How I Use St. Patrick’s Day to Drive Real Website Traffic

I recently spoke with a freelance web designer from Boston, who voiced what many small business owners are thinking:

“I watch big brands roll out elaborate St. Patrick’s Day campaigns while I’m sitting here wondering how to make the holiday relevant without looking cheesy.”

Her struggle hits home. As small business owners and freelancers, you know you should use seasonal opportunities like St. Patrick’s Day, but the ‘how’ often leaves you stumped.

Most St. Patrick’s Day marketing advice tells you to post green graphics on Instagram and call it a day. That’s fine if you want likes, but it’s not great if you want people on your website.

Every idea in this guide is designed to bring holiday traffic to your website. Not just your Instagram feed.

She tried everything from “lucky” discounts to green-themed portfolio pieces. Some worked, many didn’t. That’s why in this guide, I’ll share practical St. Patrick’s Day marketing ideas that worked not just for her, but for many small businesses.

Why Market Your Business on St. Patrick’s Day?

Americans spend over $7.2 billion celebrating St. Patrick’s Day each year, according to NRF data for 2024. That’s a lot of green beer and shamrock merchandise.

For small businesses, the opportunity isn’t just holiday sales, it’s a chance to bring that seasonal energy to your own website.

Most of these ideas cost nothing except your time. The giveaway platform and popup tools have free tiers, and social content and email marketing to your existing list are free.

You don’t need a massive marketing budget or a huge team to make an impact. You can try any of the strategies I’m about to share with just a bit of creativity and the right tools.

When to Start Your St. Patrick’s Day Marketing

The businesses that get the most from St. Paddy’s Day promotions start earlier than you’d think. Here’s a simple timeline that works:

• 3-4 weeks before (late February): Set up your giveaway or contest. It takes time to build momentum and get entries rolling in.
• 2 weeks before: Launch teaser emails and start posting your St. Patrick’s Day campaign content on social media.
• 1 week before: Activate discounts and get your landing page live. Urgency starts to land around this time.
• Week of March 17th: Final push emails, flash sales, and giveaway deadline reminders.

St. Patrick’s Day Marketing Ideas That Actually Work

Here are some simple St. Patrick’s Day marketing ideas that are great for small businesses and freelancers who want more people to visit their website and get involved.

1. Run a St. Patrick’s Day Giveaway or Contest

If you want to get more people to visit your website for St. Patrick’s Day, you can’t go wrong with a giveaway or contest. Running a giveaway is a fun way for your audience to engage with your brand, while driving brand awareness and targeted website traffic.

I’ve learned that St. Patrick’s Day giveaways work best when you run them right on your website, not just on social media.

Instead of keeping the engagement you generate on your social media channels, you bring people straight to your website. This gives them more opportunities to engage, subscribe to your email list and potentially convert into customers.

If you use WordPress, RafflePress is a WordPress giveaway plugin that lets you run viral contests to grow your email list, social following, and website traffic—using a refer-a-friend mechanic that turns every entrant into a promoter.

Here’s what makes a St. Patrick’s Day giveaway with RafflePress really great:

• Ways to enter that bring people to your website: Like asking people to visit certain pages on your site to enter.
• Social media actions that help spread the word: Like getting people to share, follow you, or tag their friends.
• Email sign-ups to grow your email list: Getting people to join your email list as part of entering.
• A special page just for the giveaway: A page that’s designed to get people to enter the giveaway.

You can set up your whole giveaway in less than 30 minutes. Just pick a ready-made giveaway template, change the prizes to what you want, and watch people start entering.

Just look at Smash Balloon. tThey got over 3,500 new email sign-ups from just one giveaway using RafflePress. And you don’t have to be an expert to do something like that.

To help you get started, take a look at these St. Patrick’s Day giveaway ideas that users love.

And about prizes, they don’t have to be expensive. Giving away your own products or services often works better than just giving away gift cards. It brings in people who are genuinely interested in your business, and they’re more likely to become customers later.

For more inspiration on choosing the right giveaway prize, see these giveaway prize ideas.

2. Display Discounts on Your Website

Another St. Patrick’s Day marketing idea that works for many brands involves running time-sensitive discounts on your website.

Just putting a simple “17% off” banner on your website isn’t enough. The real trick is showing your deals in ways that grab attention and make people want to buy.

