After the ever-perilous April Fool’s Day passes, what’s left to keep the laughs rolling through the month? Actually, there are a lot of fun and funny holidays in April to beef up your marketing calendar. If you need something to get your customers excited and your marketing team inspired, check out these fun holidays in April, plus our best tips on how to use them.
Funny national holidays like National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day may seem like just something to fill a calendar, but these holidays are a great opportunity to engage with your customers and get them excited about your brand. Here are just a few ways businesses are using weird, silly, inspirational, and international holidays to create fun and tasteful marketing content.
Pro tip: While April has quite a few religious holidays like Easter and Ramadan, you don’t want to use these holidays purely for promotional reasons. It’s good to acknowledge the holidays of major religions but using them to promote your business when you have no inherent connection is in poor taste and will offend more customers than it excites.
April 2
After a night of sleeping on the couch thanks to April 1st, we have this holiday dedicated to making amends and saying sorry. You know what you did. In addition to the April Fool’s Day aftermath, take some time to think about the people you’re not getting along with and reach out to them with an olive branch. Business owners, today may be a great day to come together with your competitors for a one-day truce and share the spotlight in a joint promotion for your companies.
April 4
In a month that seems bent on ruining your marriage, today is the day to tell the biggest lies you can come up with. A great (i.e. terrible) way to get in trouble with this holiday is to tell your loved ones about the holiday and follow up immediately with a false compliment, or don’t tell them about the holiday and give them a false insult. Please don’t do either of those things. Companies can celebrate by playing “two truths and a lie” about their products on social media and encouraging customers to join in the fun by doing the same! Note, please make the lie obvious, aka idiot-proof, or you’re going to have problems.
April 7
Housework is the modern equivalent of Sisyphus rolling the stone up the hill every day only for it to roll back down in the morning. This never-ending task needs to have a day off, and April 7th is that day to ignore the mess and take a well-deserved break. Cleaning companies can also take the opportunity to promote their services to take the load off of customers while they enjoy their vacation from housework! Home delivery and fast-food services can join in by recommending a break from all chores, including grocery shopping, food prep, and dishes by ordering out!
Tuesday of Library Week in April
In the middle of Library Week, let’s take a minute to appreciate the people who keep one of the country’s most essential public services running. Libraries offer more than just free books (as if that wasn’t enough!) they also offer access to job hunting services, child literacy programs, internet, printing, free public gathering spaces, and more to their communities. Companies can take the day to give back to their community by giving discounts to library workers, offering financial support to their local library, and running a book donation rally at their place of business.
April 12
Reach for the stars on a day made to celebrate humans stepping outside of earth’s atmosphere in a foil suit. While this was originally a Russian holiday (because the Russians got into space first, provoking the great “Space Race” to the moon,) it’s an excellent day to celebrate the advances of science and human technology as we boldly go where no human should logically be going. Businesses can celebrate with “out of this world” sales and fundraisers for local STEM programs.
April 14
April showers bring May flowers, and what do Mayflowers bring? Pilgrims.
Today is a day that is all about enjoying a good, wholesome laugh. Fill your friends’ day with dad jokes and bad memes. Companies can easily make this a great social media holiday by sharing funny cat videos on their social media pages, and hosting contests for who can provide the funniest, most wholesome picture. Just be sure to emphasize the “wholesome” aspect, because some people have a truly bizarre sense of humor that you do NOT want your company page.
April 15
Coincidentally landing on the same day that U.S. taxes are typically due, this day is all about embracing the fact that bad days happen. While it’s great to keep a positive outlook on life, it’s important for your mental health to admit that bad things happen, and not everything can be sunshine and roses all the time. This is especially true when filling out your tax returns. Businesses, embrace the angst by sharing your favorite “bad day” songs, stories, and more on your social media. You can also offer a “that sucks” coupon, to be redeemed next time your customers need help to make their day a little better.
