Are you searching for joyful holiday promotions? They consider the holiday season to run from November to January, so if you have not begun preparing your finance business’ holiday campaign, you may want to do so as soon as possible. There are so many opportunities when it comes to building a creative promotional campaign for the holiday season. While all the moving parts may seem incredibly stressful, holiday promotions for finance businesses tend to bring great ROI and can even be fun to create and manage.(promotion strategy)
The Financial Brand has collected 14 of the top concepts over the years.
1. Vacation Loans(promotion strategy)
During the holiday season, a lot of financial organizations advertise personal loans, but few do it properly. Lenders have been conditioned for years to think that the rate is the only factor that matters. That may be true for loans for homes and cars, but during the annual consumer extravaganza known as “Christmas,” nobody really thinks about rates; instead, they just want to make sure they have enough money to buy the items they want and all the other things on their shopping list. Therefore, while selling your vacation personal loans, focus on how much consumers can borrow as well as how much they will pay back each month rather than the interest rate. If you’re astute and can make the math work, sweeten the bargain with a “90 days no payment” clause.
2. Cyber Monday and Black Friday Deals(promotion strategy)
Since many years ago, ING Direct (now Capital One 360) has offered deals on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. And in recent years, an increasing number of financial institutions have made the decision to do the same. There is no reason why banks and credit unions can’t participate in on the holiday retail frenzy if everyone else does so. Moreover, any variety of seasonal financial goods, including prepaid gift cards, personal loans, credit cards, auto loans, and credit cards, can be promoted on Black Friday, Cyber Monday, or both. You can plan your campaign as a 24-hour sale, or you can extend it over the weekend or even the whole week.
This was recently tried by First Montana Bank with outstanding results. At 7:00 am, they set the interest rate at 1.5% for secured loans and 3.5% for unsecured loans, then they increased it by 25 points every 30 minutes after that. Over 120 loans totaling over $2 million, the majority of which came from new members, were added as a result of the campaign in less than four hours.
Choose the “12 Days of Christmas Specials” if you really want to go crazy. For instance, you may promote the fact that anyone who chooses to use your banking institution for the 12-day period would be entered to win a variety of prizes, perhaps including a grand prize all-inclusive vacation.
3. Bonus ATM Cash(promotion strategy)
Do you desire free press? Easy. Call the local media and let them know you’ll be sporadically changing $20 dollars for $50 bills in your ATMs. Besides, this promotion can be limited to a single day and/or a particular place. Furthermore, they can easily manage hard cost: do you want one to issue $50 bill for every 250 notes, or one for every 500? Everyone must use an ATM at least once or twice in December because it is the month when people use the most cash. It might as well be yours if they can get some free money, don’t you think?
4. Unexpected deeds of kindness(promotion strategy)
The Financial Brand has written extensively about these uplifting guerrilla marketing tactics. Choose a day, a week, or perhaps the entire month of December, and ask staff members to go around town conducting random acts of kindness. On a chilly day, you can buy someone’s coffee, donate cookies to the neighborhood senior center, or fill up their petrol tank.
5. Offer Tempting Cash Rewards
Add a cash incentive to any product you need to market since consumers need money during the holidays. For instance, you might run an advertisement promising “up to $200 in free cash” — $50 for opening a new checking account, $50 for registering for online bill payment, and $100 for paying off a car loan.
Another angle on this promotion is to provide up to $1,000 in payment for people’s holiday-related expenses (or whatever amount threshold you choose).
6. Skip a Promotional Payment
Giving current clients (or members) of your financial institution a “free pass” on their loan is one approach to get their attention. They’ll love you if you let them skip their loan installment in December. The following examples are pre-made, ready-to-use promotions from a business named Image Works.
Guaranty Bank conducted a “Share The Spirit” Christmas campaign on Facebook in 2012. Moreover, Guaranty Bank gave $1 to Big Brothers for each person who used a specific hashtag to spread the news about its “Share The Spirit” promotion. Additionally, new bank supporters are eligible to enter a contest for a $200 Visa gift card.
8. Pay the Bill
Hold random drawings where the chosen winner(s) get their purchase paid for to encourage customers to utilize their debit/credit cards over the holidays. For a few years now, Chase has successfully conducted this kind of marketing.
9. Express Christmas greetings
A small radio station in Alabama and Mutual Savings Credit Union collaborated to grant one Christmas wish every day for seven days last year (Dec 17-24). By emailing the radio station with the candidate’s profile and specifics, they encourage listeners to choose deserving friends or in needed family members.
10. Contest for Holiday Photos
The winners of First Merit Bank’s annual Christmas photo contest on Facebook receive gift cards with values ranging from $100 to $500. The majority of financial institutions that run Christmas photo contests choose to have their fans vote for their favorites on Facebook. If you’d like, you can decide to give your contest a theme, such as a holiday pet photo contest with Petco gift cards as prizes and charitable donations to a nearby animal shelter, as the Bank of Easton did in 2011.
11. Santa at the Branch
Freedom Santa and Mrs. Claus love to visit Credit Union branches to excite members. Each year, thousands of members and their kids pose for photos with Santa. Besides, employees are available to print the members’ free photos and distribute candy canes. A local food bank receives boxes of non-perishable food products and toiletries from the credit union as well as donations from its members.
12. Online Christmas Choir
A few years ago, Halifax Bank urged its Facebook followers to record themselves singing “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” and share it. Then, participants might create their own “virtual choir” by fusing their recordings with those of others. Halifax made a donation of up to £5 for each video that was submitted, £2 for each “virtual choir” recording made, £1 for encouraging a friend to participate, £1 for “liking” the app, and an additional £1 for “liking” a specific choir. Halifax claims to have donated £100,000—or about $160,000.
13. Civic and charitable activities
There are numerous holiday events that financial institutions can support.
- Christmas performances and pageants
- A mall or town square tree lights
- Invest in a frozen outdoor skating rink.
- Collect warm items for charities, such as jackets and mittens.
- Organize a toys-for-
- Tots zoom through branches
- Gather food cans for the nearby food banks.
- Organize a free showing of a beloved holiday film in a nearby cinema.
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