It should come as no surprise that the Fourth of July is not only a national holiday but a colossal marketing holiday. We’ve all seen the ads on TV where businesses take advantage of the holiday to promote a big sale or create brand awareness through social media. But, we’ll bet you didn’t know that using the 4th as a marketing tactic won’t benefit everyone. So, today, we’ll look at which businesses would benefit from utilizing this holiday and what others can do instead to be successful.
Who Should Market for the 4th?
We’ll start with the question everyone wants to be answered: who does benefit from marketing around the Fourth of July? Since Independence Day is such a significant holiday, most businesses that take advantage of it and see a return on their efforts are the industry giants. The companies that have an established name and can afford to do business at jaw-dropping prices. For example, in furniture markets, it wasn’t shocking to see Art Van boasting the ‘biggest sale in Art Van history’ around July 4th.
The marketing tactic of the Fourth of July promotions works best for companies that have a steady public interest and can offer targeted products to their customers with this campaign. It doesn’t matter if the market is retail, furniture, home improvement, or even hospitality. If customers are inclined to buy from a business, and they offer a limited-time incentive to purchase their wares, they will have a far better chance than a smaller business that cannot afford to campaign for the holiday without a guaranteed return.
Even though this holiday campaign has been proven successful for businesses, it would be wise for smaller businesses to steer clear of this marketing colossus and focus their efforts elsewhere.
What Can the Rest of Us Do?
Regardless of your business size, holiday marketing can be immensely beneficial to you if done strategically. So even if you can’t afford to do a big marketing campaign for a holiday like the Fourth of July, you can still employ other tactics to draw in customer attention. For example, suppose your business has a social media presence. In that case, you could post about the holiday respectfully to showcase that the holiday is important to you and your business. If you aren’t sure what posting ‘respectfully’ entails, we wrote about posting guidelines for Memorial Day.
Another idea for small businesses’ holiday campaigns is to pick and choose which holidays to promote their business. Less common marketing holidays where there’s less noise for your customers to sift through can be highly profitable. If you have a product or service with more considerable competition, promotion during an alternative holiday can set you apart and garner lots of interest.
Small businesses can take advantage of the camaraderie nature of the holiday and build brand awareness by promoting goodwill in their community. Use the holiday to endorse charitable actions, and it’s a great way to increase likability.
Just to be clear, if your business is on the smaller side, we aren’t telling you not to market for the 4th. Instead, try and decide if your time and resources for a marketing campaign would be more productive dedicated to another holiday. Whatever way you choose to enjoy and utilize the holiday, your audience will resonate with your celebration of the day as well as your take on Independence Day.
Happy Fourth of July, Everyone!
