Labor Day Marketing: 15 Amazing Ideas and Examples (2024)

September is going to be an eventful month with 75% of US customers looking forward to Labor Day. This presents an opportunity for eCommerce brands to end their Q3 on a winning note. 

If you’ve been planning to do this all along but uncertainty is holding you back, trust us when we say you’re not alone. With these 15 strategies to fire up your Labor Day Marketing campaign, you’ll be able to know what to do and how to do it in no time. 

1. Strike a conversation with an End of Summer Sale 

Labor Day is the unofficial end of summer.

By offering summer items at a discounted price, customers tend to buy due to Hyperbolic Discounting. It is the behavior of choosing instant smaller rewards over long-term massive rewards.  

This leads to customers making decisions that favor short-term gains oblivious of long-haul gains.

To end your summer sale on a high, sell only the products that are in excess inventory.  Target customers that are discount-only shoppers and include popular items to invoke familiarity. 

Don’t sell new products, limited edition products, or products having high replacement costs. 

In the example below, YETI offers an end of summer sale starting at 25% off select items. 

Try these tips to make your end of summer sale more receptive: 

a) Capitalize on the power of regret 

Customers like happy experiences. The feeling of not having made use of an opportunity instills a possibility of fear of regret in the future. Use it in your messaging such as Last chance!, Going, Going, Gone, and There’s still time, Hurry Up!. This creates a sense of urgency all by itself. 

b) Sell product bundles 

Customers see a spike in intuitive value when you sell product bundles. Selling slow-moving products with fast-selling products attracts value-conscious customers. This motivates customers to see tangible value for money instead of individual products. As per a Forrester study, product bundling increases revenue between 10-30%.

2. Evoke purchase decisions—use high-opportunity cost 

The intent of customers planning to buy high-consideration products such as electronic items, mattresses, cars, and designer clothing is driven by three factors: 

• Price: Customers want to know if there are other alternatives that cost less 
• Quality: Buyers need assurance that they’re getting the quality they always wanted at a reasonable price 
• Channel: Whether online or offline, shoppers want the assurance that they will be able to make easy returns

Canyon offers $500 off on its Labour Day sale. 

The opportunity cost is too high to let go of the deal. There might be fewer brands that offer a discount as appealing as this. Since the offer is valid on select bikes, the chance of choice paralysis is ruled out. 

To make sure your Labor Day discounts stand out, start by: 

a) Protecting perceived value 

Discounts may not always help when it comes to high-consideration products. It’s wise to offer discounts on select items that are in excess inventory to gauge the customer's intent. 

b) Offering a 30-day trial 

Humans are wired to avoid losses. A 30-day trial for a highly expensive product inspires confidence to try products since it assures them of returns. 

c) Offering BNPL options 

BNPL options encourages customers to buy a high-consideration product by splitting the financial burden into interest-free payments. 45% of customers used a BNPL option to buy an unaffordable product. 

d) Social Proof 

Feature customer reviews to demonstrate credible social proof indicating the collective experiences of other customers. 88% of customers consider user reviews on par with personal recommendations. 

3. Lead the way through sustainability 

72% of customers are buying more eco-friendly products as opposed to five years ago.

With sustainability, brands such as yours can convey that you are committed to adopting fair labor practices and making work conditions conducive for employees. 

ADAY practices sustainable marketing in its Labor Day promotion. 

In the above example, ADAY promotes Natural Groove, a 100% cotton clothing that drives positive brand perception. Customers love to associate with brands driven by purpose. In fact, 86% of customers are loyal to purpose-driven companies. 

To demonstrate sustainability in your Labour Day advertising ideas: 

a) Include a sustainability certification 

A certification from a credible organization helps demonstrate authenticity and helps in building trust. Add this to your Labor Day content including emails. For example, Certified B corporation. 

b) Provide sustainable packaging 

Sustainable packaging reduces carbon footprint and saves shipping costs as they can be reused and recycled. 74% of customers are ready to shell more for sustainable packaging.  

c) Offer home try-ons 

Home try-ons encourage customers to experience the product firsthand before deciding to buy. This reduces eCommerce returns by a large percentage. 

4. Run smart limited-time offers  

Limited time offer evokes real urgency as the countdown timer reinforces scarcity by the minute.

Merrell offers a limited-time offer messaging as part of its Labor Day promo ideas. 

