The entrepreneur life is a juggling act. Between perfecting your products, managing your services, promoting everything, and fending off existential crises (I’m not the only one here, am I?!), structured marketing might not even make it onto your to-do list.
What if I told you that your business calendar is practically begging for attention in a few key places? AND that this doesn’t mean adding more to your already full plate, just leveraging what’s already there.
I’m talking about marketable moments, those glorious opportunities sprinkled throughout the year that practically scream, “Market me! Sell me! Brag about me!” The trick is knowing when they happen and making the most of them.
We’ll dive right into them after we welcome this issue’s partner, who, uncoincidentally, has a solution that helps you do more with less — just like marketable moments.
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What are marketable moments?
Marketable moments are like the golden hours of your business calendar. They’re those times when people are naturally more inclined to pay attention, engage, and —yes— spend.
It’s your chance to shine without sounding like a broken record on LinkedIn (“Did you know I offer X? DM me!”).
These moments don’t require you to invent drama — they come built-in with your business milestones.
Marketable moments give you genuine, bona fide reasons to reach out to your audience and pitch them an offer.
There are three types of marketable moments
- Culturally-driven — Black Friday, Valentine’s Day, winter holidays, summer holidays, various trends, and so on. You have no control over these, you can only choose whether to leverage them or not. More important
- Brand-driven — product launches, rebranding, price changes, and so on. You can manufacture as many of them as you want. However, moderation is key — your audience can tell if they’re artificial.
- Client-driven — these are a bit harder to spot and require some digging. For instance, you can reach out to a customer if you know they have a milestone coming up and you can help them make the most of it. Or you can share a success story if they agree to it.
The number of marketable moments in a year depends a lot on how many products you launch and how many culturally-driven moments you want to capitalize on.
I know the knee-jerk reflex is to cram your calendar with as many of them as possible. However, my advice is to slow down a bit.
If you’re constantly launching something, offering a discount, or creating holiday-themed stuff, you’re going to wear out your audience. More on that later on.
For now, let’s look at some marketing moments you shouldn’t miss out on.
How to leverage your marketable moments
In every business, there are some moments when your audience wants to hear from you. They want to know about the BIG changes and the opportunities, especially if they are directly affected by them.
1. Product launches
This is the most obvious marketable moment. You want the spotlight on you, so plan ahead:
- Pre-launch: tease like a Netflix trailer for a new series. Tell them what they should expect, what’s in it for them, and why they should join your waitlist.
- Launch day: pull out all the stops — email blasts, social media, maybe even confetti (real or metaphorical).
- Post-launch: don’t ghost your audience. Share wins, testimonials, or that one time someone DM’d you with “OMG, this changed my life!”
I wrote more about product launches here. Spoiler alert: it’s not a one-and-done type of thing. Yes, the bulk of the hype happens during launch week but don’t burn all your energy there, especially if it’s an evergreen product.
Another resource — how I launched and sold my first workshop this year.
2. Price changes
Raising your prices can be scary, but it’s also a marketing goldmine. The key: tell people why this is happening and highlight that it’s not just a money grab.
- Announce early: “Big news! My prices are increasing on [date].”
- Frame it positively: “My services are leveling up, and so are my prices. Lock in the current rate before [date]!”
- Highlight the value: this is your chance to remind everyone why you’re worth every penny (and maybe a few extra).
I recently did this on LinkedIn to announce that my sponsorship rates are increasing and to give my audience the opportunity to lock in this price while they still can.
The same thing is happening with my 1:1 strategy sessions on January 1st. I talked about it a bit but next week, I’ll be pulling all the stops. I even have the social proof to back it up — here’s a quick example:
3. Rebranding
So, you’ve outgrown that logo you designed in Canva at 3 AM? Time for a rebrand.
- Share sneak peeks: show the process of your glow-up. People are always curious about what’s happening behind the scenes.
- Celebrate the reveal: “New look, same me — just with better fonts.”
