Once again Halloween draws near…

…that time of year when the barrier between our world and the worlds beyond becomes a little thinner.

It is often a time of strange events…

…that may produce a sense of horror!

Indeed, in 2018 marketers might well shudder when they review the current situation.

In the retail arena, there is an ongoing massacre of once successful companies like Sears in the US and House of Fraser in the UK…

…with the survivors struggling with declining sales and shrinking profits.

In general, it seems to be getting harder to bring in new customers and make sales…whether that’s online or offline.

But perhaps what is most frightening is… [Read more…]

Here’s the regular look ahead…

…this time at the coming month of November 2018…

…for events, occasions and anniversaries to use for campaigns and promotions in your marketing calendar for November 2018.

FIRST…a reminder that the end of the year and CHRISTMAS is fast approaching!

For pretty much all marketers, Christmas and the New Year is a time of peak opportunity to make sales…

…BUT there is a lot of competition of course. So, it’s important to be well prepared.

Before that, November in the USA also means…THANKSGIVING (this year on November 22).

(In Canada, Thanksgiving Day is a month earlier on October 8).

“Black Friday” follows, which marks the start of the Christmas season shopping frenzy!

On a more somber note, November 11 is Remembrance Day (Veterans Day in the USA).

One other occasion to note…

…”Singles’ Day” in China on November 11…which has become one of the world’s biggest online shopping days of the year.

Here’s a more comprehensive list of events and occasions… [Read more…]

I was listening to a No B.S. Inner Circle “What’s Working Now” interview with Bruce and Josh Hudson recently. The Hudsons run a photography business that they describe as primarily “creating and selling large family wall decor”.

I was intrigued when they talked about how Groupon and Living Social had proved highly successful for them.  As one example, with their first campaign, the first three vouchers that were redeemed ($67 each) ended up resulting in $12,000 worth of sales.

A few years back, as the great cartoon at the top of this post from Tom Fishburne shows (full post at “social coupon bandwagon”), Groupon and similar companies were seen as the “Next Big Thing”…

“Many marketers asked Santa for a social coupon campaign for 2011. The explosive growth of Groupon and Groupon clones (BuyWithMe, LivingSocial, SocialBuy, and Tippr), offering “ridiculously huge” coupons (50-90% off), is taking marketing plans by storm.”

Now, a number of my clients have used Groupon and similar sites quite successfully, but unlike a few years back the company seems to have dropped off the radar a little. Back in 2011/2012 the company was often in the news and not always for good reasons.  There were a number of reports of businesses who had almost gone bust because of the cost of fulfilling deals that had proved to be priced way too low.  Marketers were split between those promoting Groupon and similar companies as the “Next Big Thing” and those advising businesses to keep well clear.

I wrote a number of posts about Groupon at the time and “More Thoughts on Marketing Via Groupon” provided a pretty good summary of the advantages and disadvantages of this particular channel… [Read more…]

Here’s the look ahead at the month of October 2018 and some of the events, anniversaries and occasions that savvy marketers can use as the basis and reason for an event-driven promotion…

…to create your own marketing calendar for October 2018.

Of course, the stand out occasion, beloved by many marketers, is “Halloween” on October 31.

The origins of Halloween seem to be a mixture of pagan festivals marking the end of summer…

…combined with the idea that at this time of the year the spirit-world comes close to our world…

…adopted by the Christian religion as the eve of “All Souls Day”.

Whatever, it’s the traditional occasion to acknowledge the after-life and the supernatural.

So, an opportunity to use themes in your promotions like…

“It’s Scary What You Are Missing!”

“Now a spooktacular, very limited time, opportunity”

“Terrifyingly scary profits coming your way…”

…and so on.

The theme of FEAR (of loss, for example) can also be used…

…but don’t get too scary about it!

Apart from Halloween October has plenty of different events and occasions… [Read more…]

A warm welcome to the “Looking Ahead” feature where we consider the coming month…

…and the events, occasions, anniversaries and holidays that smart direct response marketers can use as the foundation for event-driven marketing promotions in a marketing calendar for September 2018.

After the lull of the last month or so…

…it’s a time of a change of seasons. The September Equinox falls on September 23 at 01.54 UT (that’s 02.54 UK time…check for your particular location).

It’s Autumn in the north and Spring in the south…

…and these can be used as broad themes for a promotion.

Tied in with these, in the northern hemisphere it’s “Back to School” or “Back to Work” and the start of the run-in to the end of the year.

In the southern hemisphere, “Spring Time” or “Spring Cleaning” can be used as a theme.

Looking at some specific occasions… [Read more…]