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With limited time offer in different categories, the psychological segmentation based on lifestyle is evident. Slip ons, hikers, casual sneakers, and kids narrow down the segmentation based on values, beliefs, lifestyle, and attitude. 

Lifestyle segmentation involves grouping customer data based on likes, dislikes, and daily habits of customers. 

Before you start running limited-time offers as part of your Labor Day sales, pay attention to:

a) Limited-time offer copy 

A limited-time offer copy must act as an emotional trigger. It must communicate the value to the customers clearly in the first 5 seconds. 

Lead the copy by 4 U’s—Useful, Urgent, Unique, and Ultra Specific. Use contractions to make it conversational and contractions for emphasis on the emotion and intensity of the image. 

An easy way to do this is to start with a question. Questions stimulate the brain eliciting a response. 

b) Outline the tangible value 

Tell what products are on sale and the problem they can solve. Use real urgency by specifying the deadline. Make the number the hero of the content. 

Next, choose what you have to offer—Bundling offers, BOGO, mystery deals, or dual discounts with a catch. 

c) Intensify real urgency 

A countdown timer will communicate real urgency and meet your AOV targets. It invokes FOMO leading to impulse purchase decisions. Don’t forget to take help from free shipping and returns (if feasible). 

5. Offer value-added marketing—create unique experiences

Value-added marketing refers to creating unique experiences through enhancements to products or services. Pet Canva offers a 20% sitewide discount plus customized pet products as part of its Labor Day marketing activities. 

This creates opportunities for retention as customers are highly likely to come back for repeat purchases. Plus, this helps you create a niche identity in a competitive marketplace.

Quick tips to make value-added marketing drive sales this Labor Day sale: 

a) Evoke the right emotions 

You need to convey the right message to the right target audience. For example, PetCanva is addressing the pet parents who would want to treasure the time spent with them by capturing their memories through customized markets. 

b) Offer exclusivity 

All of these efforts must offer customers rewarding experiences that make them stand out. These efforts help you create a positive word-of-mouth marketing that can be leveraged in the form of UGC.

c) Be authentic 

Your value-added marketing efforts must gel with your brand ethos. Don’t come across as phony with too good-to-be-true claims and deliver your promises. For instance, don’t offer additional discounts in exchange for reviews. 

6. Get your foot in the door— with reciprocity marketing 

Reciprocity Marketing refers to offering value upfront to motivate customers to give something in return. It stems from the psychological tendency to want to offer something in return when we receive something. 

Stila uses reciprocity marketing in its Labor Day email campaign. It offers a free Deluxe mascara to its customers free with every purchase. 

The perceived value of the mascara makes it an irresistible offer since it gives a youthful appearance to the eye by thickening, lengthening, and darkening the eyelashes. 

You always don’t have to offer free stuff. There are other ways to do it as well as such as: 

a) Offering risk-free trial 

A 30-day trial eliminates risk aversion and nudges customers to be open to trying new products. 

b) Provide free shipping on minimum order 

Free shipping on minimum order value helps cover your shipping costs, taxes, and other expenses. It relays the principle of give and take and reduces cart abandonment. 

And customers are willing to pay. 

82% of American customers purchase more goods to take advantage of free shipping. 

c) Offer a product discovery quiz 

Customers may always not be sure about their choices. 38% of eCommerce customer journeys begin on the retailer’s website. With a product discovery quiz, you can help them with product recommendations invoking authority. 

7. Get creative with copy—make shoppers feel happy about their choice

Reebok uses tiered discounts in its Labor Day email marketing where it offers three varying discounts depending on the minimum order value. 

A tier discount is a price reduction offered when the products are bought in large numbers meeting the threshold. This can help generate sales to make up for the slump. While this increases the AOV, it allows you to pay off your shipping costs, production costs, and inventory costs. 

Learn the ways to make your tier discount work for the upcoming Labor Day promo ideas: 

a) Use parallelism 

Use a strong powerful hook in your copy to grab the attention of the customers. You can use parallelism—using similar words, phrases, clauses, sentence structures, and other grammatical elements to emphasize similar ideas in a sentence. 

In the example above, Day off? Sweet. Percentage off? Sweeter brings forth parallelism. 

b) Know what to spotlight  

While the key messaging is important, highlight the important elements you want to see. Bold the percentage or dollar-off discount. Since most readers read from left to right, this enables preattentive processing—the subconscious processing of visual information. 

c) Show the promo code! 