- Emphasize the journey: use your rebrand to tell the story of how you’ve evolved as a business and a human.
A word of caution here: some brands tend to overdo this and tease a rebrand for months. Yes, people are curious about what’s happening under the hood BUT make no mistake, no cares that you switched to serifs as much as you do.
Sure, there are rebranding stories that stay in the spotlight for longer than usual (Jaguar is a good AND bad example here). Fundamentally, however, it’s a very short-lived marketable moment.
Unfair, I know. You spend months obsessing over every little detail and your audience will (at best!) click on your link, check out your new website, think that it’s nice (hopefully!), and move on with their day.
4. Anniversary celebrations
These are my personal favorites. I only do two discount campaigns a year and I tie them to personal and business milestones:
- One in May, on my birthday. I like to celebrate it with YOU, so I make sure drinks are on me through a significant discount.
- One in November, on my newsletter’s anniversary. Besides the discount, I also write an in-depth breakdown of my business, from revenue to audience growth, from hurdles to successes, and everything in between. A lot of you have told me it’s your favorite issue of the year — thank you for that! Here’s the latest one, if you missed it.
5. Seasonal campaigns and other culturally-driven marketable moments
The calendar is full of excuses to market — but that doesn’t mean you should jump on all of them.
Black Friday is the most controversial: some entrepreneurs insist it must be leveraged, while others insist on standing out by completely ignoring it or even raising their prices around that date.
Personally, I don’t offer Black Friday discounts because my anniversary sale is just a couple of weeks before it, so it’s too much for me. But if it makes sense for your brand, do it.
Just know that it’s the most crowded time of the year on every platform. Up to 64 billion emails are sent on Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Yes, it’s a crowded time. However, most users are expecting to hear from you and get a Black Friday deal. The question you need to answer is: are YOUR clients expecting it or dreading it?
6. Micro-moments — go wild with these
Did you get featured in a major publication or hit a big milestone? Use it.
Did your dream client leave you a killer testimonial or agree to do a success story? Use it.
Did a big name in your industry say something cool about you? Use it.
These micro-moments don’t need to be huge productions BUT you can use them more than once, especially social proof.
They’re a great testament to your growth and they help with your credibility A LOT.
While you can use as many of these as you want, as often as you want to, regular marketable moments should be used more sparingly.
How many marketable moments should you have in a year?
You know that one person who throws a birthday bash every month just because they can? Don’t be that person. Aim for no more than 4 to 6 marketable moments per year. Fine, 8 if it’s a BIG year for you.
Why? Because overdoing it turns high-impact campaigns into “oh, it’s them again” noise. Fewer, well-planned marketable moments = better results and fewer unsubscribes.
Personally, I plan for a 2025 with five large marketable moments and a few smaller ones in between. As always, you’ll be the first to learn about them when they’re set in stone.
Not sure how many marketable moments you should have in a year? Start here!
There is no definite answer here, it all depends on how your business is structured. You could have a single BIG launch that brings in most of your revenue or several smaller ones.
December is the perfect time to plan for the year ahead.
- Start with culturally-driven marketable moments. Should you do a Black Friday campaign next year? What about Valentine’s Day? Can you tie it to your brand in a solid way? Cheesy takes like “why online courses are like first dates” don’t count.
- What are your brand-driven marketable moments? I aim for one-ish a quarter. Sometimes, it’s a bit more, because the first and last quarters are great for my business, while the summer months, not so much.
- Look at your client history — any gold nuggets there? Can anyone become a brand ambassador for you? Any case studies that beg to be written?
- Leave some room for unpredictable trends. Last week, we spoke about what works on social media right now and trends are a clear winner. Partially culturally-driven, fleeting trends are a great way to increase your audience and gain some momentum — but, again, you must choose them carefully.
So, how many marketable moments will you claim next year? Hopefully, at least one more than you were planning on before reading this.
Not sure where to invest all of your energy and resources? Book a 1:1 strategy session with me and let’s get you clarity and a clear roadmap for 2025!
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