How To Use Monthly Holidays To Get More Sales

Like most businesses out there, you likely increase your marketing efforts around the winter holidays – the major holidays of the year. But once January rolls around, you pull back.

We’ve actually talked about why this is the wrong approach – that is, why businesses need to keep their momentum going and how they can keep sales going strong after the winter holidays.

The reality is that there are a lot of holidays throughout the calendar year that businesses can also use as a means to increase sales all-year-round.

In fact, a lot of the marketing practices that businesses tend to implement around the winter holidays (i.e. marketing campaigns and so on) also apply to smaller holidays throughout the year as well.

With that in mind, here is how to use monthly holidays to get more sales.

1. Holiday-Themed, Personalized Marketing Campaigns

Just as you would increase your marketing efforts during the winter holidays, it’s also a good idea to continue these same marketing efforts throughout the year as well. People are still looking to buy, whether for Valentine’s day, Easter and so on.

The key here is to avoid generic campaigns; instead, invest in holiday-themed marketing campaigns that are personalized to each customer.

2. Offer Holiday-Related Sales/Discounts

When it comes to increasing sales, offering sales/discounts is a great way to accomplish the task. When it comes to the holidays that occur throughout the year, whether Family Day, Canada Day and so on, they can be used as opportunities to offer holiday-related sales.

The key here is to ensure that your campaign has a theme that is relevant to the particular holiday, as mentioned above.

In other words, your campaign should tell a (relevant) story, capture excitement of that particular holiday and therefore allow your campaign to have maximum impact.

3. Revamp Your Email Marketing

So, you’ve decided to offer a holiday sale. But, you have to get the word out. One of the best ways to do so is by revamping your email marketing efforts.

Around the holidays, change the copy of your sign up forms to ‘Sign Up For X Holiday Deals.’ This communicates your value right away and encourages visitors to sign up.

You can also use email marketing as a means to send customized win-back campaigns to customers who have been inactive for a period of time. Sending them a holiday-related discount is often just what they need to return to your business.

4. Engage Leads with Facebook Ads/Retargeting

Not only are people looking to buy gifts and other holiday items for others, but people are also more likely to splurge on themselves as well.

The point is that the holidays are a great time to engage leads with Facebook Ads. These are the people that have been looking at your products for some time but have yet to make a purchase.

Identifying these leads and then setting up a Facebook ad campaign will allow you reach out to these specific leads and rekindle the original spark.

To do this, you can use a combination of Zapier and Facebook Offline Conversions to identify these leads and advertise specifically to them.

This is essentially the idea of retargeting  – reaching out to leads who failed to convert the first time. By setting up retargetting banner ads, you can effectively track these prospects as they move throughout the web so as to draw attention to your offerings.

5. Encourage Upsells

Another way that you can use holidays to increase your sales is to encourage upsells. The key here is to determine which products/services pair well together and then to encourage your customers to also buy the add-on.

Again, the holidays are a great time to encourage customers to buy a related or accompanying product because they are more likely to be in the buying mindset.

6. Thank Your Loyal Customers

The holidays present an opportune time for businesses to get in touch with their most loyal customers and say ‘thank you.’ They give you an ‘in.’

What’s more, though, is that they allow you to reach out to customers with a specific holiday-related deal, which would be particularly appealing to loyal customers.

Another great option to reach out to your customers with a loyalty program. This not only allows you to thank your customers (and show your appreciation), but it also allows you to drive repeat business at the same time.

7. Start a Holiday Referral Program

Similar to the above idea of thanking your loyal customers via a loyalty program (if you don’t already have one) is starting a holiday referral program.

A holiday referral program incentivizes your loyal customers to spread the word about your business and/or product, therein driving more business.

8. Offer Free Shipping

Shipping costs add up and can prevent people from making purchases. Offering free shipping to those who follow you on social media (for example) or who have subscribed to your email, not only rewards these people but also encourages them to make a purchase.

The Bottom Line

If you want to increase your sales, don’t focus all of your marketing efforts on only the major holidays of the year. There are many other points throughout the year where people are primed to make purchases.

As such, businesses should put themselves in the position to take advantage of the moment.

Yocale is the top scheduling software on the market today – it’s also free. We also offer a free suite of business management and marketing tools. For more information, click here.