Check out these 4th of July marketing ideas below! With the average American spending up to $75 on 4th of July sales, the holiday is a major sales opportunity for merchants.
And it’s not just those selling hot dogs, beer, fireworks, or other typical holiday purchases who can benefit either.
Only approximately a quarter of the money spent on 4th of July sales goes to these stereotypically patriotic purchases. This presents a great opportunity to make extra sales regardless of what you sell.
To help you make the most of this opportunity, we’ve put together this list of our top 10 4th of July marketing ideas that will boost your sales.
Marketing ideas for the 4th of July
1) Run a 4th of July sale
Holding a holiday-themed sale or promotion is the most popular way businesses celebrate Independence Day.
And while that might make it seem like the lazy choice, don’t forget that the reason holiday sales and promotions are so popular is because they’re incredibly effective.
Especially when so many other businesses are running sales and discounting their products. If you’re not doing the same, then you’ll lose customers to those who are.
It doesn’t have to be a massive sale either. A simple one-day sale will encourage your customers to act quickly to take advantage of your deals.
2) Email marketing
Whether you hold a sale or not, you need a way of getting customers to your store. The best way to do this is with email marketing.
Email marketing is the most effective marketing channel when it comes to communicating with your customers and getting them to make sales.
If you are running a sale, you’ll want to send an email marketing campaign letting potential customers know about your offers.
And if you decide not to hold a sale, you can still send your customers a Fourth of July email to celebrate and show your American pride. Just make sure you give it a good subject line so people open it.
For inspiration, check out our collection of the best 4th of July emails here.
3) Participate in local events
Wherever you are in America, there are sure to be plenty of local celebrations and events happening on the 4th of July.
Parades, fairs, and fireworks displays are all great opportunities to make an appearance and promote your business.
Your participation in these events doesn’t have to be strictly related to your business either. Simply handing out popcorn, candy or flags will do a great job of building your brand in the minds of potential customers.
If you do decide to participate in any events, be sure to take plenty of pictures that you can use later in your email campaigns and on social media.
4) Social media
Speaking of social media, you definitely want to connect with your audience on social media as well.
You can do this by posting about your 4th of July sale (if you’re holding one), any events you’re participating in, or just simply celebrate Independence Day.
To maximize the exposure of your posts, be sure to use holiday hashtags so that potential customers will be more likely to see them. Some examples of popular hashtags include: #4thofJuly, #IndependenceDay, #America, #fireworks, etc.
If you’re looking for content to post, 4th of July memes and quotes make for quick and easy posts.
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5) Hand out freebies
A great way to engage with your customers is to hand out some free 4th of July swag.
This can work particularly well if your business is participating in a local event. But you can still hand out free stuff in your own store.
As for what you hand out, you have two main options: 4th of July themed swag like stickers, temporary tattoos, flags, streamers, etc., or product samples that can entice people to buy your products.
Pro tip: Consider collecting people’s email addresses in exchange for the swag.
Most people will be happy to sign up for your email list if the swag is good enough and this lets you contact them later to convert them into customers.
6) SMS marketing
When it comes to contacting customers, few channels will get their attention and reliably and quickly as SMS.
Because SMS is more personal and intimate than email or social media, it’s best to use a very light touch, however.
This is why you should only send one SMS on the 4th of July and only if you have something to say that they’ll be interested in. Don’t just send a ‘Happy Independence Day’ message if you’re not going to back it up with a decent sale offer.
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7) Create a 4th of July themed popup
Popups are something you should be running on your online store all the time.
But instead of running the same generic popup all year, you can keep it interesting by customizing it for upcoming holidays like the 4th of July.
This will let you highlight any sale or promotion you’re running to website visitors which will increase the number of customers you’ll convert.
For popup design inspiration, check out our collection of great popup examples or read our popup design best practices guide.
8) User-generated content
Wouldn’t it be great if you could get your audience to generate your marketing content themselves largely for free? Well user-generated content lets you do just that.
User-generated content is simply content that your audience creates themselves that you can then use in your marketing efforts.
A typical example would be getting people to post photos to social media with your own branded hashtag. You can then use these posts later on in your marketing as a form of social proof.
The 4th of July leads itself well to this kind of marketing strategy too.
You could easily run a promotion where you get people to share a 4th of July selfie with your hashtag to go into the running to win a prize.
9) Showcase your red, white and blue products
Red, white, and blue are obviously big 4th of July colors, so you should incorporate them into your marketing as well.
One easy way to do this is to simply create a collection of red, white, and blue products like Cook’s Illustrated has done with their cooking gadgets.
10) Run a contest
Running a contest is a great way to build engagement with your audience and reach new customers. And there are plenty of options when it comes to what kind of contest you want to run as well.
You could hold a photo competition like we mentioned under user-generated content, get people to write a few sentences about what America means to them, or run a simple quiz.
Of course, you’ll want to offer an enticing reward for those who win your contest so that people participate. Gleam.io is a great app that can help with running competitions.
The bottom line
Hopefully, now you have plenty of 4th of July marketing ideas to consider.
Obviously, you don’t want to spread yourself too thin and try to execute every marketing idea you have. Instead, you want to think about which ones are most relevant for your store and which ones will generate the most sales for you.
For more inspiration and 4th of July marketing ideas, check out our 4th of July marketing hub here.
