Back to School Marketing

Hosted by Justin Shoup and Vince Ventura

 

Let’s start with some statistics: https://nrf.com/resources/consumer-data/back-school-headquarters

 

• According to the National Retail Federation (www.nrf.com) 2016 Back to School (including back to college) spending was expected to reach $75.8 Billion. In fact, back-to-school and back-to-college shopping is the second most significant shopping event behind winter holidays.

 

• Also, according to an NRF survey, about 50% of consumers plan to start back-to-school shopping three weeks to one month before school starts. For back-to-college 33.8% plan to shop three weeks to one month before and 26.1% at least 2 months before school starts.

 

• Offer free shipping: almost 90% of consumers says they will plan to take advantage of this offer.

 

No matter what type of store you are, you can take advantage of this time of year:

 

Who is your target audience? Are you going to target high school, junior high, elementary, college freshman or college upperclassmen? (Or the parents of those individuals) or even teachers.

 

• Gift & Home Decor: Decorate the dorm with candles, home accents, wine glasses. Traditional back to school: organizational items: desk organizers, pens, stationery, notebooks, planners, calendars, picture frames (possibly target teachers)

 

• Jewelry: Focus on your lower ticket items, accessories for back to school. Target high schoolers, college students, or even teachers. Look your best for your first day back.
• Clothing: Create a new look for your first day back. Be the only one in your school to have XZY or you could use the opposite strategy - everyone will have this - you need it, too.

 

• Quilting & Sewing: Use Back-to-school or back-to-the-dorm as a theme. More time on your hands now that the kids are back in school? Sign up for one of our classes. Other “hobby” type retailers could do this, too.

 

• Furniture: Focus on college students getting their own place for the first time or dorm essentials.
• Spa/Salon: New hair styles, hair color, nail polish, makeup, hair clips, etc. New school year, new look.
• Consignment: Consign last year’s clothing and buy something new for this year.

 

Create Your Marketing Plan:

 

• Start marketing early: 1-2 months before school starts
• Create a Retail Shopping List. Create a list of items customers would need for back to school/back to college and send it out via email and social. For example, style guide for clothing store: tops, bottoms, shoes, accessories.
• Offer a discount for people that come in groups: parents that bring in multiple children, groups of friends, groups of teachers, etc.
• Send up to 1 email per week. Many templates in SnapRetail in the Events & Causes > Back to School category.
• Back-to-school can come up quick. Remind customers on social media how many days are left until back to school. Mention your local schools and universities
• Post product photos on social media. Remind potential customers of the benefit of the product.
• If you don’t have your customers segmented use Facebook ads. For examples you could target teachers: Under Detailed Targeting: Demographics > Work > Industries > Education and Library.
• Create a Back-to-school and/or back-to-the-dorm Pinterest board. Move that board up near the top of your profile
• Update an image in your image carousel on your website homepage to focus on back to school (or create an icon on your homepage)
• Create a back-to-school or back-to-the-dorm landing page on your site with featured products OR create  back to school or back to the dorm category on your online store.

Takeaways:

 

• Start by making a list of what products you have for back to school and/or back to the dorm
• Next, figure out who your target audience(s) are going to be.
• Start planning your emails and social media posts in advance.