Labor Day is recognized throughout the country as a day to celebrate the hard work and long hours that everyone puts into their respected jobs to make their company a better place and provide for their families. Since 1894 the first Monday in September is a national holiday where workers all over the country get a day off to relax, sleep in, spend time with family, and not think about work (thanks Matthew Maguire!). While a bunch of the country has a day off, Labor Day (and the weekend before) has become a fantastic business day for a lot of companies who choose to stay open by offering outlandishly good sales. If you’ve decided to be one of those businesses that stay open during the weekend and on Labor Day itself, here are some additional advertising ideas to help fill your store and get more sales.
A Grill Out
With summer coming to an end when Labor Day hits; a great way to send out the warm weather is by treating your customers to a delicious grilled hamburger, or hotdog. They’re cheap. They’re easy to make. They’ll bring people to your store. A great way of enticing more people into coming is to have the grill out free for all customers if they buy something. In order to allow this to happen, only buy general stuff, nothing fancy.
During the grill out, in addition to meeting your customers, this gives you a chance to talk with them; to get to know them better. The better you know your customer, the better you can fulfill their needs and wants with your products/services, and the better your business will do.
A couple of weeks before the grill out have flyers, banners, and signage made to promote the event to let people know so they’ll show up.
Musical Entertainment
Reach out to a local musical artist or group to perform a small concert out front of your business during the day that the entire community can attend. During the show you’ll have a captive audience which gives you a perfect place to do quick, tiny, advertisements for your business and what you offer. While you shouldn’t charge a person to sit down and enjoy the show, you should do whatever you can to put your business’s name in front of them as much as possible. Get signs and flyers made to hang up around town a couple of weeks before hand to begin promoting the show. Make social media posts and watch how much it is shared to get an idea of how busy the concert itself will end up being.
Also – make sure the music is family friendly.
Raffle
Hold a raffle throughout the course of the day. Select an item from the store that will be raffled off each hour on the hour. Customers receive free tickets for coming to the store. At the end of each raffle, customers remaining in the store should be given a new ticket for the next raffle. People will come for the raffle, but have the chance to peruse the rest of the merchandise offered in your store.
Create a grand prize to be auctioned off an hour before closing. Make a stipulation that the winner must be present. This will bring people back to the store who were there previously during the day. This concept can also be expanded to the entire weekend with prizes being raffled off Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Additional sales and specials should be prominently displayed around the location of the raffle.
PayStub Sale
Labor Day is about celebrating the hard work Americans pour into their respective jobs on a daily basis. To celebrate the day, offer a discount for anyone who makes a purchase and shows either their union card, corporate ID or most recent pay stub. (The earnings on the pay stub may be redacted if the customer chooses.) Create an email marketing campaign that alerts regular customers of the discount. Instruct your employees to mention it to customers in the days leading up the event as well.