If you've been in business long enough, you already know that marketing around Thanksgiving involves overly intense Black Friday sales. If you've recently joined the fray of staying open on Thanksgiving to give shoppers a head-start, you're probably trying to brainstorm more refreshing marketing ideas. You might even be giving some thought to email, inbound and social media marketing. With countless stores taking part in either Black Thursday or Black Friday annually, it's a challenge to start an inbound or social media marketing campaign with something different.
One way to tackle this is to think beyond the idea of sales and place Thanksgiving in a new light for your customers. Why blend in with your competition by only talking about sales and relentlessly trying to outdo one another in a price war?
Nowadays, customers could get turned off by excess materialism because of what Thanksgiving stands for and you may find your target audience wanting a more meaningful shopping experience. With the chances being great that you have hundreds of others offering the same products or services you do, what can you do to stand out from the herd this Thanksgiving?
Let's take a look at more targeted and personalized tactics you could apply to integrate the Thanksgiving holiday with a message about why your products or services matter.
Thanking Customers
Whether it's Thanksgiving or, really, any other day of the year, never lose sight of the reality that you make sales because of the relationship you've built with your customer. While developing this relationship you've established trust and credibility. Giving thanks to your most valuable customers with a value-add inbound marketing offering helps them feel like they're part of your family. By giving them some special discounts as a “thank you”, you also give them more incentive to visit you on Black Friday. Don't forget, you can also give thanks to those who've perhaps only signed up for your email newsletter.
If you don't want to thank your loyal customers individually, mentioning them publicly in your blogs or on your social media channels allows for a stronger, though less personal, marketing effort.
Displaying the True Meaning of Thanksgiving
Let's not forget: Thanksgiving is more than just a time to head out to shop. Despite the fact shopping provides an escape for some families, it doesn't hurt to shift your marketing message to the true meaning of the holiday. A focus on family and giving back to others has many benefits.
Finding local stories you can highlight in your marketing allows you to bring a more human side to your Thanksgiving marketing. You'll likely be surprised how many people respond since you'll probably be one of the few not hyping sales, even if you're still motivating people to purchase your product or service.
As a good example on providing something meaningful (and useful): Spotify provided turkey cooking playlists to their customers last year.
Getting Your Customers Involved in Charity
An excellent way to highlight the meaning of Thanksgiving is to integrate charity into your holiday sales. Publicizing your plan to donate a percentage of profits to a local charity or providing a way for customers to give to charity can be very meaningful.
Doing this gives a chance to connect with those in your local area and put your heads together to help solve an issue or help families in need. It also gives real purpose to your Thanksgiving sales.
Branding Your Marketing with Thanksgiving Themes
Sometimes, just making an effort to place Thanksgiving themes in your marketing content helps people get in the mood. Some businesses never bother and just send straight-forward content all year until the holidays officially arrive.
Work with your web designers to create appealing Thanksgiving designs in all of your online content. Sometimes being more subtle helps, including a little humor to get people into a happy frame of mind.
There are many ways you can use the Thanksgiving holiday to drive traffic to your website or physical location. Be creative. Integrate the true meaning of Thanksgiving into your marketing. And let us know the impact this has on your sales.
