The Holi-daze Marketing Thought-Starter

The Holi-daze are upon on and this is a weird and wonderful time of year.  I’ve created a few items that you as a business person or marketing person, or what ever kind of person you are, you can take a look at and use to help you navigate the last few weeks of this year.

If this is make it or break it time for your retail business, it’s time to suck it up. Just because you are having to work long hours and cover for the employees that are sick or you just are short handed because all the good people have jobs elsewhere due, remember your customers.

The customers who actually drove to your store really want to buy something that you sell.  Otherwise, we would have ordered it online.  Just the other day, my wife was working on a project and after making a couple trips to the store, she asked me to order a tool online. It took me less than 10 minutes on a Saturday afternoon and it arrived at our house Monday.  While that was convenient for my family, we are also a shop local family.  Of the $200 we spent on this project, $185 went to a local store and $15 went to Amazon.

That’s because we are consciously looking to support our friends and neighbors.  Locally owned coffee shops and restaurants get most of my food and beverage money every month.

The point is, the people who come to your store, have a choice to buy from you or someone else.  Super-serve them and keep them coming back.   Create a positive shopping experience for them and they will come back.  Make it a bad experience, and you may have lost them forever.

Advertising is the part of marketing that functions as the invitation to your company.  But advertising can’t fix problems that go on inside your company.

Last week I was meeting with someone who wanted to hire me to train his staff on how to upsell his customers in a manner that is not annoying, but instead is genuine.

Speaking of advertising, you really need to invite people to your store right now.  People are spending for themselves and for others.  They are overspending, maxing out credit cards this time of year.  While I don’t believe that is a good thing to do, I’m not their mom and they are grown ups right?

Advertising this time of year might be challenging if you haven’t planned ahead.

Using television ads means you need to get a fresh ad produced and that takes time and money. Also the television viewing is different this time of year due to the holiday specials on TV and combined with the changes in TV viewing habits, I recommend you stay away from TV unless you already have it planned out.

Print ads might be available in the daily newspaper, but with the dwindling number of readers, just say no.

Social Media including Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest might work, but you better have a professional managing it, or else you can waste time and money.

I offer some online advertising options through the Federated Digital Solutions division of my company, but again, it’s kind of late to plan for this Holi-daze season.  If you want to talk about it, let’s plan a campaign for the new year.

My suggestion is using radio advertising to capture customers right now for the Holi-daze season.

Within a couple of days, I can get your message in front of thousands of people right here in our city who are shopping.  WOWO radio continues to be one of the most listened to radio stations in Fort Wayne and it’s a hot time right now.  Our annual Penny Pitch drive is underway with money being raised for two local non-profits. Weekly events that you and your business can be associated with provide a feel-good connection.

I also can create room for advertising for a special event.  Earlier this month, I put together a radio advertising campaign for an event that was less than a week away.  I wrote the ads, we produced the campaign and in the 5 days leading up and including the sale days, over 50 ad invitations were heard by over 75,000 WOWO listeners.

If this is crunch time for you, let’s talk now.

Or if this is a slow time of the year for you because you are not part of the retail Holi-daze season, this is an excellent time to plan for the new year.  I can make time to help you with your planning, reach out and we’ll get started.

By the way, I have a couple of ideas for retailers that you can do right now for this Holi-daze season:

1. This first one was inspired by Amazon.  I use Amazon to buy gifts for my relatives that are hundreds of miles away. I often spend a little extra to have Amazon gift wrap those presents. What if you offered to gift wrap purchases as an upsell to people who are in your store? Make it easy and just have a stock of gift bags and tissue paper, and charge them your cost plus an extra buck or two.  You can even partner up with a local charity and give the proceeds to them.
2. This other idea also was inspired by something Amazon does not do. Sometimes I buy a gift ahead of time and I don’t want it to arrive before hand.  What if you offered a Santa’s Closet for people who want to buy presents now, but wait a few days or weeks to take them home?
3. My last idea is something you need to start and continue forever.  Collect email addresses and text numbers and offer a program to customers who sign up to be notified of special events. Most major retailers do this and you should too.