Industry awareness holidays are full of marketing potential. Haven’t you noticed that your post about #NationalPuppyDay outperforms everything else on your social media pages? You’re not alone. Industry awareness holidays, such as National Veterinary Technician Week, have proven to be popular with veterinary professionals. So, are you ready to start celebrating? Use these tips to expand your reach on your special days.
1. Know your key holidays
Create a list of holidays that are relevant to your brand and drop them into your annual campaign plans. The AVMA maintains a list of pet health and veterinary awareness events that can keep you on track.
2. Make a campaign plan
A campaign plan? For this? Yes! You will want to build a campaign for each industry awareness day or month you celebrate. Important awareness events include Dental Health Month in February, Telehealth Awareness Week in September, and Pet Cancer Awareness Month in November.
Treat these campaigns like everything else you do. In other words, go beyond the one-and-done organic social media post and establish your campaign goals and align your tactics accordingly as well.
Use the COPE approach (Create Once, Publish Everywhere) like these marketers to get the most out of your existing content.
You can use awareness holidays to foster goodwill, create a sense of community, generate brand awareness, and generate leads.
Campaign Ideas
Try out these ideas when you’re building your campaign plan.
- Contests: Host targeted giveaways during awareness holidays to collect leads.
- Team Highlights: Highlight employee pets during days like National Cat Day, or celebrate on-staff veterinary technicians during National Veterinary Technician Week. Share pictures and personal interest stories.
- Customer Stories: Share customer stories in alignment with the awareness theme. These are especially powerful when delivered in video format. Just make sure to get permission first!
Create a cross-channel marketing plan for important holidays that includes social media and email and engages your employees. These days are often fun and can foster a positive culture at your organization.
3. Leverage social media—paid and organic
Remember to go beyond the one-and-done organic posts, especially for month-long observances. Unless your brand has a very large organic social media following, you’ll need paid posts to boost the exposure of your message. Consider the following types of Facebook/Instagram ads:
- Traffic: Use traffic ads for broad awareness that drives visitors to your campaign landing page.
- Lead Generation: If you’re hosting a contest, consider using native lead gen forms to collect sign-ups natively from Facebook/Instagram.
4. Use hashtags wisely
Make sure you’re tagging other organizations where appropriate and hashtagging the name of the holiday and any other related keywords.
5. Sponsor holidays with Clinician’s Brief
For turnkey awareness holiday marketing solutions as well as opportunities to align with Clinician’s Brief editorial content, partner with us! Check out the line-up of available sponsorships. Don’t see one on the list that you want to sponsor? Reach out to the Brief team for a brainstorm.
- January: Spay & Neuter Focus (Virtual Challenge)
- February: Dental Health Month (Virtual Challenge)
- March: Pet Poison Prevention Week (Content Sponsorship)
- April: Parasitology Focus: Heartworm Awareness & Prevention of Lyme Disease in Dogs Month (Virtual Challenge)
- May: Dog Anxiety Awareness Week (Content Sponsorship)
- June: Adopt-A-Cat Month (Social & Interactive Engagement Campaign)
- July: National Pet Fire Safety Day (Content Sponsorship)
- August: National Take Your Cat to the Vet Day (Virtual Challenge)
- September: Telehealth Awareness Week (Content Sponsorship)
- October: National Pet Wellness Month (Virtual Challenge)
- October: National Veterinary Technician Week (Awards Program)
- November: Pet Cancer Awareness Month (Content Sponsorship)
- December: National Mutt Day (Content Sponsorship)
The 2022 clock is ticking, but there’s still time to sign up for November and December sponsorships. Or start thinking ahead to 2023!
Upcoming Opportunities
Here are the holidays just around the corner:
- November: Pet Cancer Awareness Month (Content Sponsorship)
Empower veterinarians to have confident conversations related to cancer diagnosis and treatment. Sponsor a podcast episode and two pieces of content. Choose between a pre-screening checklist, an article covering myths about cancer, or a top 5 article on what to do before a cancer referral.
- December: National Mutt Day (Content Sponsorship)
Partner with Clinician’s Brief to create a quiz or team handout focused on ways genetic testing can provide critical information that can guide long-term care for these one-of-a-kind canines.
- January: Spay & Neuter Focus (Virtual Challenge)
Kick the year off by sponsoring one of the most popular topics in veterinary medicine with the Clinician’s Brief Spay & Neuter challenge! Sponsor a Clinician’s Brief-written pet owner handout and a series of social posts, polls, and quizzes designed to drive participation in the challenge where clinicians can earn points—and prizes! - February: Dental Health Month (Virtual Challenge)
Educate veterinarians and pet owners about the importance of dental health by sponsoring a virtual challenge throughout the month. The Clinician’s Brief team will create daily social media posts, polls, and image quizzes that veterinarians can engage with to earn points to redeem sponsor-branded prizes.