In our SheerIDEA Innovation Labs series, we’re exploring the ways top brands win loyal customers from valued communities through VIP offers.
Recently, our Senior Marketing Strategist Anglea Modzelewski took a deep dive into how marketing leaders at Nike, Vineyard Vines, and Bed, Bath & Beyond build lasting relationships and attract new customers with Veterans Day campaigns.
By adopting an authentic approach and using SheerID to digitally verify customers when they checkout, you can use a gated, military offer to win highly loyal customers—while protecting against discount abuse, collecting valuable zero-party data, and honoring the contributions of service members and their families.
Read on to learn our top tips for running a Veterans Day campaign, or sign up to access the full recording and get even more actionable insights and inspiring examples.
Why You Should Market to the Military
Identity marketing—offering a gated, personalized offer based on attributes like one’s life stage, profession, or affiliation—is impactful because it taps into the deep emotional ties people feel to the communities they belong to, like the military.
And because the offer recognizes a meaningful aspect of a consumer’s identity, they freely provide personal information to redeem the offer. This gives you valuable zero-party data you can use to build lasting relationships with your customers.
Being part of the military is an especially powerful affiliation. Research shows that 85% of the military strongly identify with being part of the military community, and more than half report that it influences how they see the world.
The military also happens to be a lucrative community for brands to engage. The 40.5 million members (including active duty, veterans, reservists, spouses, and dependents) wield more than a trillion dollars in spending power.
Personalized offers resonate deeply with the military. Nine out of ten military members use military discounts, and nearly three-quarters actively seek out brands that offer them.
Word-of-mouth is a powerful multiplier, too. Ninety-six percent of the military say they would share a personalized offer with others in their community.
And there’s no better time then Veterans Day to launch a military campaign. Ninety-eight percent of veterans used a Veterans Day discount in 2020, and more than half report they spend more on Veterans Day.
Personalized offers are a powerful way for brands to honor service members. Military members say these offers make them feel valued (66%), supported (65%), and honored (55%).
What’s more, rewarding the military through personalized offers generates awareness and goodwill for your brand, helping you stand out in the eyes of everyone else who supports the military.
6 Tips for Making Your Veterans Day Campaign Effective
As a digital verification provider, SheerID helps hundreds of brands implement military campaigns that make a difference. Here are six of our most valuable tips for making your Veterans Day campaign successful.
1. Use Authentic Messaging
This tip is first because it’s crucial: be authentic and genuine in your campaign messaging. Lead with gratitude and sensitivity while avoiding tone-deafness. For example, a tagline like “Honoring All Who Served” strikes a very different chord than a cheerful “Happy Memorial Day!”.
Also, do your homework and respect proper military grammar, capitalizing branches and formal titles while not capitalizing broader terms like “veterans” or “active duty”. And make it easy for military members to engage with your campaign—keep your offer clear and your CTA simple.
2. Get Creative with Your Offers
Go beyond a blanket discount and engage your military audience with unique experiences. Consider giving away a special product, offering perks like free shipping or upgraded loyalty status, or building special product bundles that appeal to military members and their families.
3. Promote the Offer Broadly
Get the word out about your campaign across all your usual channels. Place messaging prominently on your website, including in your header, on a homepage banner, and even in your footer (many military members are used to scrolling down to find a link to a dedicated landing page just for them).
Promote your offer with digital ads, emails, and influencers. And don’t forget the power of PR. Many publications put together round-ups of military discounts as Veterans Day approaches. Notifying your local and national media outlets can give your campaign even greater visibility.
4. Get the Word Out on Social Media
Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn are the most popular networks for the military (in order). In addition to organic posts, you can also create lookalike audiences and target veterans with paid promotions.
5. Go Beyond a One-Time Discount
Another way to be authentic is to broaden your support for the military. Offer a military employment program or sponsor volunteer opportunities that serve the military community. If you’re just getting started, consider partnering with nonprofits that support veterans.
6. Make Veterans Day the Start of a Year-Round Engagement
Once you’ve collected the zero-party data of military affiliation, you can engage these valuable community members with military-specific personalized marketing. May is Military Appreciation Month, and every branch commemorates the anniversary of its founding.
Military families have their own special occasions, too—November is National Military Family Appreciation Month, and Military Spouse Appreciation Day is usually observed on the Friday prior to Mother’s Day.
These are wonderful times to reach the military community with campaigns that offer them support, appreciation, and exclusive promotions.
How SheerID Can Enhance Your Veterans Day Campaign
Using SheerID’s Verification Platform to verify eligibility for your Veterans Day offer gives your military audience a seamless, in-brand experience—but that’s not all. As the leader in identity marketing, we’ll help you promote your offer for free by:
- Listing it on our marketplace, SheerID for Shoppers.
- Sharing it on SheerID social accounts.
- Providing PR opportunities—on Veterans Day and throughout the year.
- Enabling you to distribute it through the FMTC affiliate marketing platform.
Bottom line: Military discounts are a powerful way to raise brand awareness, increase purchases, attract new customers, and honor a deserving community.
And when you use SheerID to digitally verify eligibility for your offer, you can launch a Veterans Day campaign in less than a week, protect your offer from discount abuse, and give the military community a positive and memorable experience.
Ready to Start Marketing to the Military?
Schedule a demo today to learn more, or check out the rest of our SheerIDEA Innovations Lab webinars to explore other ways identity marketing can drive your business forward.
