Holidays are critical to most marketing strategies. When you’re building your promotional calendar, holidays are built-in events that you can count on every year. Holidays give you something relevant to include in your messaging, and they add a sense of urgency. When the holiday is over, your promotion will be too.
The holidays you recognize as a business owner may be a little different from the holidays you celebrate in your personal life. Halloween and Easter may be your favorite, but they aren’t necessarily the best days for promoting your business.
For today’s blog post, we’ve put together a list of the top 7 holidays you should celebrate to promote your business. Get out your calendar, and let’s get festive!
1. Black Friday.
The weekend after Thanksgiving is one of the most important times for almost every business. It marks the official beginning of the Christmas season and a time when most consumers are prepared to make big purchases. No matter what kind of business you run, you can and should have a Black Friday promotion.
“Black Friday” earned its name in the 1960s when a sharp influx of tourists and holiday shoppers caused chaos at stores. In the following decades, “Black Friday” took on a new meaning, as it was a day that stores were guaranteed a huge profit, putting them “in the black.”
Black Friday is now synonymous with sales, bundles, and new product releases. If you’re thinking about launching a new product or pushing a major sale, Black Friday is one of the best days to choose.
In early November, start teasing what offers will be available on Black Friday. Stay top-of-mind for your audience, and keep them excited about your products.
When Black Friday arrives, promote your business across as many channels as possible, reminding your audience about the incredible savings and deals you’re offering. Stress the urgency of the holiday season—even if your sale doesn’t end on Black Friday, you may run out of products or appointments.
The next Black Friday will happen on November 25, 2022.
2. Cyber Monday.
The popularity of Black Friday spawned several similar “holidays” after Thanksgiving, including Cyber Monday, the Monday after Thanksgiving. While Black Friday emphasizes shopping in-person, Cyber Monday features exclusive deals for online shopping.
Do you get most of your orders through your online store? Then Cyber Monday is the holiday for you. You can still celebrate Black Friday, but Cyber Monday should be your main focus, with your best sales and most of your marketing materials driving customers to shop on Monday.
If you’re trying to encourage more customers to shop online, you can use Cyber Monday as a starting point. Offer your customers exclusive online discounts on Cyber Monday and follow up with an email campaign that thanks them for their purchase. Remind them how convenient online shopping is and encourage them to continue using your online store.
Next Cyber Monday is November 28, 2022.
3. Small Business Saturday.
In between the big holidays of Black Friday and Cyber Monday sits Small Business Saturday, a day devoted to supporting local businesses.
Small businesses aren’t always able to offer the same kinds of sales that large corporations do. Customers don’t expect to see huge mark-downs on Small Business Saturday. Instead, the decision to support a small business is less about finances and more about ethics.
When you’re promoting your business for Small Business Saturday, remind your audience of the importance of shopping local. Tap into their emotions, and emphasize how grateful you are for every purchase. Your customers will feel good after making a purchase when you show them just how important it is to support small businesses.
Next Small Business Saturday is November 26, 2022.
4. Christmas.
Christmas is one of the biggest holidays in the world. It’s a day of gift giving, celebrating with family and friends, generosity, and occasional indulgence. A sizable portion of your audience probably celebrates Christmas—and even those who don’t might still take advantage of a holiday deal.
Black Friday kicks off the holiday season, but Christmas is the main event. For the whole month of December, you should encourage your audience to make a purchase, whether it’s as a gift or a celebratory treat for themselves.
And when Christmas Day comes around, send out an email wishing your audience a merry Christmas with no CTA to make a purchase. You don’t want to seem disrespectful by asking for a purchase on Christmas.
Read this step-by-step guide by HubSpot for more information about how to execute a Christmas marketing campaign.
Christmas always falls on December 25.
5. Summer Solstice.
Most people don’t celebrate the summer solstice like a traditional holiday, but they almost certainly recognize the changing seasons. The weather is hotter, the days are longer, and children are out of school—summer is hard to miss.
The changing seasons are a great reason to hold a sale. You may decide to use the seasons to promote new product releases or to sell last season’s overstock at a huge discount. Or you can simply invite your audience to celebrate the summer by making a purchase.
Unlike the other holidays on this list, you don’t have to explicitly mention the solstice when you run a summer campaign. Just tell your audience that you’re celebrating the arrival of summer with discounts or a new product. If your products are relevant to the season, list some reasons why summer is the perfect time to make a purchase.
The summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere falls between June 20 and 22. Next summer solstice is June 21, 2023.
6. Mother’s Day.
If your products or services are popular with women, you can schedule a special promotion for Mother’s Day. Families are looking for gifts to make mothers and grandmothers feel special, to honor them for all their hard work.
Mother’s Day is an opportunity to highlight hard working mothers in your industry and to demonstrate how your products can be useful for moms. In the weeks leading up to Mother’s Day, promote your products and services as a potential gift for mothers. Check out this list of Mother’s Day marketing ideas by Privy for more inspiration.
Mother’s Day falls on the second Sunday in May. Next Mother’s Day is May 14, 2023.
7. Father’s Day.
Father’s Day presents a similar opportunity as Mother’s Day. Families are looking for ways to give dads a treat—and your product or service could be exactly what they want.
Use the weeks leading up to Father’s Day as a chance to spotlight dads in your industry. Thanks them for their hard work, and show your audience how your product makes life easier for parents.
Father’s Day is the third Sunday in June. Next Father’s Day is June 18, 2023.
Promoting your business is a full-time job. If you’re feeling overwhelmed at the thought of putting together and executing a promotional calendar, you don’t have to do it alone. Schedule a call and let the marketing gurus at Sigl Creative help you plan a promotional calendar that will make the most of these holidays.
