20 Business Anniversary Marketing Ideas For Big Milestones

It always amazes me when companies overlook simple things, like their own birthdays. Marking major milestones, like 10, 20, or 50+ years in business, is a great way to engage customers, reinforce credibility, and garner press. In 2022, I’m celebrating 20 (!) years in business as a freelance copywriter. So in the spirit of my anniversary, here are 20 business anniversary marketing ideas.

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1. Modify your website logo and/or create a universal header that highlights the anniversary.

I’m not talking words, but rather some sort of a visual that appears on every page. (Yes, you’ll want to note it in words as well.) Adding a banner graphic that notes the anniversary and having it link to a retrospective blog post is a good strategy. (Bonus: add the banner to social sites, like FB, Twitter, and LinkedIn.)

2. Have all employees add a line in their email signatures.

Something like . . . Celebrating 25 years in business in 2025.

3. Don’t forget after-hours phone messages or on-hold messaging.

You have a captive audience, after all. So plug your big anniversary, and be creative. For example, if your company is celebrating 100 (or more) years in business, the on-hold message could say something like . . . “Proud to be celebrating 100 years in business, long before phones were a ubiquitous thing.”

4. Think signage.

If you’re in a business that has a van or a storefront, think of signs, posters, and visuals in the windows. And you can wrap your company vehicles.

5. Think employees and their uniforms.

If you have employees who interact with the public, think buttons that promote the anniversary. Amazon makes it super easy to create and order custom buttons. (When available, I use affiliate links and may earn a commission. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.)

6. Write a blog post or article about your anniversary.

Been in business for 20 years? Talk about how much your industry has changed in 20 years.

7. Write a blog post about your vision or predictions for the next x-number of years.

Interview key players in your company. Bonus: You can turn this into a video.

8. Beef up your company/about us page section.

Create a page around the milestone. Interactive timelines can be great for big milestones—think anything over 25 years.

9. Don’t forget social media profiles.

Update your bios and various about sections (Facebook, LinkedIn) to reflect the milestone.

10. Do some sort of weekly event on social media.

Maybe every Friday, you pull something out of the archives—an old pic, an old product—you get the idea.

11. Create a promotion around the number.

For example, if you’re an acupuncturist who’s been in business for five years, invite people to enter a raffle to win five free treatments.

12. Do a video retrospective.

It doesn’t need to be professionally shot. Simply gather some footage with your phone and have employees talk about the company. Intersperse with pics.

13. Invest in some anniversary swag.

“Celebrating 25 years in business in 2025” can be a great line for promotional pens and promotional water bottles. (Amazon affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.)

14. Throw an anniversary party.

Seems obvious, right? An anniversary party is a fantastic way to let your business be REAL. A party is also a great way to thank people for their involvement in your success. I’m talking about employees, customers, and vendors alike. Here in Massachusetts, a fun place to hold a corporate event is Kimball Farm (great ice cream!) in Westford, Mass. Michael Katz of Blue Penguin has been holding anniversary events there for many years.

15. Honor your clients.

Especially if anyone has been with you since the beginning. You can tier your presents/gifts. So if you have some VIPs who’ve been with you since you started, give them a special gift.

16. Honor your employees.

Same thing—has anyone been with you since the very beginning? Give them a little extra something-something. If you’ve been in business for 15 years and you have a few people who’ve been with you since the start, maybe you bonus them $1500. Maybe you give other employees $150. Be creative. You can do thoughtful things within budget. Keep in mind that the things people value most from their employers are money and time off. Maybe you award 15 different star employees with an extra paid day off. Or maybe you give everyone in the company an extra 15 hours off, which is essentially two days. Or maybe you shut down during Christmas week if that’s something you don’t already do.

17. Give to charities in employees’ names.

Here’s a fun idea that gives back and can also please employees. Every month, invite employees to nominate a charity that they’d like your company to donate to. Each month, pick a charity and give a monetary amount in their name. If you’ve been in business for 25 years—do $250.

