Here at Make it Happen Services, we know first hand what it feels like to be a small business during the holiday season. That’s why we are giving you 15 Ideas for Small Business Holiday Marketing! For the world of consumers and shoppers, it’s a time of great leisure and relaxation but for business owners, it can be much more challenging. Let’s dive into those holiday ideas!
Personalized holiday cards
One of the wonderful things of being a small business owner is the connections you make with your customers. This holiday season, scrap the mass email holiday card that you were going to send out. Instead, indulge in some paper and pen. Write write out personalized messages to your previous clients as well as include personal notes in any new customer orders. We all know the value of small consistent actions.
Email reminders!
If you don’t have the time or resources to budget for personalized notes, don’t forget the blessing that is the internet! Although emails can be easily missed by some people, those that do catch them before the spam folder will surely appreciate the gesture. Remember, you just want to find a way to reach out to people and most of all, it’s the thought that counts. Using platforms such as MailChimp and Constant Contact can help with the automation process.
Social media giveaways
If you as a small business are not only social media, you’re seriously missing out on some free marketing and promotion! While social media presence is the way to go for small businesses, it can also be a tough landscape to stand out in because everyone is fighting to promote and be the center in the spotlight. For that reason, giveaways work best to engage people, divert traffic to your page and garner overall exposure. Remember, people always love free stuff!
Social media competitions and contests
Get creative and collaborative with your followers and engage in some friendly competition with your online community. Your main goal should be to gather more exposure and attention to your page. Include your products and services as part of the competition. In addition, set up positional prizes and involve your followers in picking the winner for a sense of community involvement.
Make your website and social media accounts match the holiday spirit!
Keeping up with seasonal visual mood boards is a great way to show cohesiveness in your advertising models, people naturally gravitate towards colour coordinated palettes so it’s a habit worth developing. For instance, you could have orange, black, purple and brown visuals for fall and Halloween and switch up to green and red for December etc. This doesn’t have to stop at colour at all, you can even play with matching your headline and post fonts!
Don’t forget about the store windows
If you are an old school business that is not completely online, don’t forget your store front windows that can be the cause of getting shoppers to wander inside your store more often than not. You can never go wrong with a nice, cozy window set-up- there’s just something so uniquely inviting about it. So, go all out with those wacky holiday decorations because people will surely thank you for them!
Holiday gifts
People will certainly be more influenced to spend money or buy more than usual with the promise of a free gift included after a threshold price. Remember, a gift from your business should be a token that is relevant to your craft/services. This could be in the form of a mug, key chain or even a notebook! Make sure that it fits within your budget.
Free shipping
In today’s world of e-commerce and the convenience it offers, people typically do their holiday shopping online and most often, completely last minute! This occurrence can be made into a win-win situation for both parties as they are buying from you, your business can offer free shipping. It is also very counteractive when shipping costs are more than what you would expect, often people buy much more to reach the point of free shipping! Cut them some slack and offer that free shipping option, it is the holidays after all!
Last-minute holiday deals
No one knows why this crazy phenomenon of last minute holiday shopping craze crowds the population at the end of the year, but one thing for certain is that it causes a lot of panic and anxiety. One factor causing this is indecisiveness, surely if your business poses good sales and discount offers, people will rush to your doors. Once again, it’s a win-win situation as you get a plethora of last minute shoppers, who are relieved with some great deals!
Give your promotions a head start!
Do your best to catch the best of the early shoppers two to three months ahead of December, they exist in great numbers also! However, there is a catch to this strategy. If you reveal most of your promotion plans at once or too early, people might start losing interest, so start off slow with social media engagement, audience interaction and hinting at exciting announcements!
Personalize and optimize your social media feed
Given the many advantages and conveniences of social media, just like with every other thing in life- there is a catch. Due to algorithmic reasons, sometimes your posts might not reach your followers or target audience. In order to ensure you are relevant on your followers’ pages, be consistent and active with your social media posting, this will nudge the algorithm in your favour!
Special holiday-themed packaging
As much as we hate to admit it, we do by nature, judge a book by it’s cover. To some extent, the overall look and finish of a product influences our decision to either buy it or not. For this reason, you should invest in seasonal packaging if your budget permits, because it tends to generate excitement within customers!
Reward customer loyalty
In today’s digital world, it has become very easy to buy online with a few simple clicks and credit card payments. Despite all of that convenience, if someone chooses to shop with your small business, they deserve a token of appreciation. You can show your appreciation by, including prolonged promotions, sales, discounted prices and rewards systems etc.
Shift your work hours
Sometimes “last minute” shopping can be easily explained, with the commitment of jobs! People often leave their shopping to the last minute because they are too busy with work and cannot accommodate their schedules to shopping mall hours. To help out these people and develop a mutual trust between yourself and them, try to extend your hours or even open earlier just for seasonal times. This will definitely help with brand loyalty.
Donate to a charity
With all of the excessive shopping that takes place during the holiday season, it can be quite materialistic. A meaningful gift during this time is to consider giving back to a local charity. Donating, especially locally, leaves people feeling much better about their purchase as they are helping with a greater cause. This is also a good way to gain exposure and foster affiliate relationships.