Guide: Holiday Sales Strategies

You’re taking every opportunity you have to promote your race. You need them to be enthusiastic about your race so they sign up for it.

Holidays are prime time for encouraging sales. Each race is different, so consider which holidays make the most sense to use when creating a holiday-specific promotion. For example, a Black Friday promotion doesn’t make sense for a Thanksgiving Day race – it’s too early and too late.

Even if some holidays don’t make sense for your particular race, there are holidays throughout the year that you can use to help increase awareness of your race and boost registrations.

Case Study: Beth Salinger, Race Director & Marketing Maven

Over her career organizing races throughout the Midwest, Beth Salinger has implemented many successful, creative marketing campaigns associated with holidays.

For Run MadTown this year, she’s giving a free pair of sunglasses to everyone who registers on Halloween. It’s her “No tricks, just treats” campaign.

She’s also coordinated promotions around social media holidays. Several years ago when working on a different race, she worked with a local pizza shop on a cross promotion for National Pizza Day:

"For National Pizza Day, we did a cross-promotion where on their receipt they offered a special discount to the event and when you registered for the event there was a special offer for pizza in your confirmation email. We cross-promoted in advance on both of our social media channels and through our emails and we both did really well. We made all the graphics for the promotion but it had both the event and sponsor logo on them."

With a little work building partnerships in your local community, you can do a lot to raise awareness of your race and get people to register.

Social Media Holidays

Organic and paid social media posts can help you boost sales. Below are a few approaches you can take to encourage sales on social media holidays.

Flash Sales

Flash sales help create a sense of urgency, which can help encourage registrations. People love getting a deal and telling their friends about the great deal they got.

Take care when planning a flash sale. Part of the allure and urgency of a flash sale is that it’s easy to miss. If you do too many flash sales, you’ll dilute its effectiveness. People will just wait for the next one.

Partnerships With Local Businesses

Another approach you can take is celebrating food- or product-related social media holidays, like Salinger did. Partner with a local business to help promote your race to their clients on the particular day. In exchange, you can promote their products to your audience. You’ll both be able to reach new audiences with this approach.

Work with businesses that will help you reach and expand your target audiences and demographics.

A few social media holidays to consider are listed below. Not every social media holiday will make sense for your race. Consider special characteristics of your race – distance, theme, and typical demographics. Ensure that your partnership makes sense for your brand and will help connect you with your target audiences.

There may be other social media holidays that would work wonderfully for your audience and local community, too.

Food

Everyone enjoys good food. Expand your audience by connecting with local restaurants to coordinate dual promotions on the days below.

• National Bagel Day (January 15) – Connect with a popular bagel store in your community.
• National Pizza Day (February 12) – Partner with a pizza store.
• Pi Day (March 14) – Think anything that’s a pie. Pizza, pie,... etc. And, since pi is really about anything circular, you can branch out a little further. Think cookies, cakes, donuts, etc.
• National Carbonara Day (April 6) – Have a popular Italian restaurant in your area? Work with them to celebrate National Carbonara Day.

Drinks

Another way to reach people is through local coffee shops and bars.

• National Beer Day (April 7) – Well-known bar in town? That’s the place to work with on a promotion for National Beer Day. Alternatively, you can consider a special promotion to kick-off Oktoberfest.
• International Coffee Day (October 1) – Everyone loves a hot drink as the weather cools down. Work with a local coffee shop to promote your race on this day.

Treats

Everybody loves their sugar. Partnering with a local bakery or dessert shop is perfect for races because people want to indulge, and training for a race helps justify the indulgence.

