This year I’ve been fascinated by the momentum marketing holidays have been gaining. Stuff like:

• Black Friday
• Cyber Monday
• Amazon Prime Day
• Small Business Saturday

Naturally, BF/CM have the most wind in their sails, but these others are taking the behaviors around consumers and building on them. Expanding them.

Wanting Marketing
This idea, that a group of people can create days where people are expecting marketing – perhaps even waiting for or welcoming marketing – is fascinating to me. Most days we’re trying to convince folks that now is a good time to open their wallets.

But on these days?

Those wallets are already open.

Now, creating such a day can feel like a daunting task, but I’m also reminded of a story from my marketing journey.

Tuesday Trivia
Back in the day I was selling home snowmaking machines. And one winter, 2008/09 to be exact, the economic downturn had left me with more inventory than I was expecting that year. Inventory that I really needed to sell to hit not just my goals, but have enough money to pay rent.

I can’t remember all the specifics for how I designed this concept, but the gist was this:

• On a regular schedule (weekly, I think), I would create a snowmaking trivia question
• I gave it a name (something like “Trivia Tuesdays”)
• I’d send this question to my email list of ~2,500 home snowmaking enthusiasts
• They’d reply with the answer
• If they got it right, they’d save $75 on a snowmaker.

Within a few rounds of this, it started to become something people were looking forward to. Waiting for, even. And, as a result, I started getting a surprising number of people trying to get the right answer. Not all of them used their coupons, but on a single day I think I sold 4 or 5 snowmakers based on this promo.

While it wasn’t “Prime Day”, I had created my own, small moment with a few similarities to this.

What If
The idea that every marketing message can’t be promotional is a common one. Instead of non-stop offers, you mix it up with inspirational, interesting, or useful content in between.

But I want to propose an idea: what if you make the days or times or whatever when you send the promotional stuff a thing? You give it a name. You make it a tradition. You create a moment when your audience is expecting and, maybe even waiting for, an offer.

• Maybe it’s stuff you’re already discounting like midweek tickets.
• Maybe it’s something new/rare like a limited run of retro logo Ts.
• Maybe it’s a cheap lesson they can gift to a friend.
• Maybe it’s the usual free night when you stay 3 deal.

Call it Marvelous Monday Deals, I dunno, but I wonder what would happen if you could create a weekly or monthly tradition among your guests. Days where they’re not just seeing your marketing come into their feeds or inboxes, but waiting for it.

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