Supercharge Your New Year's Events with These 8 Promotional Tips

New Year’s Eve SMS Marketing & Multichannel Event Promotion

Are you counting down to the new year? Get everyone excited about your fabulous event by promoting it through various marketing channels. Whether you have the best coupon for a couple's night out or throw a party with a local band at your club, you can use SMS marketing to reach your audience quickly and effectively. Here's how to get the party started.

1. Grow a Diverse Following on Social Media

Social media is a way of letting people know about events, but it's also a way to connect with customers with questions, get feedback about what events people would like to see and share photos of the event as it's in progress. Choose different social media platforms for different purposes. For instance, if your club has an Instagram account, you could create a hashtag for your New Year's Eve event and encourage people to use it as they take photos of themselves dancing with friends. If you have a young audience on Snapchat, you could send out video snippets of the event as it is taking place. This contributes to your club's longer-term promotion by intriguing all who are on your social media accounts. Consider how your core audiences use social media, and ensure you're on those platforms.

2. Build a Targeted List

Building a targeted email list is an excellent way to grow that connection over time if you want to get people excited about your next event. Email lists should be targeted to specific groups of customers. If you have one group of customers who tend to come in early and eat with the kids and another who are the late-night dessert crowd, you could reach out to both about your event, but in different ways. You can also target emails and specific events toward specific groups within your broad audience. For instance, you could offer a family-oriented New Year's Eve celebration early in the evening, followed by a late closing for couples with cozy winter drinks and a chilled-out atmosphere.

3. Use SMS Marketing for Easy Outreach

The vast majority of Americans own a cell phone, and that phone is their communication lifeline. They use it to make calls, check social media, and text messages. According to Forbes, "Why 68% of millennials admit to texting a lot daily, compared to 47% of their Gen X counterparts." If you're trying to attract younger audiences, texting will land on their phones and be read within just a few minutes. You can use SMS marketing to send out:

• Coupons for discounts or a gift at your restaurant this holiday season
• Special offers for New Year's events
• Reminders about an upcoming event, such as a featured band at your club
• Questions and contests to build excitement before the big day

4. Have A Theme

Promoting your seasonal event through all your marketing channels is easier if you have a theme. What feeling are you going to have for your event this year? Is it a cozy night out or a 90s dance extravaganza? A theme lets you define your audience, create images and promotional material for your event, and choose the best marketing platforms.

5. Send Warm Wishes

Not every customer encounter needs to be sales-centric, so use this holiday to simply reach out to your customers and wish them a happy new year. After all, a little love goes a long way, as it not only makes your customers feel special but can also help raise brand awareness and enhance your brand’s reputation.

To make your greetings sincere, personalize them with your customers’ names and include a thoughtful message. Consider sending an SMS text like this, “(Ceci’s) Happy New Year, Jack! May the new year bring you lots of love, joy, happiness, and good fortune!”

6. Offer Time-Sensitive Deals

Your customers are already watching the clock countdown until midnight, so why not give them another countdown to watch in the meantime? Offer your customers last-minute deals that expire once the ball drops.

Providing deals after the big holiday surge is a great way to get your customers back into your shops. Just think; many shoppers are probably eager to spend their gift cards and Christmas money at your business. Therefore, by offering special NYE discounts and creating a sense of urgency, you can encourage your customers to snag your deals before it’s too late.

To announce your sales, promote them in your social media, email, and SMS text campaigns. For instance, a sample SMS text might say, “(Fitness Fare) We’re counting down to the new year with our special NYE sale! Use our promo code NYE30 to receive 30% off until midnight on Dec. 31!”

7. Create a Challenge

The new year is when everyone likes to make goals and resolutions, so consider ways you could help keep your customers on track.

For example, if you oversee a gym, you could host a fitness challenge, incentivizing your customers to meet their exercise goals. As part of the challenge, you could reward customers with prizes or perks when they visit your gym every day during January. A sample SMS text about your initiative could look like this “(Gym22). The new year is about resolutions, so join our fitness challenge to reach your goals. Visit Gym22 every day in January & earn a FREE kettlebell set!”

8. Ask for Feedback

Everyone is considering improving themselves in the new year, and your business should do the same. As you think about resetting and refreshing your brand, contact your customers for a temperature check. Send polls and questionnaires, request feedback, and ask for reviews to help you understand how your business can do even better in the new year. You can do so via social channels, email, or SMS marketing.

Ask your customers what they like about your business, what you should change, and how to improve the customer experience. Be open to their feedback and consider how you can implement their suggestions in the new year. Doing so will help you become an even better business and show your customers that their opinions matter.

Get the Party Started with SMS Marketing

We here at EZ Texting are here to make your marketing easier. If you're trying to ramp up the excitement on New Year's or anytime throughout the year, let us help. We can help you reach out to your customers and guests quickly and easily so that you don't need to worry about whether your next promotion or event will succeed: you'll feel confident it will succeed. Sign up for free today!