It’s that time of year again, when the little ones finally return to school. The days begin to get shorter and the realization dawns that summer is officially over. Increasingly, money consciouniousness becomes an issue as parents refrain from impulse spending as school bills begin to mount. However, all is not lost for businesses! Opportunities still exist in September to generate extra revenue. And now is the perfect time to start planning for the holiday season in order to increase sales for your fall and winter products. Over the course of this blog, I will discuss several themes you can use to increase revenue during the last few months of 2017.
The Lead Up To The Christmas Season
People try to avoid spending once September falls. The holiday blues begin. And everyone feels the strain in their pockets after over indulging during the summer. In addition, preparations should also begin for the lucrative Christmas season. September 1st is exactly 115 days away from Christmas Day. The perfect time to start planning your Christmas gift ideas. According to Yesmail Interactive, nearly 70% of people begin their shopping before December, with 38.1% starting before November.
This means you should start creating your Christmas gift guide content. Many of your competitors have begun generating a buzz, so why not beat them to it by starting as soon as possible. By creating informative gift guides you can ensure your business stays top of mind when the crafting of Christmas shopping lists begins. You could consider creating a special product bundle for customers seeking to finish their shopping before the big rush. And if you have an e-commerce business, there’s even better news. In 2016 alone, consumers ended up spending more online than offline during the holiday season.
Halloween - The Revenue Generator
Christmas isn’t the only time available to start generating extra revenue within the last few months of the year either. Another great revenue generator is Halloween. Autumn officially begins on September 22nd and the evenings become colder. Consumers generally begin to start investing in warmer clothing and warmer decor. You can exploit this by redecorating your business with fall inspired decor. This entices consumers in-store and shows you’ve the new season collection.
Once customers are in-store, you have more opportunities to increase sales. Take pictures to show off the new decor on social media with a fall inspired hashtags to increase awareness of your business. Consider creating autumn inspired shopping guides of your products for example - new clothing, home decor, camping (pumpkin lanterns), recipes (pumpkin pie) etc. Have social media competitors like best Halloween costume or favourite autumn inspired recipe.
Increasing Sales During The Back To School Shopping Season
Let’s not forget about the back to school season. This usually starts mid August continuing throughout September. Start by welcoming kids back to school with special discounts or back to school social media posts. A well thought out marketing strategy will help get you in front of both the user and purchaser of your product (kids / parents). And develop your promotional material that will appeal to both audiences. Start promoting any product that fits in with the back to school theme ranging from clothing, stationery, storage containers, laptops, etc.
Remember, audiences will be on the hunt for back to school supplies such as teachers searching for new stationery, learning materials, etc. Arguably, any business can capitalise on the back to school shopping trends. Try bundling your products together, for example, if your a local salon you could offer a free child’s haircut with every adults cut.
Conclusion
Plenty more seasons exist providing opportunity to increase revenue during the last few months of 2017. These include events such as national coffee day or national LGBT awareness day. You merely need to ensure your promotions are in front of the right people. Social media outlets like Facebook have tremendous targeting ability allowing targeting of exact audiences. Although, ensure you’ve a visually appealing image with all promotions to ensure consumers stop to find out more.
The end of 2017 is close with only a couple of months left. And now is the time to put the hard work in to beat the sales from previous years. People tend to spread their spending throughout the year. And by planning earlier rather than later you’ll be able to increase sales ahead of the competition.