With summer behind us, most businesses are now looking ahead to their long-term festive campaigns. However, whilst Christmas is a critical time of year for many businesses don’t overlook some of the important dates and events that fall before the 25th December.

To help you get started, we have created a list of key dates you could take advantage of this autumn. Use these to create mini social media campaigns, e-newsletter content, customer offers or PR opportunities.

October 31: Clocks fall back
With the clocks due to change on the 31st October, there is lots of opportunity for creating informative or fun content to help people through this transition into winter. Can you share tips or advice on getting winter ready – whether that’s for the home, the wardrobe, the routine, plans with kids – the possibilities are endless.

October 31: Halloween
An increasingly popular event, which this year coincides with half term, Halloween offers up lots of options for content creation or collaborations. Whether it is some spooky season discounts, a Halloween themed menu or activities and giveaways for kids, the 31st October should be firmly marked in your calendars.

November 4: Diwali
Diwali is the five-day Festival of Lights, celebrated by millions of Hindus, Sikhs and Jains across the world. Diwali, which for some also coincides with harvest and new year celebrations, is a festival of new beginnings and the triumph of good over evil, and light over darkness. This is a great opportunity to celebrate other cultures and encourage your customers to take part. Perhaps you could share information about this important festival and ideas on how your customers could join in at home, could you decorate your business premises, run Diwali packages, menus or offers?

November 25: Thanksgiving
A pivotal celebration in the USA, thanksgiving could still be relevant to your audience especially if you have an international customer base or online community. As a day dedicated to giving thanks and celebrating the end of the autumn harvest, perhaps this is a good time for you to give something back to your community? Donating to a local food bank, giving a percentage of sales to a charity of your choice or rewarding your customers as a thank you for their support.

November 26: Black Friday and Cyber Monday (Nov 29)
Like it or not, Black Friday, and more recently Cyber Monday are two dates that look set to stay! Black Friday has routinely been the busiest shopping day of the year and is a day where many shops slash their prices ahead of the festive season. We are not huge fans of this annual campaign and feel that for those businesses that are built on relationships and quality customer service, this is possibly not the right direction. However, we recognise that it is an influential vehicle that can drive new business, website traffic or store footfall for the right kind of retailer.

What journalists are working on right now…
As well as what lies ahead, don’t forget to think past Christmas. Now is the time to be pitching your New Year stories, products or services to press such as monthly magazines. Are you in the fitness industry and about to launch a new programme? Are you in the food business and are working on detox menus in time for January? Or perhaps you have products for Valentine’s Day that would be ideal for gift guides. Don’t miss your chance; start talking to press today.

We’ve got lots of advice on timings and writing press releases or we can arrange a Power Hour to help give some focused advice.

For more information on important dates that you should take advantage of, subscribe to our e-newsletter to receive a free PR calendar.