The holiday season represents a bonanza of sales for the retail industry, and the season doesn’t end with Christmas. New Year’s is another opportunity for businesses to step up their marketing efforts and reap profits.
During that last week of the year, consumers are still reveling in the holiday spirit. A well-designed marketing campaign can increase your sales and build brand awareness and loyalty.
Here are 10 marketing tactics to help you get the most out of the New Year’s holiday.
1. Hold a Year-End Sale
Christmas may be over, but many customers are still looking for bargains. A well-promoted New Year’s sale will help you get rid of surplus holiday inventory and attract new and existing customers to your store or website. Use digital marketing, traditional marketing or both to advertise your sale. Offer discount coupons to encourage repeat business.
2. Run a Special Promotion
Run a promotion that pushes New Year’s-centric products and services such as glittery items, party supplies and decorations, sparkling wine, hostess gifts, self-improvement, makeovers, healthy cooking, weight loss and new beginnings. Offer discounts and create urgency by displaying countdown timers on your website and social media channels.
3. Send an Email
Many companies send “Merry Christmas” or “Happy Holidays” wishes to their customers, flooding their inboxes with emails that go mostly unnoticed. Set your business apart by sending an email with a thoughtful message wishing your customers a prosperous New Year. Show them you care by including exclusive offers, online coupons or discount codes. Personalize each email and use a catchy subject line that will prompt recipients to open the email.
4. Give Something Away
Who doesn’t like free stuff? If one of your New Year’s business resolutions is to grow your customer base, consider a giveaway of one of your products or services. You can also give away branded promotional items such as fridge magnets, mugs and calendars. To generate leads online, use lead magnets such as trial subscriptions, eBooks, guides and free consultations in exchange for visitors’ contact information.
5. Use Social Media
Spread the holiday spirit through your social media channels. Change your profile picture and avatar to something festive. Promote a New Year’s sale or contest. Engage your followers with party ideas. Go live on Facebook for the countdown to midnight on New Year’s Eve.
6. Host a New Year’s Contest
Consider a fun New Year’s countdown contest starting a few days before New Year’s Eve and ending at midnight. For example, ask customers and social media followers to submit their funniest New Year resolutions or most creative ideas for a New Year’s Eve cocktail. Create a hashtag and ask them to share their contest submissions on their social media accounts to generate a buzz about the contest.
7. Throw a Party
New Year’s Eve is the party night of the year, so throw a party for your customers that showcase your products and services. You don’t have to serve a three-course meal and hire a DJ. Make sure to create a catchy hashtag and advertise the event on your website, social media channels and via email. Whatever you do and however you do it, give your guests a unique experience they will remember.
8. Launch a New Product or Service
One of the most popular New Year marketing ideas is to launch a new product or service right after midnight on New Year’s Eve. Promote the product or service throughout the month of December, counting down the days and hours to the midnight launch. Offer customers a special deal on their first purchase and discounts on existing products and services. Consider a giveaway as part of the launch.
9. Update Your Content Marketing
The purpose of content marketing is to provide material that is valuable to your target audience. Outdated, irrelevant content is useless to your customers and pointless for your marketing efforts. Keep your blog and social media channels active with new posts. Make sure the content on your website is up to date. Publish new informational or how-to videos on YouTube.
10. Decorate Your Store
If you’re a brick-and-mortar business, add some curb appeal by decorating your display window with a New Year’s theme featuring a festive scene using products you sell in your store. You might be tempted to skip this tactic, but if you decorate for other holidays, why not decorate for New Year’s? If you have an online business, use graphics to decorate your website and social media accounts.
New Year’s Eve marks the last and first opportunity you have all year to attract consumers to your business, engage them and convert them into customers. Using a few digital and traditional marketing strategies and tactics, you can make additional holiday sales, boost brand awareness and increase customer loyalty.