we're 5 years old ideas welcome

[Sarah Atkinson]

We're coming up to being open for 5 years and are thinking of having 5 daily deals for 5 days.
What we can't decide on is,
to keep the promotions a secret until the day
how to group the deal.

we're a pet food supply store,

do we have a deal each day for dogs, cats, birds, etc
or do a day for dogs a day for cats etc.

do we release the details the week before or keep it to just finding out on the day.

Any ideas or suggestions would be great fully appreciated

 

[RPower]

Having a deal for an animal a day, i.e. Dog Monday, Cat Tuesday might segment the amount of customers you get in that day, but if all pet-owners know you're having deals for all animals, every day, you may get more footfall. What's your gut saying?

 

[Sarah Atkinson]

My initial thought was to have deals for all animals each day, though I can picture people wanting the deals from a different day, to save them coming back in, so would in effect be 25 deals running the 5 days

I think I'm over thinking it really, it's supposed to be a bit of fun, promote the shop and maybe if I can get it organised raise some money for charity with a raffle

 

[RPower]

@Sarah Atkinson It sounds like a lovely idea. And congrats on reaching the five year mark!

 

[arnydnxluk]

Congratulations on the 5 year mark!

Is your business offline? If so I think it's best to let your customers know about the deals ahead of time (perhaps some kind of leaflet given out in the weeks leading up), this way they can plan ahead and turn up on the day(s) suitable for them. If you have surprise offers on the day, how are you going to communicate this with customers to bring them in? I also think 5 deals per day sounds like it could be quite a lot and become confusing to advertise, perhaps it would be easier to have 1 deal per day? This way the deal for each day could be shown quite comfortably in advertising material.

Flash sales work well online because of the instant communication with customers over social media etc, allowing customers to take advantage of offers from wherever they may be at the time.

 

[BustersDogs]

I don't think I'd want to come back on different days if I had different animals. What sort of daily deals are you offering? 5 years is a good age, well done!

I had a dog show to celebrate my anniversary, do you have an area you could set something up? Or set up a photo competition where people have to bring a photo into the shop (you could collect for a local animal charity and charge 50p per photo at the same time), try to get a 'celebrity' of some sort to judge them (more likely if the photo show is for charity), get some press releases out and try to get some coverage of announcing the winner if you can get someone the paper is interested in covering if you can get them to the shop to announce the winner and have that launch your week. The prize can be a small amount of goodies, but a voucher as well to get them into the shop (otherwise someone out of town will win and want you to post their goodies!).

If you can get some local pet professionals involved, dog trainers, pet sitters etc they will help you promote it.

 

[TotalWebSolutions]

Congrats on making 5 years!

Would it be worth sending out leaflets to existing customers (if you have addresses) or mailshots (if you have email addresses) in advance of the deals? I would say you need to give them at least a weeks notice as keeping a deal secret until the last minute could leave them unable to get to you.

In terms of how to space out the deals I agree limiting it to one pet per day might not be the best idea but rather having a different deal each day to cover all pets (if that makes sense).

 

[Page]

Your approach is wrong

You are currently doing it because it seems like a good thing to do - and you are probably right

But what should govern what you do is - what is the objective - this then drives it all

And until you have worked out what that is you are IMHO drifting

Dont do things for the sake of it - do them for a reason - and know what you want from it all

If you want to reward current customers - then that is different from get in new customers

if you give an unannounced discount on the day - I think you will just be giving money away
They were in the shop buying and then - hey mate have it for less
Uh !!!

Work out what the objective is and then it will become clearer and then re ask - if you still need to