• National Donut Day (June 7)
• World Chocolate Day (July 7)
• National Ice Cream Day (Third Sunday in July)
• National Cookie Day (December 4)

Other Businesses

• World Book Day (April 23) – People love supporting local bookstores. Connect with your most popular local book store to cross-advertise special deals.
• International Museum Day (May 18) – If you’re lucky enough to live in a place with excellent museums, consider partnering with them on cross-promotion. This partnership can make even more sense if your race runs by the museum.
• International Cat Day (August 8) – Cat-themed race? Partner with a local pet store on cross-promotion on this holiday.
• National Dog Day (August 26) – Particularly if your race centers on participants running with their pet dogs, National Dog Day is an excellent holiday to highlight. Partner with a local pet store to help each other boost sales.

Celebrating Running

You can use several social media holidays to celebrate running:

• Walk to Work Day (April 5) – Make a joke about running to work instead of walking, and offer a special promo code for signing up for your race.
• Global Running Day (June 5) – You’re probably posting to celebrate this day anyway. Why not include a special promo code?
• National Selfie Day (July 21) – Get your followers to share a selfie during or after their run today. Consider offering a discount code to everyone who tags you in their social media post.

Special Group Discounts

There are several opportune days to either offer a special group discount or highlight the group discount you already offer:

• Galentine’s Day (February 13)
• Sibling’s Day (April 10)
• Best Friends Day (June 8)
• International Friendship Day (July 30)

To get the full benefit of a sales boost on these days, post about it on social media and encourage people to engage somehow with your post. For example, you can ask them to tag their siblings/friends or ask them to share your post with their siblings/friends.

To go even further, send an email with details about your group discount to all your past participants who haven’t signed up for this year. 

To go even further, consider running a social media ad or two so you reach even more people.

Black Friday

Everyone in the United States loves shopping the Friday after Thanksgiving. Make sure your race gets the revenue boost from the shopping spree Americans do on Black Friday.

Send an email with a discount code for registrations to past participants. Be sure to include when it expires so people know when your promotion ends.

You should also publicize your Black Friday sale on social media with organic posts and social media ads. Keep in mind, there’s a lot of competition on Black Friday, so it can be hard to break through on social media.

However you promote your Black Friday deals, use unique promo codes so you can track the effectiveness of each marketing strategy – email, organic social media, and social media ads.

If your pricing and sales strategy centers on price increases instead of offering deals throughout the year, schedule your price increase strategically to end on Cyber Monday. That way, you’ll get the most out of Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday. Email reminders about the upcoming price increase on Black Friday and send a “Last Chance” email on Cyber Monday.

Small Business Saturday

Your race may be considered a small business. If so, see what your local community is doing to advertise small businesses on Small Business Saturday. Get your race included on all of that promotional material and include any special offers you’re running for Small Business Saturday. It may be the same offer as your Black Friday offer, but using a different code helps you know how valuable participating in Small Business Saturday was for your race.

Consider publishing ads in local newspapers and finding places to hang posters around town to help get the word out about your offerings for Small Business Saturday.

If you’re already running a Black Friday promotion, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to send another email the next day for Small Business Saturday. Instead, just extend your Black Friday promotions to include Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday.

However, posting about Small Business Saturday and your race on social media is a good idea. Social media ads focused on your local community may also help boost sales.

Cyber Monday

When you sell registrations online, you can participate in Cyber Monday. Make it a continuation of your Black Friday sales campaign. Post about it on social media and run some social media ads. 

Again, avoid sending another email to your past participants with a specific Cyber Monday deal. However, if Cyber Monday is the last day of your Black Friday promotion, a quick “Last Chance” email can help you get all of the last-minute signups.

Hannukah & Christmas

People shop for gifts to give friends and family for Hannukah and Christmas. Registration for a race is a great gift for people to give themselves, the family's avid runner, or the best friend who is checking off a bucket list item.

New Year

One of the most common New Year’s resolutions is improving fitness. Get your race in front of as many people as possible who are looking at fitness goals. Training for a race can be a great way to maintain a fitness goal, especially if your race is in the summer.

Run a promotion in January – email past participants and spread the word on social media. Partner with local gyms and running clubs to offer discounts to their members.