Celebrating your business anniversary is like celebrating your wedding anniversary—there’s a lot to gain by going big, while ignoring it could cost you. Dearly.
As A-Train celebrates 20 years in business, we realize now more than ever that reaching milestone anniversaries is like Christmas morning for your marketing department: It creates unique media opportunities and provides your company or organization with a positive theme for posts and collateral you can use all year long.
You don’t need to make a big deal about every month you’re in business—this isn’t a high school relationship. But notable milestones—1, 5, 10 years, etc. provide an excellent opportunity for publicity you won’t want to miss out on. We’ve collected our top marketing recommendations for getting the highest possible value out of your anniversary, and you can trust it’s fresh and effective— as you might have noticed, we practice what we preach.
Create an anniversary logo and use it on everything.
Consider adapting your existing logo to reference the anniversary. You can do this by incorporating text like “Celebrating 20 years of Service Excellence” or “Serving Colorado for 10 Years” around the edge or below your tagline. This becomes a piece of collateral that keeps on giving—you can use the commemorative logo in your email signature, on your website, letterhead and invoices or on swag like stickers to give out at the office or in mailers.
Host an event.
This is your big night to celebrate the occasion with your best clients, vendor partners, referral sources and employees and their families. Your company is the guest of honor, but really, it’s a way to honor all those who’ve helped get you where you are today. Typically, we recommend three months of planning to select a venue, entertainment, caterers, invitations, etc. As always, A-Train is here to help make your event a success—call us today to find out how.
Interest the media.
It’s time to think beyond the boilerplate anniversary press release that may at best get you a bullet point in the local paper. Make your anniversary truly newsworthy by tying it to the community and/or an opportunity to give back. Consider choosing a local charity to which you will donate a set amount or percentage of every sale for the year. Lead with a line that ties your story to the story of your community—i.e. “Celebrating 10 years on historic Linden Street” or “Fort Collins’ first commercial Realtor celebrates 20 years in business.”
Get the word out. Creatively.
Social media provides endless opportunities to engage with clients and fans to let them know what and why you’re celebrating. Consider an interactive campaign, like trivia with questions from the year you were established, or something more visual, like a word map of your values. Make your next monthly newsletter or mailer something informative and anniversary-themed, like “The Top 5 Values That Have Led Our Company Into 10 Years of Success” or “5 Reasons Why We’ve Loved Serving Chicago For 5 Years.” If you invest in regular advertising or radio underwriting, highlight your anniversary in your next campaign. Consider making the message a “thank you” to the community for the years of support, and assure them you’ll be there to serve for many more years to come.
Honor your history.
Take advantage of Throwback Thursday (#TBT) to post old photos, videos, ads, etc. from your company’s past. These can capture your longevity, demonstrate your growth and instill a sense of loyalty in your clients (think throwback Coke ads), while leveraging the already popular social media theme and hashtag. Now is the time to dig through the photo archives for images of fresh-faced founders, your first office or facility, an old iteration of your product, screenshots from your first website, your CEO’s 90s haircut—the opportunities are endless.
However, you decide to celebrate your anniversary, A-Train can help. Contact us today and we’ll work with you to design and execute the right marketing activities for getting the most out of your milestone.