Back to School Marketing

While most advertisers have spent the past few months prepping their campaigns for the holiday season, many remain unprepared for the back-to-school online shopping boost and even for the massive amount of people who are already planning ahead and buying for Christmas!

Christmas shopping in June?

In a recent article, Google stated that 44% of shoppers had already started their holiday shopping in August last year. This may sound crazy but an increasing number of people are planning ahead and rather than using the internet as a last minute resort to buy presents, they are instead utilising it more as an organisational tool and avoiding the last minute high street rush. Back to school shoppers scale from July right through until September, with August receiving an estimated 41% of the purchases. Keeping in mind the growth and seasonality of online activity, retailers clearly need to be preparing themselves and their campaigns for the start of the new school year and a change in consumer purchasing behaviour.

50% of back to school shoppers will search both online and in-store so it is vital that businesses integrate their online and offline advertising efforts by using online marketing to drive in-store purchases and vice versa.

Offline vs. Online?

Many consumers tend to search offline and then search for online promotional codes in order to save money by shopping online. Last year, online searches for promotional codes increased by over 55% between August and December; which is not surprising considering the massive success of numerous voucher code websites.

The main influences for people making back-to-school purchases are the sales, coupons, free postage, rebates, complimentary items, loyalty schemes and lastly flexible payment plans. All advertisers should be taking the multichannel shopping habits into account when planning their seasonal campaigns; ensuring that they can cater for the right audience at the right time. Apple for example created a very clever back to school campaign called ‘the value of college education just got a lot more valuable.’ This was to support that when you bought a Mac for college you got a free iPod touch; a very clever way of marketing from such a savvy company.

Google has also stated that searches for “buy online” and “pick up in store” were up by as much as 100% last December. Many retailers such as Argos, B&Q, Dixons, Curry’s and London Theatre ticket providers are offering their customers the choice of postage or to pick up in the store. Flexibility like this is a huge advantage when consumers are at the last stages of an online purchase decision as it gives them to option to pay for the online postage, possibly search for voucher codes to save even more money online or simply reserve the item and collect it at their nearest store.

This year, back to school related searches are already up by 15% on last year and the summer holidays are only just beginning! This popular shopping season now expands way beyond the summer months, showing that consumers are utilising the sales and offers to purchase early Christmas presents; Google has even stated that 46% of consumers plan to shop for themselves during the back to school season!

There are lots of different ways that marketers can attract back to school shoppers. Here is a small list of things to consider when adapting your marketing to suit one of the biggest shopping seasons of the year:

1. If your business is dependent upon the kids being off school then why not try to lure customers with last chance offers or loyalty cards that could encourage them to become a return customer.
2. Even if your product has no obvious tie to back to school shopping, you can create one. The savviest of marketers will make the most of this time of year and develop a campaign such as a business selling cleaning products might target schools.
3. It is vital that you do not forget the parents at this time of year as their schedule is also affected during the holidays. Hairdressers and beauticians often offer parent’s special offers as the kids have gone back to school and gymnasiums provide special offers for school hours.

And remember, your back to school campaign can run right into September and also be used after the Christmas holidays so it will definitely be worth the time and effort if you create a campaign clever enough to entice the increase in spend from teenagers and parents.

So while the students prepare themselves for a few school-free and carefree months, now is the time for retailers to launch be launching their back to school campaigns left and right for the boost of back to school shopping. Ensure that both your online and offline campaigns are adapted to make the most of this growing annual trend. You can never be too early in preparing your marketing campaigns.