The holidays are lurking just around the corner, and that means Small Business Saturday, the day after Black Friday when so many small businesses give special discounts and deals to their customers who remember the power of buying locally instead of from a big box store. But how do you get the word out there about YOUR Small Business Saturday happenings? Learn how to turn a ho-hum Small Business Saturday sale into a fabulous one!
What’s Up with Social Media Marketing?
Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest… These have become household words in under a decade. Like never before, social media marketing is creating a new environment for shoppers. They are able to see reviews of both your products and your store, compare prices on the go and find that perfect gift without even leaving home. So how do you drive them offline to your store? Here are a few hints:
- Help shoppers find that “hard-to-buy-for” gift by providing gift guides on your website. The man who has everything needs to record what and where those things are! The woman who is impossible to please would probably be thrilled with a gift card, but to where? Help answer these questions, preferably with services or products from your business.
- Build up to the actual event. Consumers are being inundated with advertising, so a single email, Tweet or Facebook post may not be enough to keep them engaged. Teasing is fair, though—check out how Lowe’s drove early traffic to their Pinterest site using silhouettes of their Black Friday sales items to build a buzz!
- American Express, who began the campaign three years ago for “Small Business Saturdays” has some awesome tools to make your local marketing happen!
Setting Up Email Campaigns
You’ve been faithfully gathering emails from customers for a while now, but maybe you’ve got either a ho-hum newsletter or just send out the occasional “We’ve now got this and it’s 10% off” type emails. Your job is already complicated enough with the variety of hats most small business owners have to wear. Instead of trying to figure out exactly how to string together a chain of emails building up to a serious Small Business Saturday buzz, hire writers, especially those well-versed in SEO and what’s trending, to build your email campaign for you!
Preparing Your Website for the Season
Let’s not forget your website in all this! Now is the time to freshen appearances, include information about holiday shipping and special hours, and while you’re at it, hire writers to really freshen up your product copy, about us page, FAQ’s and anywhere else you think a fresh touch can make a difference. They can even work SEO and meta descriptions into your pages, making for more contacts with the purchasing public and you don’t need to pursue a degree in marketing to have an awesome site encouraging customers to stop in for Small Business Saturday!
Cathleen V is a freelance writer available on WriterAccess, a marketplace where clients and expert writers connect for assignments.
