It’s the last week of July, which means the start of school is just around the corner.
If parents and children are within your ideal demographic, you can make back to school shopping fun for everyone – teachers, kids, and parents – with awesome contests for kids and fantastic giveaway items that will drive more customers.
Ideas for Reaching the Back-to-School Audience
Teachers, kids, and parents all have different needs and wants. Find the right school giveaway to entice those who fit your target audience.
For Teachers:
Most back-to-school specials, commercials, and deals focus on the kids and parents, but teachers are going back to school, too. By incorporating teachers into your marketing, you are sending the message that you know going back to school is just as stressful and exciting for teachers as it is for the kids and parents.
You can offer specific discounts for teachers if they show their school badge. You can also keep them coming back by offering “school year specials” where you have a different discount each month of the school year specifically for teachers. Create a card with these specials to give out, or, better yet, create an email list and send reminders each month. Sometimes, just having “free giveaways for teachers” is enticing enough to get them in your door.
What would be some great giveaways teachers will actually want and use?
A travel mug for those long mornings or a bag to carry everything are two great options. You could also do any extra supplies that would be useful for their classroom, such as notebooks, magnets, small dry erase boards, crayons, colored pencils, and sticky notes.
For Kids:
Kids love games and contests, so make your giveaways something they can earn while shopping. You can host an in-store scavenger hunt where they can find different clues that lead to a percentage off their entire purchase, plus a prize giveaway depending on the number of clues they find. You can also partner with other businesses and do a town business scavenger hunt to make it even more exciting. A back to school trivia game for prizes is also a great idea. Have a list of questions for each grade level, and if they answer correctly they get to pick a prize. While their parents shop, they can participate in the trivia game.
You can also run an online Instagram or Facebook contest. Have a “Summer Adventures” theme where they can share what they did during summer break, then the most liked photo gets to come in and pick a prize the week before school starts.
Some businesses give specials for reading so many books or for so many hours. Offering a free item for a child is a great incentive for them to drag mom and dad to your business. Chances are, when they do, mom and dad will buy more than just their free item.
Giveaways kids will love include any type of outdoor game, such as flying discs and beach balls, or go school-related again like calculators and USB drives. You could offer a variety and let the child choose what they want.
For Parents:
We can’t forget that most of the time it is the parents who do the shopping, planning, coordinating, and everything in-between. They deserve giveaways as well! Think about what a parent would like – perhaps a nice sleeping mask to relax, travel mugs for toating their favorite beverage to carline and beyond, or car phone chargers and phone mounts, to keep their phones charged and readily available. When parents come in for their back-to-school shopping, offer a free giveaway as a nice bonus. They will remember their great experience and come back again.
With fun and useful giveaways for all your back to school audiences, you will attract customers in the door, and maybe even make kids want to head back to school.
Order your giveaway items and game prizes today by giving us a call or making a selection in our free online catalog!
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