While all businesses should be marketing every day, today is the day to PLAN. To lay the groundwork, to write down your ideas. To touch people without marketing to them. Call this your “Un-Marketing Planning Day.” It is a day to lay all those Quirky Ideas out and plan for how you will implement them.

To jump-start your quirky ideas or un-marketing mindset, here are twelve activities you can employ each and every day to get those creative juices flowing:

1  Plan your networking calendar for the week.

2  Write a thank-you note to a prospect or customer.

3  Enter customer or prospect names into a database.

4  Brainstorm some quirky new tagline ideas – ask for input from colleagues and friends.

5  Visit your main competitor’s website and then someone in your industry that is not in direct competition with you.

6  Write an article to pitch to your local business magazine or newspapter.

7  Make a list of quirky press release topics and headlines.

8  Create a survey that you can use to garner information from your prospects and customers.

9  Which products do you offer that can use a facelift? Start by renaming them.

10  Work on quirky new product ideas.

11  Visit a few marketing-related websites such as association websites and marketing professionals.

12  Look at the list of benefits your company offers and compare to it to your competitors’ benefits and offerings.

Aiming to promote safe sex in a fun, new way, the event featured a Screaming O Vibrating Condom Pack giveaway, games and prizes, educational information, out-of-the-box safe sex tips, a live DJ and The Screaming O’s very own Scream Team!  MTV’s Kenny Santucci even stopped by to support the cause. The Screaming O Vibrating Condom Packs also included invitations to an exclusive after party that followed at West Hollywood’s MI-6 night club. The Scream Team passed out condoms and vibrating rings, ensuring that partygoers were well-protected on their wild night out. The night proved to be a great success, showing that safety and pleasure are a match made in heaven.

Today is also: Boardwalk Day.  On June 26, 1870 the beginnings of the Atlantic City boardwalk was opened to the public.  Alexander Boardman, a railroad conductor, came up with the idea of constructing a boardwalk as a means of keeping sand out of the railroad cars and hotels. The eight-foot-wide temporary wooden walkway from the beach into town was used for tax revenues during the summer months and then dismantled the walkway during the winter.

Walmart Does it. Bars Do it. Department Stores Do it. Restaurants Do it too! What? They host “midnight specials.”  Over the last two decades or so, midnight specials have become less frequent as so many establishments are open regularly past midnight. But some merchants still feel the urge to host a midnight special to lure their customers out at the witching hour. In fact, department stores have been known for holding annual clearance sales beginning at midnight and running until the next morning. Only to close for an hour or two before “regular hours” resume.

WalMart is notorious for Black Friday midnight specials and people often line the sidewalks waiting patiently (or impatiently) for the doors to open.

Stores host a Halloween Eve midnight special complete with costume regaled sales clerks, refreshments and spooky sounds playing in the background.

New Years Eve is another special opportunity for merchants to host their own midnight specials.  When the clock ticks to 12:00 AM people can go to their favorite store and preview the “new Merchandise for the new year or take advantage of “last year’s” stuff that has been heavily reduced for clearance.

But why wait until Black Friday, Halloween or New Years Eve?

You can host a midnight special just about anytime and it can be even more successful because “everyone else” isn’t doing it at the same time. Create a VIP party and invite your best customers via a well crafted, quality postcard campaign. To easily track your campaign success, ask your customers to have to bring the invitation to gain admittance.

Other tips:
*Use email to remind them.
*And complement your invitation with flyers, sales letters and posters.
*Use mobile marketing to  get their attention.

when planning your Midnight Special direct-marketing campaign, having a current mailing list of your customers, is the most powerful tool you can use to spread the word about your Midnight Special.

And let’s not forget Social Media. Be sure to spread the word on your Facebook page, LinkedIn events page and Twitter.  Who knows, you might just meet some phone or internet customers who have never set foot in your establishment before.

You could replace the words In Hollywood with Online and Here’s what you’d get:
“How you appear (are perceived) online is often more important than how you really are. Small companies can be celebrities on the Internet just as Norma Jean becameMarilyn Monroe to her fans.  The Internet is a place where you can look like a Big Star even if you are small midwest gal working out of your home (or home office).” Heidi Richards Mooney

Today is Marilyn Monroe day and in honor of what would have been her 85th birthday, here are a seven tips to help you stand out online and be that BIG STAR you were destined to become:

1. Be Yourself. “Wanting to be someone else, is a waste of the person you are.” Marilyn Monroe. Even online people can spot a fake.  Or a copycat. Being yourself is so much easier. And less tiring.

2. Build Your Brand Online with Social Media. Today it is easier than ever to leverage social media to get noticed.  Use LinkedIn for Professional Development, Facebook to have conversations with your following and Twitter to become a Thought Leader by sharing bits of your BEST STUFF.  Remember to interact with others, listen, share and promote them too.

3. Stand Out. Marily Monroe said, “Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it’s better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.” Don’t  be boring! There are a lot of YouTube Celebrities that became BIG STARS because they were willing to risk the ridiculous over the boring.

4. Find out who your customers are. There are a number of tools to help you understand who your customers are and what makes them tick.  Tools like Compete.com, Google, Nielsen and comscore allow you to learn more about your audience such as gender, age, marital status, household income, and locale.

5. Connect and Reconnect. “Girls will be your friends – they’ll act like it anyway. But just remember, some come, some go. The ones that stay with you through everything – they’re your true best friends. Don’t let go of them.” Marilyn Monroe. Connect with people before you need them. Reconnect with people you have not talked to in a while such as old friends, colleagues, classmates.  Build the relationships before you actually NEED them. When you leverage those offline relationships you grow your brand and your reputation online.

6. Promote Others online. When you promote others online its like being a really good listener.  People who listen well are generally thought of as great conversationalists. Why? Because they let others do more of the talking than they do.  Believe me when you promote others, their friends, fans and followers notice and want to get in on the action. Let them!

7. Don’t do what everyone else is doing online. “I just want to be wonderful.” Marilyn Monroe Be different. If your competition is having a contest, have a race. If your competition is giving something away, sell something.  Be unique.  Anyone can be different, but to be Unique you are “one of a kind.”

Marilyn Monroe said it best: “We are all of us stars, and we deserve to twinkle.“

Strike While the Iron is HOT!

Everyone loves summer! In the summer people tend to be happier and walk with a lighter step. A lot of that has to do with the extra amounts of Vitamin D we are getting when we are exposed to the sunshine. And more people are in “vacation mode” so if you cater to people who are travelling or simply taking life a little easier, your summer months are probably better than some industries who’s business revolves the “buying season.”

While you are thinking about ways to promote your business, check out  Quirky Marketing Calendar ~ How to Use Zany and Non-traditional Holidays to Promote Your Business 365 Days a Year for More great marketing ideas.

*NEW

While you are thinking about ways to promote your business, check out  Quirky Marketing Calendar ~ How to Use Zany and Non-traditional Holidays to Promote Your Business 365 Days a Year for More great marketing ideas.

*NEW

Learn About the History of Soap Operas

Also on this date:

In 1638 the Lunar eclipse is the first astronomical event recorded in US

While you are thinking about ways to promote your business, check out  Quirky Marketing Calendar ~ How to Use Zany and Non-traditional Holidays to Promote Your Business 365 Days a Year for More great marketing ideas.

*NEW

While you are thinking about ways to promote your business, check out  Quirky Marketing Calendar ~ How to Use Zany and Non-traditional Holidays to Promote Your Business 365 Days a Year for More great marketing ideas.

*NEW