Here are some discount ideas that work well for seasonal marketing for small businesses:

• “Lucky 17” Deals: Offer 17% off, just on March 17th.
• “Green Tag” Specials: Give discounts on things that are green or have green in them.
• “Pot of Gold” Bundles: Do “buy one, get one” deals.
• “Rainbow’s End” Free Shipping: Offer free shipping if people spend over a certain amount.
• Flash Sales: Have sales that only last for a short time, with timers counting down to create excitement.

To really make these discounts work, consider how you display them. Tools like OptinMonster let you show deals via targeted popups, exit-intent offers, and countdown timers, so the right offer reaches the right visitor at the right moment.

Human Food Bar uses OptinMonster and gets 1,800 new sign-ups every month with popups, without annoying their visitors.

3. Post St. Patrick’s Day Themed Content

Holiday content either earns engagement or gets ignored. The difference is specificity.

I really like how Chicago Explore used quick facts to engage its audience with St. Patrick’s Day content:

That’s the kind of St. Patrick’s Day campaign content that actually gets shared. It’s specific, locally relevant, and gives people a reason to engage beyond a basic “Happy St. Paddy’s Day.”

To keep people interested, use different types of content for your March 17th marketing:

• Quick tips that people can actually use
• Peeks behind the scenes of your holiday preparations
• Spotlights on your product’s features with holiday uses
• Customer stories with a holiday angle

Always include a clear next step. Whether it’s telling them to visit your website, sign up for a special deal, or make a purchase, guide them on what to do next.

4. Create a St. Patrick’s Day Landing Page

During the holidays, many businesses commonly miss an opportunity. They create special offers, but then direct everyone to their regular website homepage. This often doesn’t work as well as it could.

For your St. Patrick’s Day promotion, use a specific landing page. A landing page keeps visitors focused on just your special offer, without all the other distractions of your normal website.

Tools like SeedProd, a drag-and-drop website builder for WordPress, make it easy to build these landing pages, even if you don’t know how to code.

In fact, a case study by SeedProd and OptinMonster shows that using dedicated landing pages can significantly lower the cost of getting new customers.

To make your holiday landing page effective, be sure to include these things:

• A clear headline: Make sure it immediately tells people what your offer is.
• A simple design with a few holiday touches: Add a little bit of the holiday theme, but keep it subtle. A green button or a small shamrock icon is enough.
• A short, clear description: Explain your offer briefly and simply.
• One main button or form for action: Have one clear way for people to take the next step you want them to take.
• A mobile-friendly layout: Ensure your page looks good and works well on phones and tablets.

Keep the design clean and avoid too many holiday decorations. The main thing you want people to notice is your offer, not the holiday theme.

Finally, make sure your landing page matches what you promised in your ads or social media posts. If your email mentioned a St. Patrick’s Day discount, your landing page should clearly show that same discount right away.

For a full walkthrough, see our guide on how to create a landing page in WordPress.

5. Promote Your Offers Via Email Marketing

Your email list is the one audience you own—people who already chose to hear from you. That makes it the highest-ROI channel for a St. Patrick’s Day push.

There’s a right and wrong way to do holiday emails. You don’t want to just send a basic “Happy St. Patrick’s Day” message that doesn’t do anything.

Instead, plan a short set of emails in the weeks before March 17th. Start about two weeks before with a sneak peek of what’s coming. Then, as the day gets closer, send emails with more details and stronger calls to action.

To make your holiday emails work well, keep them simple and focused. Each email should have:

• A clear subject line: Make sure it quickly shows what your offer is.
• A short and easy message: Quickly explain the special deal.
• An obvious call to action: Use one main button or link that takes people to your landing page.
• A feeling of urgency: Add a deadline, like “Offer ends March 17th,” to get people to act now.

St. Patrick’s Day Email Subject Lines That Work

The subject line is what gets your email opened. Here are examples that use urgency and specificity to cut through inbox noise:

• “Your St. Patrick’s Day deal expires at midnight”
• “Lucky you—17% off ends March 17”
• “Green tag sale: 24 hours only”
• “Enter our St. Paddy’s Day giveaway before it closes”
• “Last chance: pot of gold deal ends tonight”
• “We’re feeling lucky—[your name], here’s your offer”
• “One day. One deal. March 17th only.”