A promo code can help make more compelling offers as it can help users engage in the eCommerce funnel. It stimulates oxytocin levels by 38% while lowering stress levels. 

Get better at eCommerce copywriting: 23 inspiring examples from the US

8. Offer a chance to unlock individual discounts 

Scratch cards can improve your CTR by 60%.

It combines non-gaming elements and gaming context to motivate customers to take the desired action. 

Glasses USA includes a scratch in its Labor Day email marketing promotions.

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Scratch cards could be your trump card is because of the Curiosity Gap. It’s the space between what’s presented and what we want to know. This gap is leveraged by eCommerce brands in educating customers about a benefit and subtly drawing into taking action. 

These tips help you implement scratch cards in your marketing arsenal: 

a) Start with a powerful anchor 

An anchor word is a word that grabs the attention of the user and leads them to the process. Ask questions, use ellipses, and add implied urgency. 

For example, 454 people unlocked their lucky discount. You can join them too! 

b) Optimize for mobile usability 

Since 79% of US customers have made purchases using their smartphones, design emails that don’t just look good but do so without breaking. Use a single-column layout to enable visual hierarchy and user experience. This makes your images and messaging easily visible without friction. 

9. Take the minimalist approach to storytelling 

Minimalist storytelling focuses on writing the message in a clear, concise manner. It doesn’t use decorative words and aims for brevity. 

Burrow uses the Star-Chain-Hook model to communicate its offer. 

Let’s break down the example. 

• Star – The central element of your offer. It could either be a benefit, value, or an idea. In the above example, Long live the weekend talks about the Labor Day weekend. 
• Chain –  A series of facts, premise, reasons that supplements your star. In this case, The weekend isn’t over yet…savings upto $600 underlines the opportunity and the urgency to act.
• Hook – The hook is the CTA you want your users to respond to. 

Follow these three tips to get the minimalist approach right:

a) Keep it basic 

Focus on keeping the sentences short. Convey the benefit or idea in the least of the words. Props for keeping it conversational. 

b) Aim for brevity 

Get straight to the point without excessive use of adjectives and adverbs. The structure should be understood by fifth graders. 

c) Use of the power of 3 

Use three benefits in your copy to persuade the reader. It makes it memorable in the minds of the customer. Place the two most important benefits in the first and last order because customers tend to recall them easily. 

10. Loop them in with a loyalty rewards program 

Loyalty programs sell the experience of exclusivity. 

A loyalty program can boost your revenue anywhere between 5 to 10%. 

Beauty Pie offers a members-only price as an incentive in this Labor Day email template. 

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For a successful loyalty program outreach email: 

a) Reveal the rewards

For customers to buy ideas, mention what’s in it for customers and the type of rewards. A points-based program should reward customers based on referrals, recurring purchases, and subscriptions. While a tiered program, rewards customers based on their spending. 

Pro Tip—Free shipping is the number one benefit that customers expect from loyalty programs 

b) Be transparent 

When you’re offering rewards, especially at attractive rates, elaborate on how you’re able to afford these prices. Detail the costs and pricing details.  

Beauty Pie shows the way by including a link to their blog in the above example.  

Interestingly, 73% of US customers are willing to pay more to brands that guarantee total transparency. 

Finally, ensure data transparency by outlining how the customer data will be used.

11. Make recommendations—but smartly

Journelle makes product recommendations for the Labor Day Weekend by using the psychology of anticipation. 

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The product recommendations evoke a sense of confidence by offering to style the wardrobe.

Finally, it brings forth the principle of authority—customers tend to follow the advice of knowledgeable and legitimate experts. 

Use these tips to make product recommendations driven by anticipation: 

a) Offer curated lists 

Not all customers are the same. Some are just exploring while some do have a fair idea of your brand. To engage the second kind, offer product recommendations like Labor Day Essentials and The Labor Day Checklist. This comes across as a curated list and customers are open to suggestions when they are just in the awareness stage. 

b) Target specific attributes

Product recommendations based on concerns like oily skin, acne, aging and lip care are queries that the general audience uses. By offering these products, you’re solving a problem they care about with their solution. 

