Effective marketing is about connecting with your prospects in any way possible. Holidays are a great way to do this, because they are events and occasions that draw attention and create a buzz in the society at large. You can use the hype that comes along with holidays to find common ground while communicating your marketing message in an engaging and relevant way.
Let’s talk specifically about Valentine’s Day. No disrespect to Groundhog Day, but Valentine’s is the next big holiday on the horizon. I’ll go into some of the basic ideas behind holiday marketing, and then I’ll show you how we generated $120,000+ off a mailing to 500 people…
Who can benefit from holiday marketing?
The fact is any business can use holidays or special occasions to boost their revenue. Most people associate the marketing of flowers, chocolates, and jewelry with Valentine’s Day. However, although these industries are the traditional favorites for Valentine’s gifts, any business can use the excitement of the holiday to generate revenue, if they put together an intentional and targeted postcard campaign.
The keys to holiday marketing success in any industry is mailing your campaigns early and consistently, getting creative with special offers, and using social media to compliment your direct mail marketing.
Repetition is a crucial component of effective marketing. Starting early and mailing consistently gives you the most opportunities to place your marketing message at the forefront of your prospects’ minds. Those business’ that aren’t the usual Valentine’s Day favorites need to get creative with their special offers to get prospects attention.
For instance, a landscaping company can offer a discount on the first month of service and present it as a great gift for a husband who normally has to take care of the lawn. It’s an enticing offer, and makes it relevant to the holiday.
Lastly, social media can be a very effective compliment to your direct mail campaign. You can use your social media to build hype, which increases the effectiveness of your postcard marketing. On the flip side, you can also use your Valentine’s campaign to bolster your social media presence. Both these options help your company’s marketing as a whole.
Our 2012 Valentine’s Day campaign
Now let’s take a look at our experience, here at PostcardMania, with a Valentine’s Day marketing campaign that we used last year. We put together a package to show our top customers how much we appreciate them, and also try and give us a boost in revenue and bolster our social media presence at the same time.
The package included a Valentine’s Day card, as well as wax lips and a wax mustache. We featured in the card a special offer for a free copy of our CEO Joy Gendusa’s book, The Ultimate Postcard Marketing Success Manual, to anyone who posted a picture of themselves, wearing the wax lips and mustache, to our Facebook page.
We chose to do just one mailing, and sent the packages to our top 500 customers. Since we are a marketing company, we used the card to reconnect with our clients and remind them to consistently mail their postcard campaigns to increase revenue.
We added the book offer to bolster our social media following, and gain followers and online interaction. Social media is a great tool for building a rapport with prospects, so the more followers you get the more quality leads you can build.
The Results:
Social media results
First, let’s go into the social media results. We sent our package out the week before Valentine’s Day, to promote a response during the week of Valentine’s Day. Our Facebook page gained 20 new “Likes” within the first week of our cards’ arrival. We received 18 picture posts to take advantage of the book offer. We also received 3 emails personally thanking us for the cards. This showed us that going the extra mile to connect with those clients during the holiday had a great impact. Social media is a great tool for building trust and personal connections with prospects, so gaining followers via these platforms yields better marketing results later on.
Revenue generated
Now for the bottom line…literally. Our Valentine’s campaign generated an incredible return on investment. Including the production, postage, and the purchase of the wax lips and mustaches, our campaign cost about $3000. During the week of Valentine’s Day, we received 68 new orders from those 500 clients. These 68 orders generated $120,637 in revenue!
Using the excitement of special occasions, businesses from any industry can achieve boosts in revenue throughout the year, and help your business grow long-term with each boost you generate. So get creative, give it a try and enjoy the results yourself!
Sarah Kicinski is the vice president of marketing at PostcardMania.