Tools for Tomorrow: Plan a Holiday Promotion

Over the past few weeks, we’ve been helping you prep for the upcoming holiday season by encouraging you to plan your company holiday party, set the date for a holiday event for your customers, and get your holiday operational checklist all squared away. Today we’re going to set the stage for one of the most important aspects of holiday planning: your holiday promotion(s)!

While it’s a given that retail and restaurant traffic increases during the holidays (as more customers are shopping, eating and celebrating during this season than any other time), you still need to find a way to take advantage of this traffic. You can do this by building a holiday promotion that is relevant and meaningful to your customers. And you can do THAT by asking yourself one question:

What do you want to accomplish this holiday season?

Or, in other words – what are your goals? Do you want to increase sales, broaden your customer base, or host a great event for a charity in need? Whatever your end game is, you’ll need to make sure that:

• Your goals are are SMART: Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic and Time Specific.
• You schedule activities to help your promotion succeed: cross-promotions, special offers, launch events, etc.
• You outline what marketing venues you’ll use to communicate with customers: signage, eNewsletters, social media, employee t-shirts and speaking points, or something else completely!
• The theme for your promotion is customer-relevant: what will make them care about this promotion? There’s a chance you might have more than one item or service to feature, but you need to decide which one is the most important and focus your attention there.

While all of these preparations will help you and your customers have a successful holiday season, you might consider partnering with a local charity or organization to ensure that those in need have a good holiday season as well! Donating money, time, services or goods to an organization or charity in need can make you feel good, and it can have many other positive effects on your business:

• You will be perceived as a giving and integral part of your community
• Your customers will be happier to support your business (knowing you give back)
• Your employees will be happier knowing they are doing more with their job than just earning a paycheck (by supporting your organization of choice).

Have you started planning your holiday promotions yet?