There are many calendar holidays that can be utilized as sales opportunities by dealerships. Mega Fourth of July sales, Labor Day weekend sales, and Thanksgiving sales immediately come to mind. These days are known to drive up traffic and increase profits. However, you don’t have to wait for a designated holiday to come along to take advantage of holiday benefits. There are numerous national event days you can capitalize on to help make your dealership stand out. Here are three different categories of under-utilized holidays you can already begin using this month.
Take out a calendar, and you’ll be surprised to find that many “National Holidays” have been added to our year. While National Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich day may not be useful to your business, there are some car-related days that you can use. For example, this Wednesday, April 4th, is #Jeep4x4Day. If you have Jeeps in your lot, this is the perfect opportunity to shine a light on them. The third Thursday of January, April, October, and July are all National Get to Know Your Customers Day, another opportunity to draw in new faces as you promote your dealership’s personal touch.
You can benefit from less obvious National Days as well. Some days naturally lend themselves to contests and other celebrations that increase foot traffic. For instance, on National Look Alike Day, April 20th, announce a contest for the best celebrity look-alike, with prizes for different categories. National Awareness months can also be used in creative advertisements. While some dealerships already employ cancer and other health awareness months as a means of fundraising for a noble cause and drawing in customers, other awareness months and weeks can be equally effective for sales. April is National Mathematics Awareness month. Think about running ads that include equations that unlock savings or encouraging students to bring in perfect math scores to enter a raffle. Just because a holiday is not directly related to cars doesn’t mean you can’t make it work for you. A little creativity and you can have a steady stream of fun holidays that grow your business.
The final category is local holidays. While we all know to familiarize ourselves with demographics of our areas to tailor prices and products to the needs of our customers, we don’t always take advantage of our area’s celebratory character. Most dealerships will have Columbus Day weekend sales. Not many will have Chinese New Year or Passover sales. If your area has a large number of people who will be observing these holidays, making sales that cater to them is worth considering. If the local community avidly follows their high school football team, setting up a calendar that offers discounts based on wins taps into the local spirit and generates attention for your business.
With these strategies and a little creativity, it’s possible to build valuable connections and regular business. So don’t throw away your old calendars just yet; start keeping a list of exciting, applicable holidays today!
