Memorial Day Marketing by the Numbers

Memorial Day is about more than using a day off to BBQ on the beach with friends and family. This historical holiday, honoring those who have died in battle, can be traced back to 1866, although it wasn’t made a federal holiday until 1967. In the 50 years that have passed since its inception, Memorial Day has become a driving force of many holiday marketing strategies. Let’s break down Memorial Day marketing by the numbers and see why how it has become such a crucial day to summer holiday marketing.

Time to Travel

We all know that summer holidays mean travel plans. In fact, 39% of us take a trip around Memorial Day. Your brand can capitalize on this trend by offering incentives and discounts for travelers. Try sending an email or SMS campaign inviting your recipients to interact with your content and extending a discount to be used on the holiday. The contact will help build rapport with your customers and showing that you’re keyed into their travel plans will make the contact feel personal. Be sure to use interactive content of some kind: a poll, quiz, GIF or Zembula Experience, to grab their attention and stand out in the inbox.

Don’t Diss the Discount

Most marketers know that nothing grabs a consumer’s eye like a steep discount on quality products or services. While interactive content and personalization can help boost open rates for Memorial Day campaigns, recipients are used to seeing discounts of 20-90% on home goods and spring clothing. This sales frenzy will be hard to beat if you’re not offering a deal of some sort surrounding the holiday. One great way to deepen consumer relationships while offering the customer real-world value is to incentivize their participation in a survey or loyalty program by gate-ing their discount behind interactive content. Once they participate, you gain data and they gain access to the discount being offered.

Make the Most of Memorial Day Spending

As a holiday that has become synonymous with the discount, Memorial Day carves out a sizeable chunk of shopper’s summer holiday spending. According to reports from The U.S. Travel Association, consumers nationwide are expected to spend a total of $12 billion this Memorial Day. Ensure that your brand has an interactive campaign planned to capture your share of that spending. By interacting with customers on social media or in their inboxes, you’ll remain top of mind this Memorial Day. No matter what you sell and no matter if your brand is composed of e-commerce or brick and mortar locations, you can benefit from a Memorial Day campaign! Try sharing an interactive experience GIF on Twitter or Facebook and watch the engagement roll in.

Beef up Brick and Mortar Preparations

While Memorial Day can be a good marketing holiday for any type of brand, it becomes especially important for retail stores with brick and mortar locations. In fact, you can expect to see a 73% increase in retail traffic over Memorial Day weekend. That huge jump in volume means your physical storefronts need to be ready to accommodate the surge of shoppers. Make sure that your display ads onsite accurately represent your holiday sales and use this as an opportunity to gather data from your shoppers, like emails or phone numbers for your future marketing efforts. Offering a small discount at the point of sale can be an effective method to incentivize shoppers to share their data with you.

As the statistics prove, Memorial Day kicks off the beginning of summer and signifies the start of summer spending. Ensure your brand doesn’t get left behind by planning ahead for a Memorial Day campaign! Keep your content relevant and interactive to foster engagement and make the customer feel like they’re establishing a personal connection with your brand. Keep your eye on spending trends and market with holiday travelers in mind to stay extra-relevant. Most of all, make sure you leave time for yourself to enjoy a nice BBQ with your family or friends!