Why You Should Start Planning Your Summer Promotions Now
Christmas isn’t that far behind us and Easter hasn’t yet passed, but now is the perfect time for you to plan your summer promotions. Planning early allows you to gather materials and resources ready for a stress-free promotion that will drive customers to your business.
But Why Should You Start Planning Your Summer Promotions Now?
Summer Starts In May
For some, the summer period can start in May. That is only three months away. When we look at Christmas promotions, it’s recommended that you start planning no later than October, which is a similar timeframe.
The summer is a longer period, lasting from May to the end of August compared to just December for Christmas. Therefore, you need more resources to cater for higher demand and to continue to bring in customers during the long summer months.
And while many people think that Christmas is a big shopping time, over the year, the summer accounts for more than half of annual consumer spending. In contrast, spending in winter is roughly a third of annual consumer spending.
Create Happy Moods
The thought of summer improves the moods of customers, which is why they spend more during this period. Therefore, by developing summer promotions now, you can create a sense of happiness in stores that encourages early shopping.
Happiness increases the amount consumers spend. Consider England’s World Cup bid in 2018. Everyone in the nation was happy the team was performing well and as a result, sales were 3.5% higher compared to the same time the previous year.
By creating that summer feeling early in the season, you can be ahead of your competition and get the early sales.
Build Anticipation
If you watch the TV regularly, you’ll notice there are a lot of adverts for summer holidays already. This is to be expected; after all, hotels need to be booked and consumers often book holidays early to take advantage of good deals. This shows that consumers are already thinking about the summer and therefore, might be looking at what summer promotions are going to be on offer.
By planning your promotions early and advertising what is going on with your brand, you can create anticipation. Last year, shoppers avoided spending during September and October in anticipation of spending at Christmas.
Research on primates has shown that little signals are all that’s needed to excite brains. The anticipation grows and continues until they receive a reward. The research also found that you should keep some of your summer promotions a secret as unpredictability increases anticipation.
This demonstrates that by planning your campaign now, and letting little details slip, you can build anticipation and get audiences determined to spend with your brand before you actually release the promotion.
Train Staff To Push Sales
One of the first things you need to do with any summer promotion is to train staff to gently direct customers to them. This will improve summer promotion uptake and revenues. The longer you have the resources for your summer promotion, the more time you’ve got to train and educate staff about it.
It’s also easier to train staff about seasonal promotions when they have the physical products and marketing materials available to see. Therefore, preparing now for your summer promotions will give you enough time to train staff, just like you would at Christmas.
There Are Some Key Points About Training You Should Always Remember.
• It is about getting staff engaged in your brand’s values, promotions and products.
• A 10% increase in staff engagement can add £2700 profit per employee a year.
• Staff should be trained not to be pushy. Just over half of customers (56.8%) complain about pushy sales staff.
Successful Summer Trading
Don’t forget – no preparation is preparation to fail. With so many high-street businesses suffering from poor sales and store closures, this summer period will be a testing time for retailers. Start getting ready now for summer promotions and see this as your year to grow.
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