Father's Day Direct-Marketing Ideas

While not as big a spending holiday as Mother's Day, Father's Day is a great promotional tool to boost sales. Compared to many other months, June is a relatively quiet month promotion-wise, as there are no big holidays or annual events, so use Father's Day as a springboard to leapfrog your competitors this summer.

Know who you're pitching to

The key thing to remember when designing your marketing promotions is that women will be doing most of the shopping. Although you will be promoting more masculine products, you will want to appeal to females, so keep this in mind when choosing your promotions. If you sell items that might be on a father's wish list, now is the time to put them on sale and focus your promoting around them.

Catalogs and flyers

In order to profit from catalogs or flyers, you should be sending them out about a month before the occasion. Luckily, Mother's Day is a little more than a month before Father's Day. The timing is perfect for keeping people in the mood for spending on their parents. By having your catalogs arrive close to or shortly after Mother's Day, fathers can use them to suggest items they may want from their families.

Hold a Father's Day party or open house

Host a Father's Day party or open house and promote summer products, if possible. Many guys are hands-on, so offer demos for those who attend, especially if you sell sporting goods or tools. You can also hold a "meet the pro" event, whereby men can interact with local celebrities. Hold raffles for prizes that men would want and donate the money to charity to get free press. A great prize idea is a gift certificate for your place of business. That way, you are inviting prospects back in again for a repeat visit, which is a great relationship-builder. Make sure you collect contact information you can use to build a mailing list for your next direct-mail marketing campaign.

Giveaways

Everyone loves to get something for free, so giveaways are a great promotional tool. Father's Day falls right at the beginning of summer, so you can target the gift items to the summer time, not just Father's Day. Also, as women will be doing most of the shopping, you can make the item something that they would want, not just the man receiving the Father's Day gift. When people shop for others, they often pick up a thing or two for themselves as well.

When it comes to targeting shoppers, it is important to plan your marketing in advance and think about the entire calendar year. By planning your holiday promotions carefully, you can easily find specific reasons each month to promote your business and tie it to a special occasion. Be novel and create something that will keep your customers coming back for more.

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