5 Ideas for a Better Company Calendar

• (Photo : Photo by Olya Kobruseva from Pexels)

When it comes to customer swag, a free annual calendar is hard to beat. Customers who use their company calendar will receive 12 months-worth of branded content, and they are much more likely to remember the name and products of the business for years to come.

Yet, you aren't the only business leader offering a free calendar to your customers. If you want people to use your calendar, you need to make it worthy of hanging up in their home or office. Here are a few ideas for your next annual calendar that provide branded content and keep customers engaged.

Employee of the Month

Each month, you can spotlight an employee who has done so much to help your business grow. You can pay for professional pictures of your staff and perhaps their families or pets. Alongside their photographs, you can include information about each employee, such as when they started working for you, what their current responsibilities are, their favorite part of working at your company and more. You might encourage your workforce to nominate the staff members they think most deserve to be featured in the calendar, or you could hold a raffle with the proceeds benefiting charity.

An employee of the month calendar will raise morale by demonstrating your appreciation for the dedication and hard work of key workers. What's more, this type of promotional calendar humanizes your organization to consumers, giving human faces to your brand.

Precious Pets

If your employees aren't particularly interested in being in your calendar, you might ask to showcase their pets, instead. Cats and dogs make for excellent calendar fodder, but you shouldn't exclude more exotic animals, like lizards or guinea pigs. You might consider dressing up your pets to match your business or industry, posing them to use your products or finding some other way to work your brand into the cute images. Facts about the pets, like their names, ages, breeds and favorite foods, are also welcome additions that engage your audience and encourage them to interact.

Hidden Business History

Most companies have some kind of interesting history that fans of the brand are dying to know. Including this information as well as images from your business's distant past is a good way to engage your audience and build a brand narrative you can use in other aspects of your marketing.

●       If you aren't sure where to start with business history facts, consider the following questions:

●       When was your business founded? What was your industry like at that time?

●       Who started your business? Why did they want to start such a business?

●       What were the first products or services offered by your business? Do you still offer them?

●       How has your business changed since its founding? Is it much larger or available in more areas?

Industry Info

If you are struggling to find a story to tell about your own business, you might widen your lens to include your entire industry. Industries rise and fall, and informing your audience about the history of your industry could give them greater insight into how your company contributes to the broader community. 

Another option is to equip your audience with information about your industry to help them make better purchasing decisions. You can differentiate your business by outlining how the rest of your industry manages their products or services and what you do in your own way for the betterment of your customers, your employees or the environment.

Manufacturing Stories

Most consumers don't know much about how things get made, so a calendar featuring stories about your business's manufacturing processes could be of interest to your target audience. Like a calendar version of the show "How It's Made," your promotional product could spark conversations about your brand or your industry, spreading awareness of your products through your audience.

Each month, you might highlight a different aspect of product creation - starting with the earliest product development phases, moving through material sourcing, showcasing different phases of manufacturing and ending with happy customers using your completed products. Alongside descriptions, you can include images of your workers involved in the processes within your facilities as well as real customers engaging with your products in the real world.

Calendars are useful promotional items that, if done right, will remain in a consumer's home for a full 12 months, reminding them of your business and driving their buying decisions. You should consider experimenting with some interesting company calendar options in the coming years to improve the effectiveness of your promotional swag.