Seasonal and event driven promotions
Seasonal and event driven promotions can help give your business a boost at key times, perhaps filling quite periods. Christmas and Easter are ones which immediately spring to mind, as they can be used to drive customers your way. And not only these annual calendar favourites; the same methods can be used for less universal events that may happen locally on an annual basis. We’re talking about music festivals, sport events, charity gatherings, business shows and fetes. The meet-ups that involve plenty of organisations and mass participation all need recording for the organisers or local papers, even national ones, or trade press.
There’s also individual past customer key dates too – wedding anniversaries, birthdays, etc. How about engaging with past customers in the lead up to an anniversary / birthday? A nice photo is a really great present and will score brownie points for an old client, as well as added revenue for you, simply direct them back to your web site to order online, it’s very little effort on your part, even the fulfilment can be automated.
…making a calendar of relevant events that fit into your marketing plan will help guide the kind of customers you hope to win…
We discussed staying ahead of your work in the previous blog, and the crucial nature of having a timetable of work. In much the same way, making a calendar of relevant events that fit into your marketing plan will help guide the kind of customers you hope to win and help with the schedule of work.
CALENDAR CREATIONS
Look at the major events in the calendar – Easter, Christmas, Halloween, academic terms, Valentine’s Day – and plan your approach to them. There are factors such as:
● How long before each one should the activity start?
● Should the business even consider some or one of them, unnecessary work?
● Who should be targeted on Valentine’s Day – young men, older women, everyone?
● Which academic institutions should be focused on and how?
● How successful have these events been for me previously?
● What if any, marketing effort did I put in to promoting these events?
These are just some of the considerations depending on which avenues you choose to focus on. With each one it is vital that planning is careful and considered, and not scattered trying to meet every single event date, or rushed as one approaches the actual event date. Less is more in some respects.
WORK SCHEDULE
Following on from being a little picky about the events you choose, it’s important to remember how your other work will fit into this. Weddings happen all year round but tend to gravitate towards summer, particularly in this country, and trending factors such as holding the big day on a Friday.
● Is there enough equipment and spare stock ordered prior to each potential busy period?
● Has the schedule and calendar allowed for planning meetings and post-event delivery and debriefs?
THE BIGGER PICTURE
It’s important to be a leader and be ahead of the competition when it comes to making seasonal offers and promotions, and to also show that you understand your customer’s motivation at certain points in the year.
However good you are at these things, keeping one eye on your overall objective, as a business is key to long-term success. Making sure all the smaller activities you are planning connect to the mission the company has, whether that is to be the best wedding photographer in the area or to further your aim of having another outlet in the next town, will provide the right impetus for all the work.
How do you use seasonal and event promotions to boost your business?
