Why is the Back-To-School a Big Deal for Businesses? 

Let’s begin by understanding the relevance and significance of the back-to-school (BTS) shopping season to help you better gauge the need for a well-executed campaign for it.

Potential for repeat business 

Every year businesses set aside a huge portion of their budget for holiday marketing because of its repeatability. The same applies to the back-to-school season as well. Unlike one-time purchases, back-to-school shopping is an annual event happening from July to August, the closing of summer to early fall. 

More than 55% of shoppers begin shopping early in July and there are a few who continue to shop all the way until after schools start. That’s a good window to focus on and this happens every year. 

Clear and defined audience niches 

Unlike most shopping seasons where understanding the ideal buyer personas can be overwhelming, the BTS season is pretty straightforward. Your back-to-school campaign has to be optimized for three major audience niches – students, parents, and teachers. This clarity makes planning your campaigns and themes much simpler. 

Having clear and defined audience niches also means that it’s easier to understand the unique needs and preferences of each segment and thus effectively tailor your marketing efforts. 

Diverse spending landscape 

If you think that back-to-school marketing is all about promoting stationery items, bags, and shoes, think again! This season comes with a diverse spending landscape. 

In fact, data from Statista shows that about 70% of parents planned to purchase electronics like computers during the BTS season. 

School supplies, clothing, and accessories are the other segments that parents tend to prioritize during the BTS season. Therefore, if your business portfolio includes any of these product lines, it’s time to put them in the spotlight for those busy parents, teachers and students to find you. 

Shoppers are always on the lookout for deals 

Your back-to-school marketing strategy benefits from including exclusive offers. Data shows that about 85% of shoppers prefer shopping during sale events like Amazon Prime Day and other sales to save when shopping for school essentials. 

To conclude, yes, investing time and money in back-to-school marketing is profitable to businesses. Let’s now talk about a few campaign ideas based on tried and tested strategies from well-known brands. 

Back-To-School Marketing: 7 Campaign Ideas 

1. Talk about trends 

One way to connect with the busy parents and students shopping during the BTS season is to talk about what’s trending. 

This could be about the latest gadgets that can simplify a student’s life, or appliances and gadgets that can simplify a parent’s life. Or fashion trends that intrigue the little ones. Walmart adopts this approach in the post here. 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Walmart (@walmart)

To execute this idea, research and identify hot topics of the month, and show how your products fit into the trends. 

Interactive formats that engage customers in real-life settings, like the campaign executed by Walmart can add value to your back-to-school marketing strategies. 

Finally, consider the fact that about 61% of parents say that their children’s choices encourage them to spend more on their orders. Therefore, back-to-school campaigns that directly converse with the young audience (like Walmart’s campaign here), can have a profound influence on your marketing efforts. 

2. Tailored campaigns for targeted success

Instead of creating campaigns focused on a broad audience, fine-tune your back-to-school marketing strategy to align with the specific needs and wants of specific audience segments. 

Segmenting your audience and optimizing your campaign to resonate with each segment lets you create a more personalized marketing experience. 

For example, the Target post here highlights their back-to-school deals curated for teachers. 

@msmededucator With 15% off for teachers, make Target your first stop back to school. Offer valid 7/18-7/31. #butfirsttarget

— Target (@Target) July 18, 2021

Taking cues from this idea, create campaigns focused on clear niches like: 

• Parents of elementary schoolers 
• College students
• Teachers 

This level of personalization will lead to higher engagement and ultimately, increased sales. 

3. Special deals that drive action 

Discounts are a classic way to drive sales, and the back-to-school season is no exception. By providing exclusive deals, you can create urgency and incentivize purchases, making your brand a top choice during the busy back-to-school season. 

But several brands offer deals during the BTS, so how do you differentiate yourself? 

• Create limited-time discounts.
• Different deals on different categories each day. 
• Or run flash sales that provide irresistible deals on bestsellers for a few hours. 
• Offer product bundles at discounted rates. 
• Provide customers with special discount codes for them to use in their next order within the sale season to encourage repeat purchases. 

These creative deals and discounts will not make the intended impact if you do not promote them through the right channels at the right time. 

So, create static images and videos that highlight the products and categories in focus and share them through diverse digital channels like social media, email, and web banners like the design here: 

4. Reward loyalty 

As the back-to-school marketing frenzy begins, nurturing customer loyalty is one way to stand out in the crowd. Rewarding your existing customers can be a game-changer. In fact, this helps encourage repeat purchases and order values as well. Data shows that loyal customers are about 64% more likely to place frequent orders and about 31% more likely to spend more on their purchases. 

Amazon’s BTS campaign here, while instantly highlighting relevant products, also talks about the increase in savings for Prime members. 

Back to school 🚌 ✏️ 🍎 🎒 🏫 🎓 = back to cool. 😎

Prime members can save big on all your school supplies. Which starter pack are you choosing? ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/8ZgJ7g1cif

— Amazon (@amazon) August 25, 2023

Similarly, if you wish to reward loyalty during the BTS season, here are a few ideas: 

• Provide them with early access to your BTS sales.
• Email them exclusive discount codes to use with their orders. 
• Add payment-related rewards like extra discounts for specific payment options. 

