Although the holidays are a time for celebrating and spending time with family, they can also be hectic for small business owners. There are so many things to do in preparation for the holidays—from preparing your marketing materials to ensuring that your inventory is ready—that it can be hard to know where to start.
This guide will give you an overview of what you need to do to make the most of the holiday season and take some stress out of this busy time.
Set Your Sales Objectives
If you don’t have any objectives to help you get something for which to strive, you won’t increase sales over the holidays. Set aside time to meet with your personnel about it. Define the goals that you should reach at the end of the year with them.
Determine what you want to accomplish, such as getting more people in the door, increasing average purchase amounts, or gaining new customers. With a plan of action, everyone can be on board to help get your business where it needs to be.
Make a New Marketing Strategy
Why will your customers want to spend time at your small business this holiday season? What sets you apart from the competition? Investigate and find out what they believe is unique about your Business.
Finding a fantastic concept is to turn your local business into a tourist attraction. As a result, you can create a marketing campaign around it. Perhaps you have the most incredible inventory in town. Highlight this in a campaign and be as specific as possible. People like feeling like they are a part of something exclusive.
Clean Up and Spruce Up the Place
If you have a brick-and-mortar store, you’ve probably found that it takes a lot of work to keep your store looking its best at all times. The customer’s first impression of your small company is crucial. It can make or break them before they even step foot inside, so you should do what you can to make the outside look good.
First off, give your establishment a thorough cleaning. Call professional service providers that can clean your roof, windows, floors, and everything in between cobweb-free and dust-free. Next, decorate the place with some cheerful holiday decor. This will add a touch of festive cheer for customers and make your business inviting. Finally, put your best foot forward by ensuring that the signage is clean and legible.
Host Events
One way to bring people into your business is by hosting events. This can be anything from a holiday open house, where customers can come and enjoy refreshments while browsing your products, to a giveaway contest on social media.
If you have extra space, consider putting up a little photo booth (and post their photographs with your hashtag on social media). You can even add a whiteboard where visitors can write down their wishes for the holiday season. You can also host an event with your local chamber of commerce, school PTA, library, etc., to promote goodwill and community involvement.
Offer Limited-time Discounts and Promotions
Another great idea for holiday marketing is to provide discounts and promotions. Offer a special gift with purchase, such as free shipping or an additional product for the same amount of money (or less). Or you might offer one flat percentage off on all goods—but only valid during certain hours of the day. This works well if your small business has multiple locations in different cities or online stores.
Encourage Customer Loyalty Programs
If there is an opportunity for your customers to earn points through frequent purchases, consider using this as part of your holiday marketing. You can base this on the number of dollars spent within an allotted time frame. (For example, buy $100 worth in November and get 5 percent back.) You can even base this on the number of times they shop with you within a given time frame (for example, get one point for every purchase).
Either way, your customers will appreciate feeling like they are getting rewarded. You can also use this opportunity to build excitement by announcing when points expire and what items/amounts qualify for certain tiers of rewards.
Stay Active On Social Media
Social media is the easiest and most successful method to reach out to new consumers this holiday season. Share interesting articles, photos of your products used in creative ways, behind-the-scenes looks at how your business operates, and anything else that might pique people’s interests.
And don’t forget to participate in the social conversation on your pages! If you see a question being asked, answer it. If someone has a problem with one of your products, reach out and help them find a solution.
Hopefully, you found this article helpful in generating new holiday marketing ideas. Prepare for 2022 with these innovative marketing tactics. These are only a handful of the many methods consumers will use their time and money in 2022, so don’t pass up this opportunity.
