Updated August 22, 2019 

Combine personalization and Veterans Day to engage with a community to honor those who serve(ed).

The military men and women who serve and protect this country come from all walks of life.

We tend to pay attention to the bold headlines from overseas so often we overlook things that happen right in front of us. The act of courage and dedication is valued across the board.

Veterans Day & Memorial Day

Veterans Day should not be confused with Memorial Day. Veterans Day celebrates the service of all U.S. military veterans. On the other hand, Memorial Day honors those who died while in service.  

Here are a few facts about a veteran population of the United States according to history.com 

• 16.1 million living veterans served during at least one war.
• 5.2 million veterans served in peacetime.
• 2 million veterans are women.
• 7 million veterans served during the Vietnam War.
• 5.5 million veterans served during the Persian Gulf War.
• Of the 16 million Americans who served during World War II, about 558,000 are still alive.
• 2 million veterans served during the Korean War.
• 6 million veterans served in peacetime.
• As of 2014, 2.9 million veterans received compensation for service-connected disabilities.
• As of 2014, 3 states have more than 1 million veterans among their population: California (1.8 million), Florida (1.6 million) and Texas (1.7 million).
• The VA health care system had 54 hospitals in 1930, since then it has expanded to include 171 medical centers; more than 350 outpatient, community, and outreach clinics; 126 nursing home care units; and 35 live-in care facilities for injured or disabled vets.

Here are a few marketing ideas for your online store that Veterans and active military personnel rightfully deserve.

Be Personable

People like to do a business with real people, not computers.

Say Thank You. Go Facebook Live, share an Instagram Story or create a short video story.

You don’t necessarily have to sell military designs to stand out among your competitors, however, you should strive to express gratitude towards those who protect our country. 

Offer Discounts

Prepare a 24-hour promotion in honor of Veterans, make it available to all your customers.

Colors

Sprinkle in Red, White & Blue colors into your marketing strategy to gain additional exposure among your competitors. With a few modifications, you can easily use mockups and promotional materials from Memorial Day.

Personalize Products

All Veterans at one point in time have given up the warmth of family, the comfort of a home and missed the big or the small milestones.

As sellers, we have the opportunity to create a design that might help ease the pain of missing out.

Incorporate designs of all military services: Proud Navy Grandpa, Proud Army Mom, Proud Coast Guard Uncle, and more.

Good Cause

If you are more established business, put the sales quota aside and use the profits for a good cause.

Help improve a quality of US Veterans in your hometown by donating a certain percentage of Veterans Day Promotion profits to a hometown Veteran organization.

Geographical Areas

As of November 2017, the United States Census Bureau statistics show that some areas are more heavily saturated than others.

Heavily saturated states are:

• Wyoming
• Montana
• Alaska
• Virginia

Concentrate your veteran marketing efforts on those geographical areas to reach the right audience.

Market To All

According to the United States Census Bureau, the number of Women in Military has grown.

According to the Office of Data Governance and Analytics by 2043, women are projected to make up 16.3% of all living veterans, compared to 9.4 percent in 2015.

“Women have proudly served and continue to serve this country through all periods of United States history, whether as nurses in WW2 or as combat helicopter pilots in Afghanistan.

Make sure to include both male and female products in your Veterans Day collection.

Get a Head Start on Cyber Monday

Updated or add new features to your store. Perhaps you want to tweak your brand identity.

Veterans Day is a perfect holiday to tweak and test to get your store ready for the holiday season.

Test-drive new features and plugins to make sure your store is error-free and ready for Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Good luck! 

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