With 2020 already well underway, it’s time to start thinking about all the fantastic campaigns you can run throughout the year to get customers to spend.
When you think of days when consumers are prepared to buy, your mind probably jumps to the big end-of-year holidays. But why wait until November to start all your extensive campaigns when you have so many other days you could capitalize on throughout the year?
To get your 2020 marketing calendar started, we’ve compiled a massive list of days and events you could use for your store and get those sales happening. And we’ve even included a downloadable calendar at the bottom of this article to help you keep track of your dates.
Spending Holidays
We’ll ease into things with a bunch of holidays that you should already have on your calendar – the big ones proven to generate sales. Although these shopping holidays are when most online stores run sales, because there’s so much money being spent during this time, there’s no reason they can’t be profitable for your store as well.
Black Friday and Cyber Monday
These two days bookend a massive weekend for commerce – mainly ecommerce. In the US alone, shoppers spent over $7.4 billion online during Black Friday 2019 and $9.4 billion on Cyber Monday. With that much cash changing hands, you’d be silly not to plan for a BFCM sale. This year Black Friday will be on November 27, and Cyber Monday on November 30.
Singles’ Day
Celebrated on November 11, Singles’ Day is an unofficial Chinese holiday for single people – but it has also become the world’s most important day for shipping. In 2019 shoppers spent over $30 billion on Singles’ Day, and due to its popularity, Singles’ Day has become more internationally recognized in recent years – much like Black Friday. Because of this, it could be well worth jumping on the trend and adding Singles’ Day to your calendar.
Halloween and Valentine’s Day
These are two holidays people love to spend on, so if you sell items in a complementary niche – think along the lines of decorations, costumes, supplies, and gifts – these days should certainly go on your calendar.
However, bear in mind that these holidays can also be regional. While Halloween is enormous in the United States and Canada, it’s not as popular in Australia and New Zealand. Researching local holidays will help you see where campaigns might have more impact. For example, December 26 – or Boxing Day – is a big shopping day for Commonwealth countries. And, in Australia, June 30 is also a big shopping day, as it’s the end of the financial year.
Weird Days and Months
Did you know that January is Get Organized Month? Or that February 20 Love Your Pet Day? What about International Plant Appreciation Day on April 13?
If it seems like there’s a day or month for everything, it might be because there is.
With so many fun, weird, and wacky dates, there are bound to be a few you could use as the basis for an excellent campaign for your products or store.
For example, if you’re in the pet niche and selling products for dogs, you could run sales on March 23 for National Puppy Day. Or if you’re in the jewelry niche, Jewel Day on March 13 is for you.
Although you can only use these campaigns for a short time, tying your product to a relevant day will add urgency, stop potential customers in their tracks, and lead to impulse purchases.
Websites such as Holiday Insights and Days of the Year will help you find the perfect day or month for your campaign, and from there, you only need to write some snappy ad copy that will entice buyers to celebrate with a purchase from your store.
And if you can’t find a day that suits your store or products? Well, you could always invent your own.
In 2005, UK holiday company Sky Travel sent a press release designating the third Monday of January as Blue Monday – a.k.a the most depressing day of the year. While they claimed academics calculated the day by considering Northern Hemisphere weather conditions, in reality, it was all pseudoscience. Despite this, 15 years later, Blue Monday is still an annual event in the UK, so why not take a chance by creating a store-relevant day?
Astrological Signs
This might seem a little kooky or strange, but stick with me! You only need to quickly search on Twitter or Instagram to see that astrology is enormous at the moment. Pinterest’s recent trend report even mentioned that space and astrology will be significant trends in 2020.
With astrology so popular, it makes sense to seize the chance to use this in your campaigns. And with 12 different star signs, there’s the opportunity to target 12 other groups throughout the year.
Looking at Facebook Audience Insights, the group that shows the most interest in astrology is overwhelming women, who comprise 65 percent of the worldwide audience. And, diving even more in-depth, we can see that women between 25-34 (31 percent) and 35-44 (20 percent) are particularly interested.
The best thing about using astrological signs as the basis for a campaign is that people interested in astrology love to feel as though they genuinely relate to their sign. You can use this to your advantage in the images and copy you use in your ads.
For example, Scorpios are often described as brave, passionate, and loyal, while Pisces is intuitive, gentle, and wise. Incorporating these traits into your ads could be a fantastic way to further appeal to potential buyers.
And, because each astrological sign has a season of around 30 days, it gives you plenty of time to tinker with refining audiences, changing images, and copy to try and hook as many star sign enthusiasts as possible.
Tokyo Olympics
The Olympic games will captivate the world for over two weeks this year as elite athletes descend on Tokyo to show off their skills. While the Olympics will officially run from July 24 until August 9, the hype will start weeks before the event, giving you plenty of time to run a campaign.
Because the summer Olympics only come around every four years, you can run campaigns that bounce off this idea. For example, you could create gigantic “once in four years” discounts or promise free shipping for the duration of the games.
Or, why not get super savvy and offer discounts based on the results of athletes or sports teams? Perhaps you could offer 1 percent off for each gold medal a country adds to its medal count – all it takes is some discount codes and geo-targeting to make this super-localized campaign a reality.
