27 Feb March Madness Promotion Ideas

Basketball Promotional Items

March Madness is quickly approaching and this a great time to promote your business. Your business does not have to be a sports related business or a bar to take advantage of March Madness. Any business industry can get creative and use the excitement from March Madness to promote their business. Below are a few ideas to use for this popular time to get your clients, fans, and potential customers involved and promote yourself:

1. Facebook contests – Of course, you knew this would top the list. You can’t just have a business Facebook page and not engage your fans. Once the teams are chosen, have a bracket contest in which your Facebook fans predict winners. Award the fans with the most correct predictions with gift certificates. Don’t be stingy; make sure your gift certificates are worth the time it takes for your Facebook fans to participate.
2. Email Signups – Have customers submit their email address and contact info along with a prediction of the Final Four or the Tournament champion. Award the winners with a worthwhile gift. Be sure to plan for several winners. If you are a retail store, have a booth setup by the registers so your cashiers can promote the contest. Once you get the email addresses, make sure you add them to your email newsletter list.
3. Basketball Promo Giveaways – Give away branded basketball promotional items with each purchase of $25 or more. Of course, you set the price depending on your product price points, but you can give away items such as custom printed mini basketballs with your business logo or any number of other basketball promotional products.
4. March Madness Sales – Heavily market “March Madness Sales” during the NCAA tournament. Promote your sales through Facebook, Twitter, email newsletters, flyers handed out to customers a week or two prior to the upcoming sale, and signs in your store.
5. Local Team Celebration Sales – If you have a local or even a team within your state that is in the NCAA Tournament, offer a certain discount after each of their wins. For example, if you are in the state of Mississippi and Mississippi State University is in the tournament, offer a $10 off your purchase of $25 or more on the day after Mississippi State wins a game or some other similar offer. Show your support for your local or state teams.
6. Inside Sales Tournament – Create a bracket with your employees names and have a head to head sales contest. The ones with the most sales for that day advances within the brackets and competes against the next competitor. Make sure you have prizes for those who make it to the Sweet 16 and even bigger prices for those employees making it to the Super 8, then even better prizes for the Final 4 and the Champion. Give your employees incentive to sell more and have them use the excitement of March Madness to sell more for your company.
7. Basketball Hoops Contest – Get a mini basketball hoop and a mini basketball and give your customers 1 shot and enter those who make their shot into a drawing for “something!” Make that something good!
8. Throw A Party – Have an open house party to kick off March Madness. Invite all of your current clients, prospects, and the surrounding public to the party. Offer FREE food and FREE drinks. Make sure you have plenty of promotional giveaways so they leave with something of value with your business name and info. Everyone loves free stuff, especially food, drinks, and useful promotional items.

Most of these ideas are very low cost; however, they all have the potential to generate a lot of leads for you which will turn into sales. March Madness produces an excitement with fans that lasts longer than any other sporting event, so harnessing that energy can be great for business if you put a little time and creativity into the campaign. The time to start is now because March Madness is right on our heels. Get creative and happy selling!