Two Proven Holiday Marketing Strategies You Can Use Right Now

There’s a lot of political correctness going around these days.  Do you say Happy Holidays or Merry Christmas or Happy Chanukah or Happy Kwanza?

From a marketing standpoint, I don’t know what the correct answer is. You could just say ‘Happy Holidays” or say all of them.  In either case, you might upset someone.

From my standpoint, and some of you may not agree, I would say Merry Christmas to those who celebrate Christmas, Happy Chanukah to those who celebrate Chanukah, and to those who celebrate Kwanza, I would say Happy Kwanza.  If I don’t know, I would just ask if the person celebrates any particular holiday this time of the year and then wish them the appropriate greeting.

I like how Lexus, the car company, has gotten around this dilemma by running a “December to Remember” campaign for the last 10 years.  It doesn’t say anything yet it doesn’t offend anyone.  It just promotes the various lease or buy offers on certain models.

Here are two possible strategies that you might want to consider:

1. Here’s One Possible Strategy.  Why couldn’t you do the same and market a “December to Remember Bowling Program” or “Twelve Days of Fun from December 23rd to January 3rd “ as your umbrella campaign and then under it send your Galaxy Bowling or weekend family time or weekday kids bowling or New Year’s Eve programs for families and/or adults to  your appropriate segments on an every other day basis.
   
2. You Can Also Utilize This Strategy.  Since people love stories, especially around Christmas, ask your audience to tell you what their “Best Holiday or Worst Holiday experience was and then you will share these with your email list every day (get their permission if you are going to publish it)…along with a coupon for one of your programs.  Then post it on Facebook in a brief form and then ask them to click to get to your website where they can read the entire story and get their coupon.
   

Here are some benefits for you:

• People will look forward to reading these stories and not only will your open rate increase, but your click through rate and coupon open rate will increase.
  

• You won’t be accused of crass commercialism and by sharing personal stories; people will see you as someone who is part of the community.  Make sure you share your personal story as well.
  
• You could create a contest and have people vote on the best story with the winner getting $100 in free bowling or $100 in gift certificates to the whole center.
  
• You could have a Veteran’s story posted one day on Facebook and ask people to donate to BVL; your customers will be happy to do that and , in their minds” form a psychological contract to do their bowling with you now and in the future.
  

This will take a little work and will take someone dedicated to keeping up with the stories, but I know your center will benefit from this effort.  After all, it’s the holiday season and as the old saying goes, “The more you give, the more you will get”.