The holidays are an exciting time for all: families gather together for the first time all year, holiday music and happy shoppers fill the stores, and your email, mailbox, and social media feeds are overloaded with holiday deals and promotions. So, how do you, as a small business owner, make your name heard above all the other “Black Friday deals” and “Doorbuster sales”? What if you can’t offer as great of a deal as bigger businesses can?
- Leverage Your Unique Selling Point (USP)
What sets you apart from others and makes people choose to do business with you instead of someone else still stands true during the holidays. Take your USP and promote it everywhere!!
- Create a Sense of Urgency
What do all of the Black Friday and doorbuster sales do best? They create that “I need it now” mentality. They don’t leave any time for consumers to mull over it and change their mind. It’s either you buy it now or the deal is gone forever. You can implement this into your own marketing using phrases like “one-day only”, “only while supplies last”, “today only”, and “doorbuster sales start at XX:XX on XX/XX”.
- Laser-Focus Your Efforts
Now is not the time to be trying to grow and be seen on all marketing platforms. Pick the one or two that have been most successful for you and run with it. You can get back to building your brand awareness on TikTok in January, but for now, it’s most important to put your marketing money and time into the platforms with the highest ROI for you. Develop a creative marketing strategy with as much of a marketing budget as you can for those platforms and GO!
- Go Off the Grid
Look at what everyone else is doing – and don’t do it. How do you get people to notice you when big businesses have flashing lights and billboards the size of your entire office/store? You do the opposite. Think about publishing a black and white ad on a page of all colored, holiday-themed advertisements, or create a how-to holiday cookie decorating video with one of your team members. Think outside the box to catch the attention of consumers.
- Don’t Forget the Loyals
Your customer based is comprised of up to 20% loyal customers, which account for up to 50% of your sales – all the time, not just during the holiday season (The Balance Small Business).
- Remember what you can about them. Did they tell you last month that their granddaughter was coming into town? Ask them how the visit was next time you talk.
- Offer an exclusive deal for loyal customers. This is simple and all you have to do is send out an email blast to past customers.
- Create a customer loyalty program. Not only will they feel like they’re a part of a smaller, exclusive part of your organization, they’ll also keep coming back to use their rewards, “points”, or discounts.
Marketing in general can be tricky, especially during the holidays when everyone is putting their best foot forward and offering their greatest deals of the year. The most important thing to remember is to be creative. If you can catch someone’s attention with how unique or out-of-the-box your marketing is, then you’ve captured the customer. Also, be strategic on your deals and promotions. Ask yourself “What is going to get them into my store or to pick up the phone to call me, and then what is going to sell them once they’re here?” Think about some of the emails you receive and the deals you see that you just fall for and “have to have”.
If you need help determining your USP, what platforms produce the best ROI for you, or what string of the ABC’s to use on your PPC, reach out to our team at Needham Solutions! We can work with you on a marketing consulting basis to help guide you in the right direction, or develop and execute a marketing plan for you so you don’t have to worry about a thing!
