This time of year I can’t even tell what holiday I’m supposed to be decorating for! The moment you walk into a store nowadays you are confused about what holiday is approaching. Fall items are next to Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas decorations. I gotta tell ya; I’m at a loss on what I’m supposed to be buying.
While I can’t decide what holiday to decorate for yet, I know one thing for sure; everyone should have their marketing calendar ready for the rest of the year and have promotions to help drive business. We shouldn’t just create marketing promotions and events because it’s the holidays; we should be doing them to help drive our business.
We know everyone doesn’t have crazy big budgets for marketing and we want to give you some ideas that will help you win in the 4th quarter and drive business not just during the holidays, but for next year.
Create a special holiday video
Show the fun and personal side of the business. We are always looking for ways to connect with our community and this is a great way for people to see how fun and wonderful your center and team are. Who doesn’t want to host a holiday party, birthday party, or fun family night in a great facility with a great team? Share it on all your social media channels to show off your business and make a connection.
Offer free holiday cards
Kids have parties for every holiday. Imagine one kiddo taking a card with a free coupon from your center to every person in their class. How many people do you think you could reach for free? Yeah, that could be a lot of kids! It’s very inexpensive to get cards printed and could result in a big return. We use www.spinnprint.com where, for just $140, you can get 1,000 full-color postcards printed and that could result in thousands of dollars in revenue.
Sell gift cards
Gift cards are a guaranteed way to drive people back into your center. They are great to give as gifts, stocking stuffers, or donations to local organizations. The holidays are a good time to run a promotion for buying a gift card and getting a certificate for an item (with a redeem date of January – February when your center may have a slow day). Be sure your sales department is offering bulk gift cards to schools, churches, and other companies that can be purchased as holiday gifts.
Show love to your fans
Social media has made it easy for us to show love and appreciation to our community. The holidays are a great time to have a contest on Facebook. Winners can get great prizes and be sure to give a bounce-back coupon for every person who participates. Not only will they be thrilled to have the chance to win free items, it will also help boost engagement on your social channels. When you show love to your fans, they will be more likely to come back and visit your fan pages and more likely to plan a visit to your center.
Launch an email campaign
If you haven’t started your email marketing list, now is the perfect time to collect emails as people come in your center. If you have been diligent all year collecting emails and haven’t sent any out, now is the time. From now till the end of the year, share your holiday calendar, information on holiday parties, special offers you are running in your center, your center’s holiday video, even a special letter from the president or general manager. Emails help you stay top of mind as people decide where to take their kiddos during all the school holidays.
These are just a few things you can do to help drive sales in your center. Last year we shared a long list of holiday marketing tips of various events you could host in your center during the holidays. There is still time to plan and execute events, so don’t be discouraged if you haven’t started already.
If you have questions, feel free to reach out to me anytime at rosie@trainertainment.net.
