Break out the sunscreen, swimsuits, and grilling gear; summer has arrived.
For many people, summertime brings back treasured memories of childhood where they spent the long, hot days swimming, biking, and spending time with family.
But for local business owners, summertime brings a different benefit entirely — the chance to increase the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns by creating holiday-related marketing campaigns.
Why Are Holiday-Related Marketing Campaigns Effective?
When most people think of holiday marketing, they are thinking of the winter holidays — Black Friday, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Hanukah. But there are dozens of other holidays throughout the year that you can use as inspiration for ads, social media posts, and emails.
Holiday marketing is effective because it gives you the opportunity to drive engagement and talk about something other than your products. It helps build relationships with your audience, making them more receptive to your marketing down the line. For small, local brands, building a relationship with your audience is particularly important.
Creating a campaign related to holidays can also tap into the emotional side of holidays by encouraging people to associate your local business with positive memories from their past.
Fourth of July is often a fun holiday, making it a great choice for local businesses to leverage in their marketing. Let’s talk about a few ways your local brand can make the most out of it.
Give Away an Experience
When you think of summertime, what comes to mind? Floating down a river on an intertube? Eating a dripping ice cream cone on your front porch stoop? Playing tag through a sprinkler just to stay cool?
Most of the memories we get nostalgic for were experiences; not physical things. As mentioned above, one of the benefits of using the holidays in your marketing is to encourage your audience to relate your brand with positive memories. That could be as simple as helping them make fun memories by hosting an experience giveaway.
Here are a few examples of experiences you could give away:
- Tickets to a nearby theme park
- Concert tickets
- Dinner at a new or nice restaurant
- A trip for two to a nearby resort town
- Gift certificate for a spa day
- Passes to a wine tasting
- Hot air balloon ride
- Certificate to go skydiving
You can set up a sweepstake using a social promotion app like Woobox, or you can keep it simple and collect business cards in a fishbowl and draw a winner.
Blog About Local Holiday Events
A simple way to get in the good graces of your local audience is to make it easy for them to find the information they want. And there is a good chance you will earn a few shares for your hard work. Leverage the holiday by adding a blog post or two to your editorial calendar now.
Here are a few general blog post ideas :
- Best Places to Watch Catch the Fireworks in <your town>
- 10 Fourth of July Events in <your town>
- 10 Kid-Friendly 4th of July Events in <your town>
- Top 4th of July Events for Teens
- How to Keep Your Dogs Safe This 4th of July
- Top Roof Top Bars for Watching The Fireworks this 4th of July in <your town>
- Where to Park this 4th of July in <your town>
If you can, choose a topic that will make sense to your audience by relating it to food, kids, events, or pets. Whatever your audience is into. For example,
- If you own a hair salon you might write about the best clothing or hairstyles to wear.
- If you sell barbeque sauce, you might create a list of grilling recipes.
- A gastropub could create a list of 4th of July-themed drinks.
- A dog boarding company might share safety tips for dogs who get anxious during fireworks.
There is an endless number of topics you could cover, but the most important part is to make it relatable for your brand.
Relate Discounts/Sales to Holiday-Themed Products
Fourth of July sales are popular, but to get the most mileage out of your sale try to relate it to your brand and the holiday.
For example, in 2016 Target ran a promo called “Deal Days of Summer.” Every day for 9 days they ran specials on summer and outdoor gear including outdoor games, sandals, sunscreen, and ice cream products.
Old Navy ran a store-wide special but specifically showcased red, white, and blueprinted decor in their ad.
A knitting company used Instagram to promote their 4th of July sale, which included all spring items and featured several red, white, and blue products.
Vintage Alley, a vintage and bohemian lifestyle store in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, ran a 30% of special and showed a variety of items people would like using on a holiday weekend to promote it.
Instead of relating it to products, some brands use the holiday as a way to thank veterans of the armed forces. For example, Birmingham Zoo offers free admission on the 4th for veterans.
Post Holiday-Inspired Social Media Posts
We love our social media and we love to celebrate the birth of our nation. Together, they are a match made in marketing heaven. Fourth of July-inspired social media posts can generate tons of engagement and help create a connection with your audience, which is vital for local businesses.
Here are a few ideas for inspiration:
- Post a picture of your staff decked out in red, white, and blue. (Even better if you can include babies or dogs!)
- Take a great shot of your best red, white, and blue products together.
- Create a graphic wishing everyone a happy 4th using an editing app like Canva
- Take a simple picture of a small American flag on your patio, check out counter, or even at the beach.
You could also get really creative like Lowe’s did in this Vine showing their products re-imagined as a fireworks display.
Are you ready to start building a contest or giveaway? Sign up for a free Woobox account and start creating your campaign today.
Or, if you have more questions, reach out to our Woobox support team.