From October through April it seems like there is always a holiday around the corner. People know when holidays are approaching–whether they are truly looking forward to celebrating the holiday or merely anticipating well deserved time off. Either way, people respond to holidays. While businesses know this, they often fail to engage potential customers.
We recently celebrated Valentine’s Day — a favorite amongst florists and restaurants. And while calla lily’s and dinner out are nice, they boring and somewhat par for the course. All the emails for flower, chocolate, and restaurant discounts went directly into my trash and online ads for the same were ignored. I don’t need an email to tell me how to be unoriginal.
You know what did get my attention? An email offering Egyptian cotton sheets for $20. Bingo! A perfect Valentines gift? I think so. To my girlfriend, this is a thoughtful gift and probably cost well over $100. In reality, it was not me thinking outside the box, it was the retail store who knew that Egyptian cotton sheets would be a perfect Valentines Day gift.
Had I gotten that same email any other time of the year, it would have probably never been read (unless I was desperately in need of new sheets). The fact that the sheets were a good deal and an original V-Day gift was immediately engaging to me (and apparently to other people because they sold loads).
I was recently running a Facebook ad campaign for a client who runs a Wellness Center on Fifth ave. in Manhattan. The campaign was promoting a popular non-invasive fat loss treatment called Zerona Laser. When a week prior to V-Day, I created ads with images of hearts and roses and copy reading “perfect Valentines Day gift” and “look great this Valentines Day,” my clicks shot through the roof.
In those seven days traffic more than doubled and my CPC dropped by nearly half. I attribute this success to a few different things.
• First and foremost, the ad caught their attention because Valentine’s Day was indeed around the corner.
• As a gift, Zerona Laser treatment is unique and “out of the box.”
• People often use holidays to justify buying themselves a gift. I believe more people were interested in treating themselves to a gift rather than a husband buying a fat loss treatment for their wife–although you never know.
• Vanity. I could easily imagine someone wanting to lose a few inches and look “sexy” for their significant other on V-Day. Even better motivation is to look fit for a future special someone.
With any social media campaign or promotion engagement is top priority. Think outside of the box, be original, and leverage the holiday. When mid March rolls around I’m not going to be mentioning Easter in my ads, but you better believe I’ll be leveraging Spring Break.