5. Create content that connects on a personal level 

To enhance the impact of your back-to-school marketing strategies, create content that resonates with your audience on a personal level. 

This is because the back-to-school season isn’t just about purchasing school supplies. It’s a rollercoaster of emotions for parents and students alike. From parental excitement to student nervousness, tapping into these emotions can make your campaigns truly memorable. While the other ideas focus on boosting sales, this idea is about forging stronger customer relationships. 

Here’s a Google Ad that the brand created in collaboration with an influencer. It does not just demonstrate the effectiveness of influencer collaborations during competitive seasons like the BTS season but also effortlessly incorporates product demo into the mix. 

Google achieves both these while showcasing the real emotions that exist during the BTS season. 

Inspired by this idea? Here’s how you can execute it for your brand: 

• Focus on genuine connections and create a visual narrative that’s intriguing and engaging. 
• Incorporate the humor element if relevant. 
• Effectively leverage user-generated content to enhance authenticity. 

6. Create buzz and engagement with events 

Hosting events as part of your back-to-school marketing strategy can create memorable experiences for your audience. Branded events make face-to-face interactions with customers a breeze. 

Additionally, events generate word-of-mouth marketing and social media shares. 

So, how do you make event marketing work during the BTS season? 

• For your event themes, identify questions that your customers might have especially when transitioning into the new school year. 
• Experiment with different types of offline events and virtual events like workshops, demonstrations, or meet-and-greets. 
• Create excitement around new back-to-school products with interactive demonstrations and giveaways. 

Adopt a multi-channel approach for promoting your event. Local advertisements in the form of billboards and banners, as well as online marketing through emails detailing the value the event creates, can all help build anticipation for your event and thus boost participation. 

7. Show that you understand their pain points 

Deals, discounts, price-saver bundles – brands have all kinds of back-to-school marketing strategies. However, not many optimize these ideas to actually focus on shoppers’ pain points. So, if your BTS campaign takes these pain points into account and suggests deals that address and alleviate them, then you are ahead of the game.  

By addressing their pain points, you prove that you understand your customers thus increasing engagement. When shoppers see that your deals directly solve their problems, they are more likely to make a purchase. All of these build trust and loyalty as well. 

The popular online food ordering app DoorDash created a commercial that highlights the stress that last-minute back-to-school shopping brings with it and how the brand solves this problem. 

Here’s another one from a popular grocery delivery app, Instacart. It communicates how the brand aims to solve parents’ stress of planning school lunches. 

To harness this idea for your brand: 

• Conduct market research to understand the specific challenges faced by your target audience during the back-to-school season. 
• Develop discounts and bundles that directly address these pain points. And create social media posts, videos, and emails that communicate how your deals solve customer problems.

8. Social media contests 

Another very engaging idea to explore for back-to-school marketing is to host social media contests. Moreover, social media contests are effective in increasing your brand visibility and strengthening your brand’s social media presence. 

Through social media contests like giveaways, you can encourage users to participate and therefore reach new customers while also strengthening your connection with your existing audience. 

Here’s one such back-to-school social media giveaway hosted by FitWood, a popular Scandinavian furniture company. 

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A post shared by FitWood of Scandinavia (@fitwoodcom)

To host back-to-school social media contests that actually benefit your brand, here are a few things to do: 

• Keep the rules simple and use your social media posts to communicate these rules clearly. 
• What do customers have to gain from the giveaway? Use visuals to clearly convey this. 
• Strategize your contest format to encourage users to share back-to-school-themed photos and videos. This boosts the buzz and helps your sales gain momentum. 

Quick Tips to Execute Your Ideas 

Now that you’ve explored some ideas for back-to-school marketing and some brand examples to inspire you, let’s talk about executing these ideas effectively. 

• Segment your audience – market segmentation is crucial given that there are clearly defined niches to work with during the back-to-school season. 
• Start early – most of the ideas we discussed here require a thorough understanding of your customers for effective execution. So, start early and spend enough time in market research.
• Adopt a multi-channel approach – Deloitte’s 2024 Back-To-School Survey shows that 70% of the respondents are omnichannel shoppers. A majority even plan to use Gen AI for reviews and comparisons. Therefore, you need to incorporate diverse channels for your back-to-school campaign. However, the key is to maintain consistency across these channels. 
• Define what to highlight – are you going to talk about deals, or the problems you solve or how you simplify the shopping experience for your customers? The same Deloitte survey shows that convenient location of stores, easy delivery options and hassle-free returns are of priority to about 70% of the respondents. 
• Ensure a synchronous blend of visuals and copy – you need scroll-stopping visuals to attract attention and engaging copy to clearly deliver your message to your customers. Incorporating storytelling in your visuals and copy to maximize their impact. 

Elevate Your Back-To-School Marketing With Designs by KIMP 

Utilized well, the back-to-school season is a brilliant marketing opportunity indeed. To make it work, you need to understand your audience and create engaging campaigns that resonate with them. Moreover, executing these strategies effectively requires time, resources, and design expertise.

That’s where an unlimited design team like KIMP comes in. Your designated design team will take care of all your promotional graphics for various channels while you focus on running the campaign confidently. 

Want to understand if KIMP is the right fit for your brand? Set up a demo call with our team and get answers to all your questions.