Are you creating a marketing campaign but not sure what to say?
A well known saying in the direct marketing world is, “Enter the conversation that is already going on in your prospects mind.”
What are your prospects thinking about? What’s going on in the world that you can include in your marketing campaigns?
Well, have you ever thought about incorporating holidays or events into your marketing campaigns?
What’s coming up this Sunday? The Super Bowl! How can you use this in your marketing message?
Here’s an example:
Say you own a pizza shop and you want to get more customers to buy from you. You can create postcards that tie into the Super Bowl. The headline could be, “Pick The Super Bowl Winner and Receive A Free Pizza!”
You can have the two teams, Seahawks vs. Broncos, on the postcards and tell your prospects to circle who they think will win the Super Bowl. Then, on the postcard, you can have a spot where the prospects have to fill in their name, phone number, and address and return the postcard to you before Friday at 5:00pm (make sure it’s a deadline before the Super Bowl, duh!).
Now, I know what you’re thinking… “But, David… That’s a lot of money to be giving away in free pizza. I can’t afford that.”
For one thing, you can use the USPS’s Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM – Click Here to see a previous post on this) to cut down on the postage cost and limit the number of people who receive your postcard (Choose a specific route(s)).
Look at it this way… when the prospect returns the postcard they are giving you their contact info!!! You can now start directly marketing to these prospects and turn them into customers. You can make special offers to them, that no one else will receive.
The lifetime value of these customers you get from this one marketing campaign can far exceed your loss in free pizzas (Is it really a loss if you can get these new prospects as customer who keep coming back for more? I think not).
Here are other events / holidays you can incorporate into your marketing:
January 1: New Year’s Day
January 8: Elvis Presley’s birthday “Sandwich Fit For A King”
February 2: Groundhog Day
February 14: Valentine’s Day
February 29: Leap Day
March 3: Alexander Graham Bell’s birthday (invented the telephone). “Be Sure To Telephone in Your Order To Receive…”
March 17: St. Patrick’s Day
April 1: April Fool’s Day
April 22: Earth Day
May 5: Cinco De Mayo
May 22: The Loch Ness Monster was first sighted on May 22, 1933
June 14: Donald Trump’s birthday
June 20-21: Summer Solstice
July 4: Independence Day
July 20: National Tug-O-War Contest
August 13: Left Hander’s Day
August 29: Michael Jackson’s birthday
September 1: Labor Day (first Monday in September)
September 11: Patriot Day
October 17: Evel Knievel’s birthday
October 31: Halloween
November 11: Veterans Day
November 23: William “Billy the Kid” Bonney’s birthday
December 12: Bob Barker’s birthday
December 25: Christmas Day
This is just a handful of events / holidays you can incorporate into your marketing. Contact me if you would like a longer list of events / holidays that you can use for your marketing. Now do you see how you can use this in your marketing?
And, remember… Always include an offer in your marketing!
Now go take action!