Auntie Kate The Resale Expert

Leap year gives us a February 29 just once every four years.

Used to be, that was the day women could ask men to marry them. That charming (?) custom has fallen by the wayside, but still, Leap Day is an opportunity to do something fun in your shop that will help you Stand Out from the Crowd.

Subject lines and ads and graphic ideas you

could use:

• Leaping with joy
• Let your budget LEAP over those mall prices
• LEAPING LIZARDS! For the woman who doesn’t look like everyone else

Or go with the “extra day” angle:

Have an EXTRAs Promotion: “We get an extra day this year, so we’re giving YOU something extra!”  Any earrings half-price with the purchase of a top. Scented candle free with any $10 purchase. Get a $10 Layette Coupon when you buy a maternity outfit.

Win an EXTRA: Have a drawing for something extravagantly superfluous. “Make February 29 something wonderful: Stop in that day to have a chance to win:” A spa day, a closet makeover, dinner for 2 at some ritzy restaurant. Budget more modest? Even a mani/pedi gift certificate is “an extra” your shoppers would be delighted to receive.

Let them do something EXTRA: Let your customers show their extra caring this one day. Have a canned-food drive for the local food pantry. Gather baby attire and gear for the local new-mom support group. “It’s an extra day we get, so let’s dedicate it to others!”

Do something EXTRA as a group. Go ahead: recruit some customers, give them a “Clean Up HomeTown Crew from MyShop” T-shirt, close the store, and go clean up the park or something (alert the news crews!) When your 2- or 3-hour volunteer effort is done, invite your attendees back to the shop for a pizza party…and give them a surprise 25% off as they munch and shop, as your EXTRA thank-you for joining you in your hometown effort.

Show your EXTRA love for the Planet: Sponsor an essay contest, coloring contest, or tips contest (“How we all can do something EXTRA to care for our world”). In the case of the tips contest, use customer-suggested tips to produce a brochure that everyone can stop in during March to pick up. Again, alert the media!

Donate something EXTRA: Since it’s an extra day for your business, too, how about donating the profits of that day to charity? You can have your customers that day “vote” for their choice of your previously-vetted charities, and the “winner” gets it all. Or, they can designate the profits from their purchase to a charity they choose from your prepared list.

Now, you want these EXTRA ideas to draw EXTRA attention to your shop,

so first thing to think about is your press release. Your angle would be something like Local Shop gives their clientele something EXTRA on the EXTRA day in 2016… including “quotes” from you about how your clientele has given YOU something extra so you’re celebrating the extra caring, extra community, extra ecological consciousness your shop promotes 365 days of every year. Learn how to make the media LOVE your shop.

Create your own event:

Some ideas from this blog back in 2008.

And in 2012 (don’t miss veteran resaler Irene’s idea in the comments!)

More about Leap Year’s extra day.