The holiday season is one of the best times of year for small businesses. People are in a giving, and buying, mindset, and they are ready to support you! This doesn’t mean that selling your services or products will be effortless from October to January, but with the right holiday marketing strategies, you can capitalize on the time of year and sell a lot.
Attend in person events
One of the best ways to get new customers to your business, is to attend events. In person networking is powerful, especially if you go to an event that will be filled with people in your target audience. Not sure how to find these events? Join local business Facebook groups, and wait for someone to announce they are holding an event and looking for vendors. You can also just set one up yourself! Send out a newsletter to let your current customers know you’ll be setting up an event so they will attend, and reach out to other local business owners to have them come to the event as well. You can rent some audio equipment and hold it at your current warehouse or office space, or you can rent out an event space that will handle all of that information for you.
Offer discounts
A consumer is more likely to buy something if it is on sale, especially around the holidays. Black Friday and Small Business Saturday are days you should look out for and create sales specifically for. You can plan one big discount that you can promote leading up to, or you could offer smaller, different discounts on a weekly basis, to keep customers coming back for the next discount.
Make gift suggestions
Would your services or products make a great gift? Tell your customers! They may not consider it as a gift until you tell them, and then they’ll be convinced that what you can offer is the best gift for someone special in their life.
Focus on customer loyalty
Gaining new customers is an important part of growing your business, but don’t let that goal make you forget your loyal customers that already love you! Reward your loyal customers for sticking with you. Repeat customers are responsible for an average of 40% of your sales, so it’s important to not neglect that relationship. Offer a valuable, exclusive discount, or a new selection of products with early access, to your loyal customers to let them know you appreciate their business and loyalty.
Mobile marketing is key
How much time a day do you spend on your phone? At least a few hours, since you’re probably reading this from your phone right now. This isn’t something to be ashamed about, but take advantage of this! Use social media and content marketing to market to your followers. Send out an email campaign, create a killer Instagram ad, and consistently tweet about new products and services. This will drive sales and increase interaction with your customer base.
Offer free shipping
If you don’t regularly offer free shipping on your products, consider offering it for a limited time, just for the holidays. This will be an incentive to shop with you, and also offers a time limit to further motivate your customers. This is a chance for you to give back, and it’s something your customers will really appreciate.
Take advantage of nostalgia
The holiday season is filled with feelings of nostalgia, and as a business, you should take advantage of that. Holidays are surrounded by a hazy glow of Christmas lights strung on trees, snow quietly falling onto the ground, and cheerful tunes. Whether it is changing your website landing page to mimic these nostalgic feeling, or you want to create a social media campaign capitalizing on nostalgia, make sure that the nostalgic feelings are in line with what your website and business usually represent.
Say thank you
Have you considered sending out thank you cards to loyal customers before the holiday season is in full swing? This goes hand in hand with customer loyalty, and will motivate your customers to shop with you. Your customers want to be appreciated, and that relationship is more important than that you have with a marketing company, vendors, or anyone else you work with. Without your customers, you wouldn’t be able to do what you do, so make sure that they know that and that you appreciate them. So, say thank you.
