Marketing Promotions for Special Events or Occasions

Each calendar year has tons of holidays, special events, or occasions that your business can and should use to promote your business. Aside from the well-known holidays like the fourth of July, Thanksgiving, Labor Day, or Christmas, there are plenty of smaller holidays that might not be known to your customers. Using these smaller holidays or events can make others aware of the occasion and also gives you an excuse as a business to have a sale or some type of special promotion or event to celebrate the date. Not only can you have a special promotion for the event, you can also use it as a chance to engage your customers with games or gifts all while promoting your company.

As a marketer, you must plan ahead. The bigger the promotion or holiday, the more in advance you should start planning. Start brainstorming and jotting down ideas, then plan on your resources, timeline, etc. For example, December promotions should finish up planning in the next few months and start implementation. This way, when the time comes to execute, you’re ready and you haven’t missed out!

Creativity also goes a long way when promoting your business. I remember visiting this local coffee shop that had a chalkboard at the front door. Depending on what holiday was coming up, it would have a trivia question about that holiday. If you answered the question correctly when you went to order, you would get 10% off your drink.

Here’s an idea: Super Bowl is this weekend. Have you thought about how you can incorporate that into your small business marketing? If you own a food store, this is a perfect time to offer discounts on bulk orders. How about making a deal with your customers? If X team wins or wins by x number of points, then all your customers will get 15% off on Monday or Free Shipping on their order.

It’s also a good idea to save your big promotions for the big events. As for the smaller occasions, use it to throw in a BOGO (Buy One Get One) or 10% off offer.

If you aren’t sure what types of holidays or special events are out there, try to search for an events calendar in Google or you can use the promotional events calendar we feature on our website.

Image Courtesy of sullivaniga

Benefits of Internal Search Marketing

I really like using internal search on websites when I’m looking for information and even when I’m shopping. If you know what you are looking for, using a website’s search box is the way to go. You don’t have to waste your time clicking all over the site to discover that you can’t find what you went there to look for. How to execute a good internal search is a completely different subject from the benefits of it. Today I will just touch on the benefits.

Reviewing internal search on e-commerce websites provides great insight into what your customers are really looking for. It also helps you better understand the terminology that your customers may use, which can be different from what you think they use. Based off of this data, you can promote the most searched for products more prominently on your website. Maybe customers are looking for something they think you sell, but you currently don’t. This would be a good opportunity to introduce those products on your site. You can also use this data to change the language on your website. For example, if you are a supplier of coca-cola or pepsi products, you might label these products as “soda” or “pop”. However, if the majority of people on your site end up searching for the opposite of what you call it, then it is probably a good idea to change your language.

Another way internal search is beneficial to your marketing campaigns is that you can pass on what you learn from internal search to your paid search campaigns. Perhaps visitors are looking for something you never thought would receive so much interest or they are, like the above example, searching with different terminology. You can add these keywords to your paid search campaigns and bring traffic that you have been previously missing back to your site. You can also use the data to help think of permutations or other keyword ideas.

Internal search definitely provides an extremely useful set of data for your marketing needs. If you don’t have a search box on your site, you should consider it. If you do, don’t let it just be a tool for your customers, let it be a tool for you.

Image Courtesy of kiransnvk

Building a Good Landing Page

Setting up a landing page properly is absolutely crucial to maximizing conversions. When I shop for something online, I like to do a lot of research, I like to shop around for the best deal, and I want to purchase from a company that looks like they know what they are doing.

I was prompted to write about landing pages after I saw this article on PPC Landing Pages: Surprising Examples at Search Engine Watch. It is absolutely amazing to see that some large, credible retailers still do not understand the important elements that belong on a landing page. While the article focuses mainly on pay-per-click ads and their landing pages, I think that these simple tips are relevant to landing pages for email promos, SEO, or any other type of landing pages. Think of it as a best practice guide.

Relevancy
Whether your prospect is coming from an email promotion or an advertisement, when the user clicks on your landing page, they should be presented with exactly what they are looking for. If the visitor can not locate what they went there to find, they will leave almost immediately. Such as the case in the article I mentioned above. If I was looking for a specific running shoe by name and I clicked on an ad that took me to their home page with the running shoe nowhere in sight, I would leave. I don’t want to waste my time searching AGAIN for the product and neither do your customers.

Copy
Make sure your ad copy matches from the ad to the landing page. If I am looking for a “blue Adidas Superstar” shoe, make sure the landing page states “blue Adidas Superstar”, not just Adidas shoes or Superstar. The more your copy matches, the more relevant your landing page will be to the visitor. Also, make sure your copy is short and to the point. No one wants to read long paragraphs, keep things simple in bullets. Lastly, make sure your ad copy is grammatically correct. It is unprofessional to have misspellings and punctuation errors on your website.

Benefits
What are the benefits of the product? What are the benefits of ordering from you? What can your business provide that others can’t? 100% Guarantees? Free Shipping? List these in clear easy to read bullet points.

Call to Action
A call to action is important as it encourages the visitor to act whether it may be to buy, leave a review, or contact you. The call to action should be visible and easy to understand. The visitor should not be confused on how to purchase or use your services.

Images
Keep graphics simple. There is no need to get fancy. Reflect the product in a way that is satisfying and useful for the visitor. What are visitors interested in seeing? If it is a product, try showing different views, close-ups, and different colors.

By following these simple tips, you will create a better experience for your visitors. A better, friendly experience makes visitors more likely to convert.

The key to all elements: keep it simple and concise.

Image courtesy of russelljsmith

Promoting Your Business Offline

Visibility in the online space is important, but it is just as important to promote yourself offline. Chris Crum from Small Business Newz wrote a great article on places you could advertise your business offline.

Stickers
Throw in a few stickers in the package or bag your customers receive. People love free things. Plus stickers are an effective way to promote your business to those who normally don’t surf the web. You may be able to reach a new group of people with your logo and website imprinted on a sticker.

Flyers
Handing out flyers does not seem to be as effective as posting them somewhere. Post up your flyer in places where people often have to wait or spend a short amount of time such as bus stops, subways, telephone poles, etc.

Bulletin Boards
Often times bulletin boards are put up so people can advertise local services or goods. Check out your local stores, school, or library for bulletins to leave your business card or flyer.

Attire
Give away free shirts to your customers and employees! There is a good chance that they will wear it out in public for all to see. They can be a walking billboard for your company!

Auto
Look for people who are willing to promote your services or goods on their cars. I’m sure you’ve seen cars with advertisements on the window. This is a good way to reach a large amount of people.

Most importantly, whichever offline methods you use, make sure you stay consistent with your messaging, logo, information in all forms of media (on the web, stickers, flyers, catalogs, etc). Also, don’t forget to include your website address and any other important contact information.

Image Courtesy of thunderpants