Use Holidays Great and Small in Your Marketing

The Christmas tree has been secured in its box for another year, the tinsel has been taken down and the colored lights are already a fading memory.  Yes, the holidays are over, and it’s time to get serious about your marketing for 2016. Right?

Well, not so fast. For smart marketing people, the holidays are never over. Even though the major ones like Christmas and New Years have passed, there are still plenty of smaller ones throughout the year. Each one of these presents an opportunity for creative marketing.

You need not have a ‘Super Holiday Extravaganza’ for Groundhog’s Day on February 2nd, or make a big to-do about Employee Appreciation Day on March 4th, but even small things can help spice up your marketing efforts. Here are 11 new ideas for the upcoming holidays:

1. Create some special content. How about Valentine’s Day trivia or Saint Patrick’s Day celebrations throughout the world?
2. Enter a photo of your favorite Valentine’s Day card for a chance to win a prize at a giveaway drawing.
3. Have a contest to give away a special dinner for two, or a weekend getaway to a spa. If you’re trying to attract families, why not give away a set of tickets to a popular movie or event?
4. Create a list of your favorite holiday moments and encourage the audience to share some of their own.
5. For the days leading up to (next) Groundhog’s Day, advertise on social media that you’ll be offering one of two specials depending on whether the groundhog sees his shadow.
6. Offer game day deals during March Madness or maybe discounts for fans of the local team if they provide a ticket stub from the game they attended. 
7. Send your best customers a valentine to let them know how much you love them.
8. Raffle off a trip to New York City’s Saint Patrick’s Day parade (or a trip to Ireland if you’re feeling really daring).
9. It’s cold and bland in many parts of the country in the early part of the year. Celebrate the colorful spirit of the party by giving away Mardi Gras beads and doubloons. 
10. Have a chef come in and prepare some holiday foods, and then broadcast on your website along with the recipes.
11. Change up the color scheme on your website: red for Valentine’s Day, green for Saint Patrick’s Day, and so on.

If a particular holiday isn’t anything special in your industry, use your marketing to make it special. For example, it won’t be long before the airwaves are filled with advertisements for various Presidents’ Day sales. Why have a sale in the middle of February when it’s cold outside and customers’ wallets may still be feeling the pinch from Christmas. Why not? It’s a sale because companies decided it was.

With creative marketing, you can make every holiday, large or small, a chance to shine.