Back-to-School Marketing Trends and Tips
Experian Marketing Services provides some interesting trends and statistics from the 2012 back to school season:
- Offers in subject lines were present on 37% of back to school emails and generated 57% of total email revenue.
- Free shipping offers had the best transaction rates and the highest revenue per email.
- Teen apparel interest continued into the school year, especially over Labor Day weekend. Click rates for apparel emails were highest in September, meaning that consumers still engaged with apparel emails well into the school year.
4. Explore new channels:
If you are targeting teens then you should definitely consider the high smartphone and internet penetration among this age group. According to a report from Pew Research Center:
- 95% of teens use the internet.
- 78% of teens have a cell phone and almost half (47%) of them own smartphones—that translates into 37% of all teens having smartphones, up from just 23% in 2011.
- 23% of teens have a tablet computer, a level comparable to the general adult population.
To connect with youth, it is essential to share products in a way that is creative and innovative. Good photography and fun product descriptions can make their experiences interactive and interesting. Some ideas for teens are:
- Share product pictures, the latest promotions and ads on your Pinterest page.
- Tweet about hottest school supplies and accessories, interesting deals or latest back to school news
Staples has introduced a cool contest in which their viewers have to submit captions for pictures to earn chances to win tablet computers and savings passes.
- Run contests and ask social fans to upload their pictures to earn freebies.
- Upload customer in-store videos and testimonials on your YouTube page and share links across all your social media platforms.
The picture shared by Dark Beauty magazine about their upcoming issue on back-to-school fashion trends will have many young readers eager to buy the publication and the clothing!
5. Optimize your campaigns:
Learn from your previous campaigns before going ahead with plans for this year. Here are three ways to differentiate in a crowded marketplace: Highlight product features: Campaigns that zones in on the product features which are high on buyers' priority lists have better chances of getting noticed and will make messages irresistible. Plan offers to make them feel special: The best kind of deal deals leave customers walking away feeling valued. Develop campaigns that make buyers want to spread their experience around.
