School holidays marketing ideas for newsagents

School holidays are a wonderful opportunity its for finding new shoppers for your business.

To win new customers you have to act different to what you have done, you have to pitch your business in fresh ways and to people who otherwise may not have seen your business or considered your business.

But most of all, to make the most from school holidays, you need to have fun!

Here are marketing suggestions to help school holidays be more valuable for your newsagency. They are just some of the ideas you could embrace. Hopefully, you will think of plenty for yourself.

1. Give teachers a discount and a thank you. Give it a name. For example: a Thank you for teaching 0ur kids discount. Run it for school holidays.
2. Host a school art display. Invite kids to bring in art they have created so far this year. Be the place to shine a light on this, just because. Kids, parents and their families will love it.
3. Promote holiday activities products at the entrance: colouring, puzzles, toys, games and more.
4. Host local show and tell. Invite kids to create something, art, a poem, or something else connected to a local place of interest or local history. Host an in-store show and tell event where parents and kids can participate. The prize is less relevant than giving kids a voice.
5. Pitch local. Create a simple flyer to hand out listing local holiday locations and events of interest.
6. Let people play. Have products out and open for people to play with in-store. be the destination fun shop in town.
7. Do product demonstrations in-store during the expected peak days, demonstrating thinks like a slinky, kinetic sand, slime, jigsaws and the like. Create some retail theatre.
8. Place two or three dump bins with special offers at the front of the store containing products to appeal to the largest age group of school kids in your area.
9. Publish posts on your business Facebook page with ideas of what people can do locally during the school holidays.
10. Maybe have t-shirts made for staff: Holiday Crew or something similar. This helps them look different to everyday and that is key to making the most of the holidays.
11. Host an event appropriate to the season:
    1. A papier machier pumpkin mask competition for September holidays.
    2. A paper plane throwing competition for summer holidays.
    3. A Easter art competition for all ages for the Easter break.
    4. A winter bake off for Winter – maybe connected with the cookbooks you sell.
    5. Run a best joke of the holidays competition.
12. If you run discount vouchers, change the name to something like: SCHOOL HOLIDAY BONUS or HOLIDAY SURVIAL $$$. Have fun with it.
13. Find out what groups host school holiday events in your area and publish a list as a resource for parents.

These ideas are designed to help you create a business during any holidays period that is looked at differently to the rest of the year, to help you gain a reputation as the best school holidays place locally.