As the cold begins to thaw and the sun shines a little longer each day, it’s a great time to plan some fun in-store events and online promotions. We have gathered some of our best ideas and marketing plans to help you schedule memorable spring events.
According to a consumer trends survey conducted by Hubspot, Gen Z shoppers prefer to discover new products on social media, but they actually want to purchase products in store. So while planning your spring events, a true omni-channel shopping experience can go a long way to entice student shoppers. Gen Z often looks to social media influencers for recommendations. As a college store, it probably isn’t likely you are able to work with top social media influencers to show your products. However, recruiting actual students from your school to model apparel and merchandise and/or make some fun short videos you can share on social media, might go a long way.
Also, when creating your marketing plans for spring, really consider how you will use social media. Some social media platforms offer your store another way to sell merchandise directly to customers without having to leave their app. Read more about Instagram and Facebook shopping.
Additionally, when planning for your spring events, plan to engage your student employees. Get their input and feedback on what they think will work or not work to bring other students into the store. Maybe invite them to participate in a brainstorming session. Here are a few ideas for how student employees can help with your store’s social media presence.
Finally, creating a marketing calendar will help your store organize its events, and it can also help you make sure that small marketing opportunities don’t pass you by. For example, maybe your store would like to do something fun for national Make a Friend Day. Check out this guide for creating a comprehensive marketing calendar.
Spring Marketing Plans You Might Want to Revisit
March
- Spring into Savings — With the Spring into Savings event, your store can clear out old merchandise to make room for new products. This marketing plan includes signage, inserts and suggest social media posts. Check it out.
- St. Patrick’s Day Scavenger Hunt — Who doesn’t love a fun scavenger hunt? This event is flexible and can be implemented by any store. Download the free marketing kit to get an editable flyer and poster, an event shirt image, a scavenger hunt clue sheet and a social media image. Read Increase Traffic With a St. Patrick’s Day Scavenger Hunt to learn more.
April
- Celebrate National Tartan Day — National Tartan Day (April 6) provides another great opportunity for your store to either host a scavenger hunt or a fun flash sale.
- 'April Showers Bring May Flowers' Customer Appreciation Sale — As the spring term is quickly winding down, April is a good time to show your shoppers how much you appreciate them. Set up a quick sale before finals. If the weather looks like it might be nice, you could even try a sidewalk sale.
May
- Make Mystery May an Annual Tradition — With graduation and finals, May is an incredibly busy month. However, you can still entice shoppers with a little bit of mystery. Wrap some of your best selling or best reviewed novels in plain brown paper. You could write a clever description on the front of the paper or just leave it a true mystery. Let customers select their mystery novel, giving them a great book to relax with over summer vacation. Check out the Mystery May: Fall in Love with a Great Book marketing plan.
- Graduation Events — Naturally, a prime opportunity to drive foot traffic to the college store in May is with graduation. Check out these four college graduation events for college stores.
