Back to school is one of the biggest sales events of the year. It speaks to a large target market from pre-schoolers to university students and parents. It is the perfect opportunity for you to jump on the trend and think of promotions that will appeal to your audience specifically. Here are some pointers that will help you create the best back to school marketing campaigns.
What does back to school mean to your customers?
The first step to tailoring a back to school campaign is to identify who your typical customers are and how this event may affect them. If you are selling clothes, books or stationery that would be suitable for school children then, naturally, this will be a very busy time for you. However, pretty much any business can benefit from back to school madness. If you work in hospitality, you can offer special discounts and menus for families popping in for lunch. You can look into drinks offers for university students, particularly freshers. As a beauty business, you may offer discounted children’s haircuts. Once the children have returned to school, you could offer special treatments to parents who finally have time to relax. This time of the year usually marks the end of summer holidays and the beginning of new projects for many, so use this angle if your business seems completely unrelated to any back to school shoppers. This could apply really well to building supplies, contractors and more.
Are you able to provide valuable content?
Consumers are always more likely to buy from brands that they can connect with and gain value from. How can you provide valuable content that aligns with back to school marketing trends? You could create back to school checklists, come up with fun and interesting quizzes or share funny and relatable content of you and your team getting ready for back to school. Building a sense of community around this time will help you strengthen your relationship with your potential customers. It’s also worth noting that this is a stressful period for everyone, so think about ways you can make your service easy and accessible – this will definitely be appreciated by busy parents and students. Are you able to offer an express or faster service than usual? Can you personalise your offering to fit around their lifestyle? Offers don’t always have to be about discounts, think of how you can truly make a student’s or their parent’s life easier and they are likely to remember their experience and come back again.
Promotions, competition ideas and more
Of course, creating offers and promotions is one of the biggest back to school marketing trends. How would this work effectively in your business? Again, it starts with understanding who your target audience are. You could offer student discounts, bundles or ‘they’ve gone back to school’ offers for parents. Where is your audience likely to be at this time? If you’re targeting university students, you could find ways to take part in freshers events run by local universities or team up with other businesses who are doing the same. Competitions are also a great way to get your audience involved and there are ways to stimulate brand awareness. For example, if you’re an interior design business, you could ask your followers and their little ones to design the perfect classroom. As a car dealership, you could ask them to draw the ideal school bus and so on.
The key takeaway here is to figure out what your audience will find useful or enticing and how ‘back to school’ fits into their lifestyle in order to create the best back to school marketing campaigns.
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