blaming them for your having to bring on more employees to keep up with the demand, and for your having to move to a bigger office, and your having to choose the signature drink to serve at your party celebrating your 1000th customer…and so on.

Essential but not-so-creative January marketing ideas

These aren’t the most fun marketing ideas, but they are essential if you want running your business to stay fun, through the month and year-round.

Start with a clean inbox

There’s nothing less exciting than seeing the number of new emails in your inbox when you get back from the holidays.

Actually, I lied because there is: It’s going through them. Did you know January 25-29 is actually Clean Out Your Inbox Week? Use it as motivation to get organized and start with a clean slate.

• Go through those old emails you “starred” and never followed up on…
• If you don’t already use folders for your emails, create some to help you keep your inbox organized.
• Go through the settings your email platform has to offer. There are integrations, color coding, rules, and more that can make your life a whole lot easier. That half hour could translate into hours saved this year.
• Create an ideas folder where you save marketing emails you’ve received that you like or find effective. You never know, you might just find your next great idea buried in your own inbox!

Solidify your yearly goals or marketing plan

Whether you’re an agency, business owner, or freelancer, it’s important to have both personal and professional goals for the year. Take some time at the beginning of the month to make sure your goals and your marketing plan are solidified.

As we know, things can change quickly, but having a documented plan or a growth strategy in place can make the difference between hitting your revenue goals for the year and missing them.

Revisit what worked last year (and what didn’t)

Now that you have a full year of data available, take some time to see what worked in your marketing last year and what didn’t.

Here are some ideas of what to look at:

• What content or web pages performed best for you?
• What resonated with your audiences on social media – top posts, most engaging posts, etc.?
• What email subject lines got the best open rates?
• What marketing strategies, campaigns, or channels drove the most leads?
• What didn’t perform as well as you thought it would – and how could it be improved?

Read up on the latest marketing trends and predictions

With the new year comes a ton of new content around what to expect in the world of marketing and business in general. Find some articles or blog posts that will get you up to speed on what the experts expect to be big this year in your own industry—and jot down some ideas or trends that you might want to try out!

Announce your events for the year or coming months

Market your business both online and offline by highlighting upcoming events for the year. Some upcoming holidays include President’s Day, Valentine’s Day, Mardi Gras, and St. Patrick’s Day.

If you have anything planned for these events, like upcoming Valentine’s Day deals at your spa or a special Valentine’s menu at your restaurant, let customers know! A calendar of promotions is a great way to keep customers informed about upcoming promotions or events your business is sponsoring or hosting.

Update your Google Business Profile

Last, but not least, update your Google Business Profile. If you want to show up when local searchers are trying to find businesses like yours on Google or in Google Maps, a complete and optimized Google Business profile is the place to start.

Take a minute to make sure your profile is claimed and then take it a step further by optimizing your listing:

• Make sure to respond to all reviews.
• Add some images or a video that showcase your business.
• Populate the Q&A section of your profile with frequently asked questions.

Get more tips to optimize your Google My Business profile here.

Commit to growing your skill set

The digital marketing world is never in a resting state. Set a goal for yourself to build on your existing marketing skills or develop new ones. Here are some great resources for doing so:

Hmm, looks like our next roundup will need to have 10…

See? Creative January marketing is easy

January can often be a stressful time for business owners, but with the right marketing ideas and plan in place, you can relieve some stress without losing out on new customers and engagement. Happy new year! Interested in more marketing ideas for every month of the year? We can help with that. Check out our creative ideas for:

Full list of January social media holidays and dates

As promised, brought to you by National Day Calendar

January 1
New Years Day
National Bloody Mary Day
National Hangover Day
National Play Outside Day – First Saturday Every Month

January 2
National Buffet Day
National Cream Puff Day
National Personal Trainer Awareness Day
National Science Fiction Day

January 3
National Chocolate Covered Cherry Day
National Drinking Straw Day
National Fruitcake Toss Day
National Thank God It’s Monday Day – First Monday in January

January 4
National Missouri Day
National Spaghetti Day
National Trivia Day

January 5
National Bird Day
National Keto Day
National Screenwriters Day
National Whipped Cream Day

January 6
National Bean Day
National Cuddle Up Day
National Shortbread Day
National Technology Day

January 7
National Invisible Pain Day
National Bobblehead Day
National Tempura Day

January 8
National Argyle Day
National Bubble Bath Day
National English Toffee Day
National JoyGerm Day
National Winter Skin Relief Day
National Vision Board Day – Second Saturday in January

January 9
National Apricot Day
National Balloon Ascension Day
National Law Enforcement Appreciation Day
National Static Electricity Day
National Sunday Supper Day – Second Sunday in January

January 10
National Bittersweet Chocolate Day
National Cut Your Energy Costs Day
National Oysters Rockefeller Day
National Save The Eagles Day
National Clean Off Your Desk Day – Second Monday in January

January 11
National Arkansas Day
National Human Trafficking Awareness Day
National Milk Day
National Step in a Puddle and Splash Your Friends Day
Shop for Travel Day – Second Tuesday in January

January 12
National Curried Chicken Day
National Kiss A Ginger Day
National Marzipan Day
National Pharmacist Day

January 13
Korean American Day
National Peach Melba Day
National Rubber Ducky Day
Stephen Foster Memorial Day
National Sticker Day

January 14
National Dress Up Your Pet Day
National Hot Pastrami Sandwich Day
Ratification Day

January 15
National Bagel Day
National Booch Day
National Hat Day
National Strawberry Ice Cream Day
National Use Your Gift Card Day – Third Saturday in January

January 16
National Fig Newton Day
National Nothing Day
National Religious Freedom Day
National Without a Scalpel Day

January 17
National Bootlegger’s Day
National Hot Buttered Rum Day
Martin Luther King Jr. Day – Third Monday in January

January 18
National Michigan Day
National Peking Duck Day
National Thesaurus Day
National Winnie The Pooh Day

January 19
World Quark Day
National Popcorn Day

January 20
National Buttercrunch Day
National Cheese Lover’s Day
National Disc Jockey Day
Get to Know Your Customers Day  – Third Thursday of Each Quarter

January 21
National Granola Bar Day
National Hugging Day
Squirrel Appreciation Day

January  22
National Blonde Brownie Day
Celebration of Life Day
National Sanctity of Life Day

January 23
National Handwriting Day
National Pie Day

January 24
Beer Can Appreciation Day
National Compliment Day
National Peanut Butter Day

January 25
National Florida Day
National Irish Coffee Day
National Opposite Day
Plan for Vacation Day – Last Tuesday in January

January 26
National Green Juice Day
National Peanut Brittle Day
National Spouses Day
Library Shelfie Day – Fourth Wednesday in January

January 27
National Chocolate Cake Day

January 28
National Blueberry Pancake Day
Data Privacy Day
National Have Fun At Work Day
National Kazoo Day
National Big Wig Day – Last Friday in January

January 29
National Corn Chip Day
National Puzzle Day
National Seed Swap Day – Last Saturday in January

January 30
National Croissant Day

January 31
National Backward Day
National Hot Chocolate Day
National Inspire Your Heart With Art Day
National Bubble Wrap Day – Last Monday of January