The importance of marketing during the back-to-school season

It’s important to roll out campaigns during the back-to-school season because it presents an excellent opportunity to connect with consumers. With shopping increasing during this time, strategically displaying your products and brand messaging can help make an impact on capturing this audience’s interest in this increase. With consumers connected across devices, it presents an opportunity to capture their attention at the optimal time.

According to a growth study conducted by Harris and Amazon Ads, parents in the grocery category are connecting across different types of media and devices. They therefore interact greatly with media and are receptive to advertisements, especially during the back-to-school season. This makes them the perfect audience for brands to advertise with the intention of stimulating potential sales during the back-to-school season.

The importance of the back-to-school season for retailers

Merchants consider the back-to-school season one of the most important seasons for selling and making a profit every year. It is the second most important retail period after major seasons and holidays. Students return to schools and universities. The demand for notebooks, school supplies, clothes, shoes, bags, etc. increases, and establishments compete to reach customers through marketing campaigns.

Because increasing demand is a double-edged sword, some establishments suffer from crowding and overcrowding during the back-to-school season, which angers customers and affects the smoothness and speed of service, which is easy to confront and overcome through temporary employment.

How do you plan distinctive marketing in the back-to-school season?

Merchants usually begin preparing for the back-to-school season three months or more before the start of school. They begin to order what supplies they are missing, develop marketing plans, and discuss pricing, offers, and discounts with their employees based on a study of the market and competitors. The smart merchant is also keen to evaluate his performance last year in order to avoid what harmed sales and repeat what succeeded in convincing customers to buy.

The date of announcing offers and discounts changes depending on the date of the start of school. Therefore, this year it could start in mid-July and continue through August until the start of school.

Returning to face-to-face education, what does it mean for retail sector establishments?

In recent years, Saudi students have lived through changing study conditions, including periods of distance learning, suspension of studies, and mixing between distance education and face-to-face education. Fortunately for students and merchants, these fluctuations have ended and the usual in-person educational system has returned.

With the return of stability to education in Saudi Arabia, students celebrate their attendance at school by purchasing the best clothes, bags and tools. Retail sector facility owners are preparing to meet this need by providing the best products in large quantities that will help them keep up with the expected pressure.

An American opinion poll revealed that 38% of student families intend to save the usual daily expenses to be able to buy tools and supplies for returning to school.

For these reasons, retail establishments need to make their products accessible face-to-face and online, and conduct marketing campaigns that convince potential customers of the offers. Maren advises you to provide products to customers through all available platforms and methods.

Multiple ways and platforms to purchase school season products

The preferences of families and students vary during the back-to-school season. Some of them buy their needs by going to stores and libraries and examining products face-to-face, while others prefer to rest at home and order what they want from Saudi electronic stores such as Amazon, Noon, and other stores of smaller sizes.

The smart merchant is aware of this and provides his products and offers to customers everywhere: in the facility itself, in an online store, on social media, and via advertising text messages and emails.

8 marketing ideas during the back-to-school season

In cases of intense competition, the customer takes his time before purchasing and searches for the best offers, discounts, and benefits. Therefore, we have collected these ideas for you to adopt an effective marketing campaign:

1. Special offers on all products.
2. Symbolic gifts with every order.
3. Coordinating back-to-school products into sets or bundles while reducing the total price for each set.
4. Organizing competitions on social media to increase interaction and visits.
5. Providing free shipping when the order exceeds a certain amount.
6. Implement big end-of-season clearance discounts.
7. Give visitors discount coupons valid for future use.
8. Communicate with schools and local associations and try to reach a partnership.

It is distinctive and leaves a long-term positive impression by leaving your brand clear and visible on your products. This does not stop at office supplies, everything related to them is also active during the back-to-school season. From stationery to food to clothing, personal care tools, and many endless ideas that you can exploit to market your brand successfully.