Coming up at the end of November is Small Business Saturday. Last year, in 2018, over 112 million American shoppers spent a whopping $17.8 billion at American small businesses and Main Street extravaganzas. Over 60% of USA small businesses stated that the day made an enormous impact on their holiday sales as well as on their overall bottom line for the year. So, how did they do it? What were some for the successful strategies used to make it one of the best revenue days of the whole year?
- Make sure your website is as ready as it can be. Update everything. Make things as easy as possible for them to buy. Add video and send out those email blasts. Get set up and take advantage of your community business and outreach sources. Open early and stay open late.
- Cross promote with other small business within your community and even region. Forming alliances with non competitors will have a huge effect on everyone’s bottom line. You can offer special promotions and discounts as well as create related in store events and you can even share the costs of marketing and advertising.
- It is all about the customer but you likely already knew that. Have incentives everywhere. Even free coffee and soda can be an incentive that could make someone come to you rather than your rival. Free gift wrapping and in store contests, raffles and prizes will create a great buzz and cause them to stay around longer. Also, get outside. Set up displays outside your store and have plenty of signage about why they should come in.
- Start the campaign early with email and social media incentives. Even use social media to create unscheduled promotions and sales all day long so hundreds will be checking their social media all day long just to see what you are doing. Ask customers to take selfies and post them to their social media pages. Don’t compete with the big boys and girls with their slashed prices and ridiculous “door busters” nonsense. Stay within yourself. Show them who you are and why you are so unique and special.
-Written by Kevin Sawyer