12. Use rhetoric to influence buying decisions 

Among all the persuasive tactics, rhetoric is underutilized. It’s the practice of using figurative language and grammatical elements to leave a lasting impression.

In the example below, Criquet uses rhetoric to sell its apron in its Labor Day promo email.  

It starts with a statistic, provoking customers to self-introspect.  

Here’re a few tips to use rhetoric effectively: 

a) Leverage UGC 

User-generated content uses interpersonal influence to drive purchase decisions. It is a stepping stone to building a community.

The idea of an online community is best described as "social aggregations that emerge from the Internet when enough people carry on those public discussions long enough, with sufficient human feeling, to form webs of personal relationships in cyberspace" (Rheingold, 1993). 

These spaces serve as space for information search, exchange, and seeking validation before buying a product. Interestingly, 48% of customers opine UGC is a useful way to discover products. 

b) Use trust signals 

The first underlying principle of rhetoric is ethos or character. It shows your trustworthiness and credibility. Use trust signals such as certification from a global regulatory authority, expert opinion of authority, media mentions are a form of social proof that build trust strong enough to commit to a purchase. 

13. Get started on Back-to-school campaigns

With summer vacations ending, it’s back to school for kids. The back-to-school season is one of the top 5 top customer spending events. The average spend by a parent was $864.35 in 2022. 

Start your campaign in July for a headstart as mid-August will be competitive. Electronics, clothing, and shoes are the highest-selling categories. 

Atoms is offering a 15% discount on shoes plus covid masks as part of its back to school campaign. 

To make your back-to-school campaign successful:

• Know whom to sell to—Parents and guardians, kindergarten to 12th grade students, college students, and teachers 
• Roll out bundles on back-to-school essentials such as clothes, snacks, electronic devices, and sports kits 
• Run early sale offers and promote the same on Pinterest lists as 25% of customers use it to plan their shopping lists 
• Start newsletter campaigns featuring product recommendations and promo codes so parents don’t have to do an exhaustive search 
• Offer options to personalize items such as clothes and accessories with names 

14. Donate Labor Day proceeds to charity 

To demonstrate the true meaning of Labor Day, donate a part of your proceeds to organizations working towards the betterment of trade workers. 

Red Wing Shoes for its Labor Day campaign decided to not conduct a sale. Instead, it gave away 100% of its profits on that day to nonprofit organizations.

You don’t have to give your entire sales away but allot a small percentage that you can afford to donate. 

Here is how you can do it: 

• Instead of money, give your products away to people in need 
• Use the proceeds to fund an event 
• Offer high-tier subscription offer and donate a part of it to charity 
• Do a one for one donation. Bixbee donates a backpack for each one purchased to the needy in Philippines, Rwanda, India, and the United States 

15. Start early Halloween sales 

September is an ideal time to get your Halloween campaign started. It allows eCommerce brands to test the waters and restock high-demand merchandise. 

It provides brands a larger window to sell their products and avoid inventory pile up. Prime Day is a fantastic opportunity to gauge public demand. This buys enough time to order your inventory so it reaches your shelves on time. 

Here’s what you can do: 

• Take a look at your past data and put on sale your highest-selling products
• Follow the 80/20 rule and put 20% of products that generate 80% of your Halloween sales 
• Segment your products into categories based on gifting choices such as friends, family, etc 
• Build an email list in exchange for early access deals, discounts for Halloween 
• Take pre-orders on Halloween staples that go out of stock at the last minute 

Labor Day Marketing 101

1. How can I promote Labor Day? 

Here is a list of things you can do as part of your Labor Day campaign:

• Offer great discounts for summer inventory 
• Give discounts on high-involvement products 
• Run compelling limited-time offers 
• Offer product bundles consisting of slow selling inventory 
• Offer instant rewards to communicate reciprocity such as free shipping, free returns, and free gifts in minimum order spend 

2. What should I post on social media for Labor Day?

Try posting anything fun, educational, or a contest for Labor Day on social media. Squatty Potty posts a humorous post offering 20% off on its products. 

3. How much do Americans spend on Labor day?

As per the latest reports, 54% of Americans are planning to spend on holiday essentials last Labor Day. With inflation mounting, more than 60% of customers will spend $100 or less. Interestingly, 30% of customers will spend more than $100. 

Wrapping Up

Labor Day is here, traffic is going to come. Are you ready to convert the traffic?

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