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What to post for the start of Lent

Ash Wednesday is the day a chunk of your customers quietly change what they buy, for six weeks. It's easy to notice only what they stop ordering, and miss what they'd happily start.

Wed 10 Feb 2027the date 136 days to gofrom today 10 daysthe run-up
Pick your days and we write your own guide. Your first plan is free.
The run-up

Every day between now and then that is worth a post

Not one a day. These are the ones that do a job. What each is for is underneath it.

Sun 31 Jan 10 days before Plan the alternative Decide now what you'll offer the people cutting back, a proper decaf, a good alcohol-free pour, a meat-free plate. Have it ready before the six weeks start. Write this one →
Wed 3 Feb 7 days before Say you've got them covered Post that whatever someone's giving up, you make a good version of the other thing. People keep a resolution they don't have to fight you for. Write this one →
Sat 6 Feb 4 days before Give the swap real billing Put the alternative on the board with the same care as the original, not squeezed into the small print. Treated as an afterthought, it reads as one. Write this one →
Mon 8 Feb 2 days before Name a Friday plan If you do food, a simple meat-free Friday special runs for the whole of Lent, not one day. Say it once and it earns its keep for weeks. Write this one →
Wed 10 Feb The day A quiet start On the day, one low-key line, 'giving something up? we've made it easy'. No fanfare, just the door held open for the ones who are. Write this one →
The idea most businesses miss

Serve the people everyone else ignores

Youngme Moon argues that businesses drift into looking identical because they all chase the same customers with the same offer, and the way out is to serve someone the crowd overlooks. During Lent that person is the one quietly abstaining, usually written off as a lost sale. Build the best decaf or the best alcohol-free option on the street and you own a group nobody else is bothering to court.

Youngme Moon, Harvard Business School professor of marketing · Different: Escaping the Competitive Herd, Crown Business, 2010

Questions

The questions people ask

Isn't it a bit much to build a promotion around a religious day?
Leave the day's meaning well alone, that's not what this is. It's about the six weeks it begins, when plenty of people, for all sorts of reasons, change what they order.
My customers aren't religious.
Lent has become a lot like Dry January: plenty give something up with no church involved. The change in what people buy is real whatever sits behind it.
What if I mostly sell the very thing people are giving up?
Then put the good version of the alternative right beside it. You keep the visit, and they keep their resolution, both of you win.

The other dates worth the effort

Tue 9 Feb 2027 Pancake Day 135 days to go Pancake Day is a reminder the whole country shares on the same morning. Your only job is to be the easy answer when they think of it. 5 posts to make → Sun 28 Mar 2027 Easter 182 days to go Easter is a four-day weekend, not a Sunday. It's easy to post just once, on the day, but the trade is spread across all four. 6 posts to make → Everything else The whole calendar The rest of this year and all of next, with the British ones in the right place. Open the calendar →