The holiday season is almost here and it’s time for companies to start preparing to tie their advertisements with the annual celebrations. Thanksgiving is over a month away, but if small business owners want their establishments to have relevant ads ready for the end of November, now is the time to start brainstorming and producing marketing content.
The ideal advertisement for Thanksgiving is a commercial during NFL broadcasts. AdAge reported that NBC Sports Group’s executive vice president of sales and marketing Seth Winter expects the price tag for a 30 second spot to be “pretty close to seven figures.” Not many small businesses will be able to cover that bill, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of effective advertising tools available.
Greeting cards
For companies that want to ensure their customers are going to return during the holiday season, a Thanksgiving greeting card is a nice gesture that opens lines of communication. Frequent patrons want to know that they are more than a sale to an establishment – personal connections go a long way toward forging a long-lasting business relationship.
Companies can choose cards with a cornucopia on the front if they plan on sending them closer to the holiday. Some owners want a card that is in line with Thanksgiving’s spirit of gratitude and appreciation, so they might consider thank you cards instead.
Mailing a card might not seem like a grand gesture, but regular customers enjoy having their loyalty noticed. A simple “thank you” before Thanksgiving can lead to even more consumers coming in on Black Friday and later in the holiday season.
Promotional giveaways
As with every holiday, Thanksgiving provides small business owners with the opportunity to change their promotional products‘ designs. Modeling giveaways after what is relevant to consumers raises their value, so companies should make sure they include small holiday-related graphics on each item.
Thanksgiving has a plethora of symbols that can be printed on every promotional giveaway and marketers should think of creative ways to use them for their businesses. For example, grocery and convenience stores can emblazon pilgrim hats on the side of every tote bag, while turkeys and pumpkins can decorate November’s page in a wall calendar.
Small businesses might not be able to buy airtime during a football game, but there are still plenty of opportunities to leverage Thanksgiving’s popularity for increased brand awareness. Customers may enjoy cards and gifts more than a 30 second commercial, so companies will see higher returns from these budget-friendly marketing tools.