With the holidays fast approaching, retail and restaurant owners don’t just have to plan out their Christmas promotions, but their New Year’s events and marketing campaigns as well.

After all, more and more businesses are open on New Year’s Eve nowadays in order to meet consumer demands. People just find it more convenient in this day and age to be able to interact with the brands they like whenever they want to.

And in case you just can’t host a New Year’s event (that might sometimes be the case with retailers – especially online stores), you can always rely on New Year’s promotions instead.

If you don’t have a lot of experience with this, or are just short on marketing ideas, we’ve got you covered. Here’s a quick rundown of everything you should keep in mind:

How to Promote Your New Year’s Events and Offers

Well, first and foremost, you should post about this on your social media pages. Naturally, you shouldn’t overdo it, but mentioning the event or seasonal offer at least every 2 days is a must. If the platform you use allows you to have a pinned post, then make it about your event/promotions.

A great way to get customers hyped about taking advantage of your promotions or attending your New Year’s event is to run a social media contest. In the case of an event, you can reward the winners during it. With promotions, you can offer an extra discount, coupon, or another free item.

If you’re planning on hosting an event, remember to organize its counterpart on social media (like a Facebook event, for example).

Besides social media marketing, you should also consider email marketing. If you have access to that kind of info (normally, you should), letting people know about your upcoming event or promotions is quite easy.

Paid ads are also a good idea, but don’t focus too much of your budget only on them. Paid radio spots and magazine features can work to your advantage as well.

In-store promotions work well too – especially for retail and restaurant owners. It’s usually a good idea to have someone hand out flyers that advertise your New Year’s promotions or events.

You can also display them around the store, however, we recommend using posters for that, as they’re much more noticeable. And remember to make sure the flyers and posters adequately reflect your brand’s message and colors.

If you own a restaurant, don’t forget to mention the event or limited offer on your menu – on the cover or the first page works best. Table tents and digital signage are a good idea as well.

Door hangers can also be used, but they’re more suited for QSRs than restaurants that focus on dining.

Last but not least (and this goes for both restaurant and retail owners), don’t forget to live-stream the event you’ll be hosting. It’s great for your social media image and engagement, and it might get more people to come to your event because of FOMO (fear of missing out).

How to Make Your New Year’s Promotions Attractive

If you’re just planning on running promotions during the New Year’s period, you’ll need to make sure they are attractive enough to get people to buy even on the 31st of December.

One way to do that is to sell seasonal products (both Christmas and New Year-themed), and make it clear that they are available for a limited time only.

Alternatively, as a retail business, you can go ahead and sell some of the products you plan on using in 2018 ahead of time. A type of “New Year, New X Product” promotion that comes with a one-time discount.

As a restaurant owner, your best bet is to have the restaurant open on the 31st and the 1st of January. Ideally, you should stay open overnight and let people know they can always come in and grab a bite or a coffee if they need to take a break from celebrating, while also enjoying a discount or free item on the menu.

If possible, look into having a food stand at your city’s New Year’s downtown celebration.

And, of course, don’t forget about your loyalty program. You should offer members a decent discount (on top of the discount offered by the promotions themselves), a “buy one, get one free” policy, or a lot of bonus loyalty points for their purchase.

As for non-members, give them a chance to sign up for your program when they make a purchase (be it online or in-store). Let them know they can redeem a reward instantly when they do it, and provide them with a decent number of points to start out.

How to Get the Most Out of Your New Year’s Events

Let’s start with restaurant events. When it comes to space, you already have it. Still, you can rent a larger venue if you will be expecting more guests than your restaurant can handle.

Make sure you use a holiday-themed menu. You can add a few items that you’ll be adding to the menu in the next year as a way to get people more interested in your event.

You should consider providing calorie and nutrient information for your dishes (in case you haven’t been doing this). Why? Because it’s likely that many of your customers will have a New Year’s resolution that includes getting in shape or losing weight. This way, you’re giving them a helping hand.

Moreover, let people know they should bring their loved ones and friends with them. Offer them a discount if they do to provide a strong incentive.

Oh, and remember to offer your guests complimentary drinks – both when you welcome them to the event, and when you start to prepare the countdown to midnight.

Plus, don’t forget about entertainment. Live music, karaoke, stand-up comedy – they all work well with restaurant events. And if you want to engage your guests even more, you could run some contests before and after midnight.

This will also be a great opportunity to promote your loyalty program as well. You can reward existing members with free dishes, a bottle of wine, or bonus loyalty points. As for non-members, you can help them ring in the new year with a bang by rewarding them with free desserts, drinks, or a bunch of extra points if they sign up right then and there.

Lastly, if possible, try partnering up with local taxi companies to provide your guests with free cab rides home. They’re most likely going to be getting home late, after all.

Now, if you’re in retail, you might be thinking there’s not much you can do in terms of events. However, you shouldn’t be discouraged since there are plenty of ideas to try out.

For one, you could host an “End of the Year Market,” an event where you offer various products at a discount. You can even include the promotional products we previously discussed.

You can also organize an event centered around raffles, where the main purpose is to donate the profits to a certain charity.

Or, you can just host a New Year’s party where you give people the chance to participate in various contests to win all sorts of prizes (your products).

Naturally, catering is a must for retail New Year’s events. Make sure your guests have everything they could want in terms of food and drinks. Try to offer vegetarian/vegan options too.

In terms of where to organize the event, you can do it at one of your stores (if it’s big enough), or just rent a location suited for this type of event (large hall, a hotel, or even a club – it all depends on your niche).

And, just like we discussed with restaurant events, you should definitely hire entertainment (live music works best in this case). The same goes for the free cab rides.

As for your loyalty program, this will be a great time to let members earn extra rewards and points for their purchases, as well as offer non-members a chance to join and win a reward or bonus points.

Need Some Assistance?

Whether you want to host New Year’s events or just run promotions, one thing is clear: A lot of marketing effort will have to go into them. Well, fortunately, Spoonity can offer you the help you need.

We will provide you with a user-friendly interface that will help you create, customize, and run promotions and campaigns hassle-free with just a few clicks. Plus, you’ll be able to decide exactly which customer segments you want to target, and what type of rewards they’ll be able to redeem.

What’s more, in terms of loyalty programs, our platform has got you fully covered. Spoonity is 100% white-labeled, supports mobile payments and orders, and it overall makes it very easy for you to enhance customer loyalty in the long run.

In case you have any questions, feel free to get in touch with us.