Increase Your Direct Mail Campaign Results Using Holidays Set up a campaign around a holiday and give your customers a reason to come into your store, visit your website and buy from you.
By Craig Simpson •
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
When putting together a direct mail campaign, you want an angle that will make you stand out from your competition. You want to send out unique sales pieces that will grab your customers' attention and hold it. You want something that interests them. One great way to connect with people is to give them something they can relate to. Creating timely campaigns around holidays can do just that.
Use Holidays to Your Advantage
There are a lot of holidays I'm not incredibly fond of.
Take Valentine's Day. Does any man really enjoy Valentine's Day? Did you know that men account for 73 percent of Valentine's Day flower sales? Hummm – that's a little suspicious to me. I think men give flowers because it's an easy gift. Sure, they are pretty and they smell good, but to be 100% honest, they are a REALLY EASY gift that takes no effort. Men don't want to take the time to figure out what their lady really wants, like earrings, new shoes, a purse – something that requires you to go into a store and spend some time looking around at stuff you don't really understand.
Yes, I'm a bit of a Grinch (I know, wrong holiday), when it comes to Valentine's Day. I'm not much for Punxsutawney Phil the Groundhog either. After a long a dreary winter in Oregon, I'm always ready for spring and Punxsutawney Phil seems to ruin it ever year. The odds of Phil NOT seeing his shadow are slim! Out of 114 attempts, he has seen his shadow 99 times (86.84%).
Then, of course, there's President's Day – a perfectly good day when the mail is not delivered. No Direct Mail Marketer should be happy about that!
Even though I don't love all holidays, they do provide a great opportunity to focus on expanding your business. Groundhog Day, Valentine's Day, and President's Day, all present you with opportunities to contact your customers and offer them something special. You don't have to just focus on the popular holidays; you can also use fun ones like Paul Bunyan Day on June 28.
Monthly holidays are one of the best ways to stay in contact with your customers because they give you an excuse to run some kind of related promotion.
