Attention Retailers: Are You Adding Holidays to Your Marketing Mix?
Most of us have special sales during the major holidays. But if you stop with the “Big 3″ – you’re selling yourself short, and leaving money on the table. Here’s what you need to know.
If you’re in business selling products or services to customers in the U.S., chances are you offer some kind of sale or promotion during three three major holidays – Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter. Maybe you also include Halloween and New Years.
But what about the other holidays, special occasions and recognized national or international days or events?
One of the most important tactics in your overall marketing strategy should be to find different ways of connecting with your customers. You want to have a variety of touch points along their buying spiral to reminding them that you’re there, that you want or appreciate their business and that you have a special, time-limited reason for them to buy from you right now.
However, don’t just decide to jump in and start adding holiday sales for every holiday you can think of.
In order for this to work, you have to strike the right balance, so what you’re doing not only makes sense to your customers, but makes them feel special. You want them to feel like you understand who they are and what they’re looking for.
Your sales promotions should also make your products or services stand out from the crowd and help to set you apart from the competition. Another advantage of adding holidays and special sales days to your marketing mix is that if you use the right marketing message – one that matches the day and the thoughts, emotions or memories your target market associates with it, you will solidify your brand in your client’s mind.
Here’s how to do it:
- Have a clear understanding of your target market: You need to know who they are, where they shop, what their biggest problems are (in relation to the solution your product or services offers). Those are basics. But it also helps if you know answers to questions like these: How old are they? What are their career goals or aspirations? Where do they live? If you use the internet (email, online advertising, blogs, social networking sites, etc.) how sophisticated is your target market? What sites do they visit most often? The more information you have, the easier the next step will be.
- Understand how your target market perceives your product. What are you really selling? (This deceptively simple question should actually be the hinge pin of all your marketing and sales promotions, because as Sydney Barrows – the former Mayflower Madame and current marketing consultant puts it, ‘To be successful you have to be in the business your client thinks you’re in.’).
- Choose your holiday or special event and create a theme around it. If you decide for example, to choose Mother’s Day for a promotion, brainstorm some ways you can make your promotion stand out. How many ways can you think of to relate mothers to your product or service? Can you save a mother time? Give her a break? Bring a little luxury into her day?
- Decide how you’re going to promote. Again, take the knowledge you have of your target market, and place your information where they are going to find it. You want to go as wide as possible, so your mix might include a variety of online and offline touch points. Offline you might consider postcards, other direct mail, flyers, fax blasts, radio, newspaper or magazines. Online you’ve got email, online newsletters, your blog, social networking sites. Make sure you give yourself enough time to do an effective job of reaching your target market.
- Track and measure your results so you know what to keep using in next year’s marketing strategy.
And there you have it. An effective strategy for increasing your bottom line by adding holidays and special occasions to your marketing mix.
