How Retailers Can Profit From Natural Holidays Like Memorial Day

Everyone expects there to be good deals on the "natural holidays" like Memorial Day. We've trained the consumer over the years that these are prime shopping times. They go out in large numbers to shop whenever there's a three or four day weekend holiday. But, if you're a retailer that doesn't mean you can just sit back and let them come to you. If you do, you could be missing out on a lot of sales. We're talking the difference between a good weekend and a "make your quarter" weekend here.

Yaffe has 'worked with a lot of retailers over the years. During that time we've amassed a lot of data, along with some good experience. The data shows time and time again that the more marketing channels you use, the stronger your presence and the more you give your customers, the better your weekend will be. Not just in gross numbers, but in profits and ROI, too.

Here's some tips we've learned over the years:

Give Your Customers More: Part of the reason consumers shop on the natural holidays is because they have the extra time to shop. But a big part of it is that they've learned from experience that many retailers give their best offers during these times. You need to make sure you're giving the public some of the best offers in your arsenal. You can bet your competition will be making their best offers, so you need to be out there with yours, too. It can be better financing, better overall savings, special deals on categories or individual items, free gifts or refreshments for customers who come in, early bird specials to get them in first or some other offer or combination of offers. 

Give Your Best Customers More: One thing our research and data has shown most strongly is that marketing to your best customers gets the best ROI, every time. In a natural holiday shopping frenzy, you want to make sure these customers feel special and have additional incentive to remain loyal. Send them a direct message through mail, email, social media or SMS and give them a little something more than what you're giving the general public. It will pay off nicely.

Maximize Your Share Of Voice: Whatever media you're in, especially TV, you should try and get the largest share of voice for your category in your markets. You can't just advertising at the same level you always do. Your competition will be stepping up their media buys, you need to at least keep even in share of voice by stepping up your buys. And if you can be the dominant player in your markets, it will give you a stronger position in the consumer's mind.

Do Multi-Channel Marketing: Add more channels to your marketing mix. If you don't normally do direct mail, email, texting, digital marketing or some other media – this is the time to add one or more to your mix. It will broaden your reach and increase the amount of touch points you have with your consumers.

On a side note, make sure your messaging is appropriate for the channel you're in. Here is a link to a web video we produced for one of our furniture retailer clients who does fairly aggressive TV on the holidays. It was embedded in an email message. On the web, you need to be more engaging than on broadcast TV (being a pull medium vs. a push one). So, the web video had a different tone than the TV, while still tying in with the overall campaign. The email told the rest of the story pertaining to sale and offers.

So, don't miss out. It's an old cliche but it's true: make sure you're fishing when the fish are biting. That way you won't go hungry.

Mike McClure, Yaffe Exec Creative Director