February 5, 2014
Ideas for Pre-Easter Sales Promotions
Idea of the Week:
8 weeks prior to Easter:
1.) Begin promoting early to gain incremental sales
and….
2.) NGA and MSC Announce New Partnership Agreement
New Year’s is over…
Super Bowl is over…..
Valentine’s Day is over (next week) ……..and it’s a long stretch until Easter.
Lent begins on Wednesday, March 5 and ends on Thursday, April 17. Easter follows on Sunday, April 20th.
Holidays always provide great selling opportunities and the upcoming 8 week stretch until Easter can be challenging if you haven’t planned some supplemental promotions to drive some extra traffic and margins.
This week’s “Idea of the Week” touches on some promotional ideas to supplement whatever you already have scheduled into your spring planning. You may not need all or many of these ideas but keep in mind that Digital Marketing allows you the opportunity to act quickly.
You can act, react and execute in a day or two with Digital Marketing so be sure to have some supplemental ideas hanging around during February and March to promote sales until Easter.
I hope you find an idea or two to consider over the upcoming 8 weeks.
________________________________________________________________________________________
NGA and MSC Announce New Partnership Agreement for NGA’s Digital Media Center
I’m very proud and honored to announce that MSC has been selected by the National Grocers Association (NGA) to be the “NGA Digital Media Center” for all NGA members and even non-member stores who wish to use our products. NGA’s CEO, Peter Larkin and I sent out the joint notifications on Monday, February 3rd at noon.
If you’re at NGA next weekend in Las Vegas, stop by Booth 1110 and visit with Janet, Blaine or myself in the MSC booth!
_______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
Preparing for Easter Sales –
Lent begins March 5th – Easter is April 20th
Some suggested eBlasts to try these weeks
If you’re interested in using any of these eBlasts prior to Easter, just call Michael, Nick or Paul at MSC and they’ll help you schedule your promotions.
Price: Special Deal-ivery eBlast are $25 if you are able to use our template with minor changes (e.g. your store name, logo, effective dates, PLU number.)
Another $10 (total of $35) if you want to change the product, change the price or make other more significant changes.
Just call our Customer Service Representatives and they’ll help you plan and deliver any or all of these promotional eBlasts.
Pasta is always a winner during Lent as is Salad Mix. You’re likely to have these items already slotted in your weekly print ads during March but send out an eBlast featuring these items anyhow to bring in customers on unplanned store visits.
FREE is the magic word. If you change to “.99 with $25 purchase” you’ll lose all the attraction of the promotion. A $2 or even $3 markdown on a $25 purchase is well worth it to bring in customers for an additional shopping trip.
The weeks leading up to Easter are also ideal for promoting premium vegetables (frozen) as well as fresh butter. These are items that are already on the Easter shopping list so why not send out an eBlast two or three weeks prior to Easter to gain the additional shopping trip?
Eggs are always among the most popular eBlast items to draw traffic. It’s also a natural for Easter Egg Coloring as well as breakfasts during the cool March mornings.
The week prior to Easter, why not pick one of your really premium hams, like a spiral sliced ham, and present an eBlast offer of $5 off with a $50 or even $75 purchase?
The week prior to Easter is the ideal time to cultivate primary shoppers for Easter celebrations and meals. Providing a 10% discount ($10 off a $100 purchase) can be the differentiating factor if a competitor breaks with an ultra competitive price on Hams Easter week.