During the latter part of the year (i.e. the “holiday season”) most businesses ramp up marketing efforts to maximize the seasonal sales spike. However, a truly strategic marketing plan shouldn’t be waiting until end of year to capitalize on holiday revenue. Non-national holidays like Mother’s Day and Halloween should not be overlooked, as they can generate just as much revenue as holidays like Christmas and Thanksgiving; that is, if you do it right.
Here are some tips for taking advantage of non-national holiday promotions.
1. Use Visuals
The visual representations of your brand may already be a hit, but it wouldn’t hurt to hire a graphic designer to create holiday-themed marketing materials and visuals like:
• Company logo. Making a few adjustments to your logo shows your festive side. If your company is launching a Halloween promotion, change the font and color scheme to make the logo appear spooky.
• Social media graphics. Standard graphics will suffice, but holiday-themed infographics are a step up. For example, a physical therapist might design an infographic about the most common summertime injuries.
• Website images. Along with your company logo, images found on the company website can be enhanced to follow the theme of the holiday campaign.
• Correspondence. Ditch the plain white envelopes for festive stationery.
2. Create a Landing Page
Once you’ve formulated a marketing strategy for the upcoming holiday, ask your web designer to design a themed website landing page. For retailers: highlight popular items that are perfect for the occasion. So if you sell home furnishings, design a temporary homepage that showcases a Father’s Day sale on recliners (know your audience). By contrast, blog sites that run on advertising can run a featured post of useful ideas that correspond with the holiday. Depending on the magnitude of your campaign, the landing page can even generate more traffic and conversions than the standard homepage.
3. Spread the Love
Who doesn’t like freebies? Mother’s Day is just a few weeks away, so one way to show customers your sincere appreciation is by sending a few lucky moms a gourmet gift basket to celebrate the special day. Some additional ideas:
• Run a holiday-themed company promotions (e.g. contests for social followers and fans to post photos with a hashtag specific to your company or contest; make the prizes worthwhile to generate more interest).
• Reward loyal customers with $5-off coupons in hopes that they will return even after using the coupon.
• Share a limited-time promotion code that is only valid within a 24 or 48 hour window.
4. Adjust Online Marketing Efforts
Do you use pay per click, social media or any other form of advertising or promotion for your business? If so, add holiday-themed keywords and verbiage to promotional campaigns to grab attention and make sure customers are aware of minor holiday specials even when they aren’t on your site. Any conversations about the campaign on social media outlets should be followed by a particular phrase or hashtag, and discount and coupon codes can include festive words; for example, if you’re running a St. Patrick’s Day sale, the discount code could be LUCKYDAY.