18. Give managers “just because” gift cards to hand to employees.

If you’re celebrating 25 years, for example, give managers a stash of $25 gift cards that they can hand out to employees who are embodying everything your business stands for.

19. Seek out press, if appropriate.

For really big anniversaries—anything beyond 50 years—you can get press on that, so consider working with a publicist or PR consultant.

20. Enter your idea here.

Solicit ideas from your employees and managers. No doubt, you can come up with something that will be meaningful to your crew. Run with it!

Need assistance developing business anniversary marketing ideas? Get in touch.

The Copy Bitch is at your service. 😉

8 Company Newsletter Ideas to Try Out

Need some company newsletter ideas? Here are eight to consider.

1. Private Sale/Private Offering. Construct a newsletter around a special sale or offering that will be available to subscribers only. Promote this fact on Twitter and Facebook and grow your list while you’re at it. I recently worked on this concept for one of my retail clients, and we got a good number of sales out of it as a result.

2. Inside Views. I don’t know about you, but I love learning about the real people in companies, especially those I do business with. In a time when corporate “spin” is in our faces more than ever thanks to the Internet, it’s refreshing to hear real thoughts and real views from real people. Do a “Q&A” feature with some of the people in your company. Ask questions that invite real answers — in other words, answers that provide insight into who these people are as human beings (e.g. favorite movie, favorite book, three songs queued on their iPods).

3. Highlight Charitable Giving. I’m not suggesting that you toot your own horn, but what you can do is provide real exposure to some of the charities and nonprofit organizations that you and your employees support. (Always a crowd pleaser in November.)

4. Blog Roundup. Sure, we want to believe our clients and prospects are flocking to our blogs and hanging on every word we write, but the truth is, life happens. Even when you consistently post great articles, not everyone will see them the first time around. So do a newsletter article where you recap those key blog posts: ones that garnered the most comments, ones that provoked controversy, and ones you feel are important “can’t miss” articles. This strategy can work well when you’re tight on time and can’t bang out a complete article or when you’re coming off the holidays or summer, since people might have missed some key blog posts due to travels and general craziness. For many of my clients, we’ll do this at least once a quarter.

5. In their own words. Ever thought of giving one of your clients the pulpit? Somewhere between a customer story and a customer testimonial, a customer letter “in his or her own words” could be refreshing. DO NOT EDIT CONTENT. Simply fix glaring punctuation/spelling errors and anything that’s factually inaccurate.

6. How’d we do that? You take what you do for granted, but chances are you have some readers who might be really curious about a certain aspect of your business. For example, if you’re an online retailer, you could provide insight on how you choose the lines you carry. If you’re a custom cabinetmaker, you could do a before and after “refurbishing” series, complete with images or video. You get the idea.

7. Do the opposite of what you normally do. Do you usually focus on customer stories? Offer some how-to articles instead. Do you normally write long articles? Find one great image — like a cartoon — that gets your point across and then attach it to an offer. People find value in any number of things. Mixing it up is a great way to keep your audience engaged.

8. Did You Know? Chances are your customers — even your best customers — don’t know everything that you do or every product you offer. Take a hard look at service offerings or products that you think should be resulting in more business. Then highlight two or three in a “Did You Know We Offer This” sort of article.

Need help coming up with fun things to put in a newsletter? Hi. Contact me.

Messaging Strategies: Two Approaches

I recently worked on a messaging project for a client who’s in an industry where everyone says the same thing. Part of the reason for the message’s “sameness” is due to legal and compliancy issues. But the other reason has to do with fear.

When I thought about it, I realized this situation is no different from any other messaging challenge for any other industry. Basically, you can approach messaging in one of two ways:

1. Churn out the same consistent (and often expected ) messages that many, if not all, of your competitors are churning out and focus on your reach and how often you bombard the market with your message

Or

2. Turn the message upside down and on its head. Choose a different message that no one else is focusing on and/or take risks in how you deliver the message

Both strategies have pros and cons. But knowing which strategy you’re going to use will help make other decisions (like who to use for your marketing and writing) go more smoothly.