For even better results, segment your email list and send different offers to different groups of customers. New subscribers might get one kind of deal, while loyal customers get something extra special.

Make sure every email leads somewhere specific. Send them to the St. Patrick’s Day landing page you made—not your general homepage.

6. Run a Lucky Draw or Gamification Promotion

St. Patrick’s Day is built around luck, which makes it one of the best times of year to run a gamification promotion. These ideas feel native to the holiday and give people a reason to keep checking back.

A few tactics that work well:

• Hidden four-leaf clover: Hide a clover graphic on a specific page of your website. First person to find it and email you wins a discount or prize.
• Scratch-card email promotion: Send an email with a “scratch to reveal your St. Paddy’s Day discount”—a simple image reveal that creates novelty.
• Lucky draw for every order: Every purchase placed during the week of March 17th enters the buyer into a random discount draw, announced on St. Patrick’s Day itself.

RafflePress is perfect for the lucky draw version. You can set up a giveaway where winners are announced on St. Patrick’s Day—that announcement date creates a natural deadline and urgency that keeps entries coming in all week.

Bonus: In-Person St. Patrick’s Day Ideas

If you have a physical location, the holiday is even easier to activate. A few quick wins for brick-and-mortar businesses:

• Green-clad customer discount: Anyone who comes in wearing green on March 17th gets 10% off. Easy to promote, zero setup required.
• In-store giveaway entry: Print a QR code that links to your RafflePress giveaway landing page. Place it at the register and invite customers to enter as they check out.
• Joint prize with a neighboring business: Partner with the business next door for a combined prize package. You each promote to your own audiences and double the reach.

Frequently Asked Questions

When should I start my St. Patrick’s Day marketing campaign?

Start 3 to 4 weeks before March 17th. Set up your giveaway first since it needs time to build momentum. Launch teaser emails and social content 2 weeks out, activate discounts and landing pages 1 week before, then send final push emails the week of the holiday. Planning early means you’re not scrambling and your audience has time to engage.

What are the best prizes for a St. Patrick’s Day giveaway?

Your own products or services consistently outperform generic prizes like gift cards. Someone who enters to win your product is already interested in your business—they’re far more likely to become a customer later. If you want a cash prize option, a “pot of gold” bundle of your best-selling items works well and stays on theme. Keep the prize value at $50 to $200 for most audiences.

Do St. Patrick’s Day promotions work for service businesses, not just retail?

Yes—and service businesses often have an advantage. A giveaway for a free consultation, a session, or a month of service costs you time, not inventory. A designer could give away a brand identity package; a coach could offer a free strategy call. The holiday gives you a reason to reach out to dormant leads and current clients without it feeling like a cold pitch.

What makes a St. Patrick’s Day email subject line effective?

Specificity and urgency. “17% off ends March 17th” works because it names the exact discount and the exact deadline. Generic subject lines like “Happy St. Patrick’s Day from us!” get skimmed or deleted. Tie the subject line to a concrete offer, a specific date, or the person’s name. Test at least two variations if your email platform supports it—open rate differences between subject lines can be 20% or more.

How long should a St. Patrick’s Day giveaway run?

One to two weeks is the sweet spot. Shorter than a week doesn’t give you enough time to spread the word. Longer than two weeks and momentum drops—people assume they have plenty of time and never get around to entering. I’d aim to launch 10 to 14 days before March 17th, then announce the winner on the holiday itself. That creates a natural deadline and a reason to share the results on social.

Begin Your St. Patrick’s Day Marketing Plan

That Boston designer who was tired of looking cheesy? She ran a giveaway. Got 200+ email sign-ups in a week. That’s what this looks like in practice.

Pick one or two of these St. Patrick’s Day marketing ideas and execute them well. You’ll want to track what you get from it—here’s what to measure:

• Email list growth: Compare your subscriber count before and after the campaign.
• Website traffic spike: Check Google Analytics for the week around March 17th vs. the previous week.
• Giveaway entry count: RafflePress shows total entries in your campaign dashboard.
• Landing page conversion rate: Visitors divided by the number who took your desired action.
• Email open rate vs. your average: Holiday emails often beat baseline—note how much and use that subject line style again.

Ready to plan your St. Patrick’s Day giveaway? Over 200,000 WordPress sites run their giveaways with RafflePress. Get started and have your first one live before the end of the day.

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