April 17
A haiku is a type of traditional Japanese poem, often about nature (though it doesn’t have to be!) that has three lines of 5 syllables, 7 syllables, then 5 syllables again. For those who don’t spend a lot of time writing poetry, this can be a fun day to dip your toe into the world of wordsmithing. For companies, it can be a fun way to promote your business! Write a haiku about your products, services, or your business in general, then share it on social media. Host a contest for the best haiku about your brand, then reward them with custom swag!
April 18
Today is NOT a day to celebrate your pets. In fact, this day is actually designed to liberate yourself from the burdens of pet ownership in the most hilarious way possible – role reversal. Instead of you slaving away at work all day while your pets stay home and nap, you get to stay home and send your pets to work!
Okay yeah, that’s not happening and we know it, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have fun with the idea. If you work from home, start your meeting with your pets on the screen instead of you. Companies can run playful promotional posts on social media, introducing their new staff of various pets, and customers can join in posting photoshopped pictures of their own pets taking their place at work.
April 19
Also known as the worst day to be a vampire, this day is all about celebrating one of the few spices most of us know how to use in our pantry. Celebrate with garlic bread, garlic on your pizza, garlic on your chicken, and garlic hung in wreaths on your front door to keep the vampires away. Restaurants can celebrate with promotional discounts on garlic-featured dishes, and companies can get customers engaged on social media with a challenge to find the best garlic-centered recipes.
April 21
Did you know that “Kindergarten” is German for “child garden?” While some may consider this an accurate description of a place where children are sent to learn and grow, I think we should rename it to Katzenkorb, aka “cat basket.” Because that feels like a more accurate description of a room full of five-year-olds being told to sit quietly.
Take the day to celebrate local Kindergarten teachers for their hard work teaching the tiniest students, and to appreciate the little ones going entering their first year in school. Companies can post highlights celebrating teachers in their community, and offering discounts for treats and toys for kindergartners working so hard to learn things we all take for granted.
April 23
Not exactly English, and not really muffins, these little breakfast breads are typically a “you love them or you hate them” type of dish. So, naturally, they get their own holiday! Invented in the United States by a British man named Samuel Bath Thomas, English muffins are basically just re-marketed crumpets that Americans love to use as breakfast sandwich buns, toaster-pizza bases, and gravy sponges. Businesses can celebrate by sharing fun ways to make English muffins live up to their hype, and restaurants can offer their own twist on an “English” breakfast.
4th Thursday in April
Want to show your boss who has been keeping you from working late every day? Bring your kid to work! Children young and old can have a fun day shadowing their parents at work, likely resulting in a temporary dip in productivity and a rise in morale as employees socialize with their coworkers’ kids. While some may argue against bringing a child as young as a baby to work, I argue that you really shouldn’t expect much work to be done that day anyway, and instead enjoy trying to make the little living burrito laugh. You could even go the extra mile and give your employee/coworker a chance to nap!
Last Friday in April
If trees and breathing are your thing, take the time to celebrate this popular holiday all about protecting our planet’s biodiversity. While most people celebrate by planting trees, or paying money for someone to plant trees in another country, there are a lot of ways to celebrate and help your community. Organize a park-cleaning day, or put together a fundraiser to go towards the maintenance of your local green areas. You can also celebrate by sharing fun facts about trees, nature, and how to help your local ecosystems on your company’s social media.
April 30
Remember Tell a Lie Day? Well it’s time to fess up! Now’s the day to come clean about any lies you’ve been holding onto and let the truth set you free. Not sure how to market that? Some engaging ways for businesses to celebrate include sharing your most honest customer reviews on your site, encouraging customers to come and leave more honest reviews, and showing off candid “behind the scene” pictures with your employees. You can also have some fun myth-busting common misconceptions about your industry. Are your fortune cookies not really Chinese food? Is chewing sugar free gum not the same as brushing your teeth? Let the truth be known!
Didn’t find a holiday that suits you? These are just a few of the many funny holidays in April that can inspire your next promotion. Next time you’re feeling at a loss for social media content or promotional themes, check out the silly holidays of the month to help get your customers engaged with your brand and social media.
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