India is a land of festivals and opportunities. Celebrations are incomplete without shopping and exchange of gifts. All businesses, irrespective of their size and niche, are gearing up to make 2020 Holi more joyous for customers and themselves.
The diverse culture of India allows its people to celebrate numerous festivals throughout the year.
In this article, we will discuss six smart strategies small businesses can use to increase the footfall during 2020 Holi and celebrate a more colorful Holi.
Editor’s note: Put your business online in less than 5 minutes with Online Starter Bundle.
Bring more shoppers to you this Holi
You don’t have to be as big as Flipkart to get in on the Holi fun. Here are 6 ways even small businesses can celebrate.
- Give away festive discounts.
- Run contests.
- Sponsor events.
- Get creative on social media.
- Sell customised gifts.
- Decorate with colors.
Let us look closer at six ways you can make 2020 Holi more festive.
1. Give away festive discounts
Discounts have never failed to attract people. The strategy of discounting works on the principle of urgency.
The sense of scarcity and urgency is the secret that makes people take action.
Because the underlying assumption of the discounting strategy is its availability for a limited period of time.
You can run different types of discounts to increase the footfall to your store on the occasion of Holi in 2020. Here are a few examples:
Wish a happy Holi to all with a free trial
If you’re a new bakery shop in the town, then let everyone know of your brand and taste your products (costing up to a certain amount) for free. Don’t worry, they won’t run away with your free cookies. People try to pay back what they receive from others — that’s the basic principle of social psychology and is called the principle of reciprocity.
Holi special discounts for existing customers
People forget what you do and say but they don’t forget how you made them feel.
Make your existing customers feel happy by giving them the ‘2020 Holi Discount’ not available to others.
Buy one get one free
FREE as a magic word has been working wonders for ages.
Dr. Dan Arierly in his popular book “Predictably Irrational” said:
“The difference between two cents and one cent is smaller than the difference between one cent and zero cents.”
Zero cost has a special place. The word FREE stimulates an irrational excitement that can make us take crazy decisions.
2. Run contests
You can run contests on social media like ‘the most colorful pic contest’ or ‘the funniest Holi pic contest’ and reward the winners with your brand’s shopping vouchers.
This is an extremely smart strategy to increase the footfall on Holi in 2020. It is, in fact, a double-edged sword.
You can ask the contestants to tag their friends/family in the pic. It will not only ensure increased footfall of the voucher winners, but also free promotion of your business by getting you in front of their tagged friends.
Don’t forget to create a unique hashtag for the campaign and ask all the contestants to use the same.
3. Sponsor events
There must be many social and political events lined up for 2020 Holi. Many movies or movie songs are released on or close to the day of Holi.
Partnering with a local brand or sponsoring an event not only gets you more footfall but also enhances the credibility of your business.
Check out the social post on the right to see how Comio, a mobile brand, associated itself with the release of a movie song on the occasion of Holi.
4. Get creative on social media
On occasions like Holi, the social media home feed is cluttered with Holi campaigns of big and small businesses.
How do you break the clutter and stand out?
Here’s an example of an excellent campaign by Brand Factory promoting its Holi discount offer.
The video doesn’t start with the hoopla around the brand, discount or even Holi. Rather it starts with an interesting story that successfully keeps the audience intrigued until the very end, when finally the brand name and the offers are disclosed.
You will notice the hashtag at the end #BuraNaManoDiscountHai — this encourages social sharing of the discount.
5. Sell customised gifts
Holi is the festival of getting together with family and friends.
More than the actual gift, it is the feeling of care and thoughtfulness behind the gift that people love the most.
Since Holi is one of the biggest festivals, there are many things for people to do. From preparing a stock of gujiyas and other snacks for guests, to the shopping of gulaal, clothes and gifts for relatives, it is a lot of work.
You can help your customers strengthen their bond with the family and peers by selling customized gifts for them.
Instead of customizing to a personal level, try to have standard samples. For example, if you have an apparel store, you can sell colorful T-shirts with creative text for sisters, brothers, friends, etc.
6. Decorate with colors
Give the onlookers a reason to visit your store. Go colorful. Decorate your store with multi-coloured:
- Balloons
- Festoons
- Hangings
Display colorful goodies along with gulaal packets as a return gift for all shoppers.
McDonald's did this once. They put a board on which the visitors could leave their handprints in their favorite color. After washing the easily removable hand paint, they could take pictures of themselves with their artwork (which they of course posted on social media).
Such experiences are fun and tempting for the younger generation to try.
Make 2020 Holi the most colorful yet
So we discussed several strategies of increasing the footfall to your store this Holi. But, make sure you start with the chosen strategies at least a couple of months before so there are no last-minute glitches.
Start promoting your offers through social media and emails a month before the festive week.
When you’re adopting these strategies and expecting high traffic to your store, have some crowd management preparations beforehand. For example, have efficient POS (point of sale) software to manage billing and avoid long queues.
Holi is a festival of colors and celebration of the victory of good over bad. This Holi, color your brand with the color of love and care that your customers don’t only see but feel too.
Wishing a profitable and very Happy Holi to all.
