Is your local business ready to tackle the holiday season and make the most of Small Business Saturday by providing a great experience for your customers? Borrow these local advertising tips and make the most of the merry season while growing your business!
The holiday season will be here before you know it, making now the ideal time to start preparing for what’s to come. Small Business Saturday kicks off the holiday season and also provides a great opportunity for local businesses to increase sales and engage with their community.
In preparation for the season we’ve pulled together a short list of high-impact tips to set your local business up for success and growth:
1. Provide Stellar Customer Service
It’s no surprise that local business owners should expect more foot traffic going into the holiday season. Make sure your employees are equipped to provide customers with a great in-store experience. One way to ensure readiness for the holiday hustle and bustle is running through possible scenarios that could occur in advance with your staff.
Be open and proactive to help guide them to act accordingly when a difficult situation presents itself. In addition to great customer service, also consider ways that you can accommodate more customers and increase sales.
Entrepreneur suggests extending hours during the holidays and even planning hours around local events in your community. For example, if there’s a holiday parade happening on a Friday until 9pm, let customers know you will be open for the duration of the parade on your social media, email newsletter, and website.
2. Spread the Word on Social Media
Social media is the best way to increase word-of-mouth awareness and provides a great avenue to stay connected to your customers and keep your business top of mind during holiday shopping. Think of ways to connect with customers during the stressful holiday season- such as offering “holiday tips and tricks” modeled around your product or service.
Forbes also suggests sharing live, “behind the scenes” videos to increase customer trust and create authentic connections. Lastly, who doesn’t love a discount? Use your social media to run a special offer or promotion for the holidays to entice the customer to visit your business over your competitors. If you need help with social media marketing, check out our recent blog for more great ideas.
3. Get Creative on Small Business Saturday! (Nov 24)
Small Business Saturday is a shopping holiday established by American Express that highlights and promotes small businesses around the United States. Small Business Saturday is celebrated the Saturday after Thanksgiving (this year on November 24), on arguably the busiest shopping weekend of the year.
The holiday encourages consumers to shop in their local communities and offers local business free marketing materials and strategies to help them better connect with their local community. If you want to participate you can hang signs in your store to let shoppers know that you are participating and consider partnering with a complementary local business in the neighborhood.
Work together to offer a special promotion if shoppers visit both locations and share products in each other’s stores. If you’re on social media, don’t forget to use hashtags such as #shopsmall or create your own branded hashtag for customers to use. To learn more about Small Business Saturday marketing ideas click here!
4. Reach Your Perfect Customers First
Instead of sitting back and waiting for customers to step into your store, be proactive and reach your perfect match customers first. Welcomemat can utilize our big data models to target the most ideal customers in your neighborhood with direct mail jumbo postcards.
We’ll work with you to profile your best customers, customize your design, and craft the right message to encourage customers to visit your business first during the holiday season. If you’d like to learn more about how Welcomemat can reach your perfect customer, check out our website!
Welcomemat Services offers a wide range of great local marketing ideas including direct mail marketing and new mover marketing! If you are interested in seeing how Welcomemat can help you grow your business during the holiday season and year round learn more here!
