Of course, there are marketing dates almost every day of the year now, and the ones that are most useful to your marketing strategy will vary depending on what country or sector you’re in, who your target audience are and more. However, if you run an ecommerce site these are some of the key marketing dates that you might want to pay attention to.
Pocky Day
Starting off in Japan, Pocky Day is on the 11th of November. Whilst you might better recognise it as Mikado in Europe, Pocky is the original, much-loved chocolate and biscuit snack native to Japan. The treat is so loved that since 1999 it has its own national holiday on November 11th – because the sticks look like the number 1.
The day has resulted in some of the most successful marketing campaigns in history. For example, in 2012 Gilco (the brand behind Pocky) encouraged users to share the brand on Twitter, resulting in a world record breaking 1,843,733 mentions of “Pocky” on Twitter within 24 hours, followed by another record breaking 3,710,044 mentions.
So, if you’re a food and drink ecommerce brand for example, looking to develop an international marketing strategy that targets Japan, engaging in this calendar date is a great way to engage with users and build brand awareness. Be active with the swarms on social media, create content such as recipes using Pocky or even consider a 24-hour special offer to celebrate.
Single’s Day
Also held on the 11th of November is Single’s Day – China’s answer to Black Friday. Also known as Double 11, Single’s Day was first started by 4 college bachelors as an anti-movement to other couple centric holidays. However, in 2009 China’s ecommerce giant Alibaba started a 24-hour discount shopping festival.
Since then, it’s grown to be the largest shopping day in the world, far over taking Black Friday’s $6.2 billion takings to mass $30.8 billion in 2019 and in 2021 Alibaba’s sales alone recorded $139 billion.
Lots of other brands have since then followed Alibaba’s suit and the holiday is being picked up by other countries such as Japan and South Korea. If you’re operating in China, users will definitely be expecting some sort of sale and it’s worthwhile considering if you’re targeting elsewhere in Asia as well. Make sure your cross-channel marketing strategies align with your business objectives to really make the most of this massive November calendar date!
Cyber Monday and Black Friday
Technically 2 different events, Cyber Monday and Black Friday tend to go hand and hand and see large increases in traffic, sales and conversions on ecommerce sites that partake in the 5-day period from Thanksgiving in America through to Cyber Monday. Black Friday was traditional reserved for in-store deals but is now often celebrated by ecommerce brands as well, and Cyber Monday has always been online.
Whilst it might be smaller than Single’s Day, Black Friday and Cyber Monday are definitely calendar dates you will want to participate in if you’re an ecommerce brand. In fact, over the years we’ve noticed that an increasing number of our clients see more sales and activity in November than they do in December, which was traditionally the busy Christmas period.
The main regions to partake in the 5-day shopping event are America and Europe. A top SEO tip for competing with the mass amount of noise and content in the search results is to keep your Black Friday category page live all year round. You can remove it from your main navigation menu if you’re worried about user experience, but keep the page indexed so that it can continue to build authority throughout the year and stand a better chance of competing for highly competitive keywords such as “black Friday electronics”.
Other Important Dates
Of course, there are many other marketing calendar dates in November that may be important for your brand. For example, you may want to develop campaign strategies for the likes of Movember if you’re a health and beauty ecommerce brand or World Vegan Month if you’re a food and drink site.
Other key international marketing dates for the month include, Book Day in Scotland, Dev Deepawali in India, Beaujolais Nouveau Day in France, Native American Heritage Day in North America and much more.
The dates that matter to you and your ecommerce brand will vary depending on what’s important to you. However, if you’re developing an international strategy, it’s important to be aware of these dates, particularly if they differ from the more popular holidays celebrated in your own native country.
For more help in developing your international marketing strategy, get in touch with us today!
Photo credit: Estée Janssens
