Small Business Saturday is around the corner.American Express, which birthed the now-annual celebration in 2009, is giving small businesses across the U.S. the tools to promote their business during the busy holiday shopping season.
And if you’re part of the 60 percent of small businesses using social media marketing, this is a huge opportunity to boost your sales. In 2015 alone, 95 million consumers participated in Small Business Saturday. That’s a lot of potential customers for your business.
If it's your first year participating, or you're still looking for ideas for how to attract customers to your business as we kick off the gift-giving season, check out these tips.
1. Make sure your social media profiles are up-to-date
Take 30 minutes to comb through all your social media profiles and make sure your information is the latest and greatest.A few key items to verify include:
Your website – Make sure it’s the right one and the link is working on all your accounts’ profiles, including Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+ and Instagram.
Contact information – Do a quick double-check that it's the right phone number, email address and physical address for your business, and make sure your have an auto-reply set up on Facebook messenger for your business page.
Hours of operation – Are you running special hours for the holiday season? Make sure these are updated on your social profiles so if you have a brick-and-mortar store, customers can stop by.
Business description – Make sure it's clear what you do. Use simple language to specifically say what product or services you offer – i.e. Use "women’s clothing boutique" over "The place for women to feel beautiful," which could be a variety of businesses.
2. Download the Small Business Saturday marketing materials
They have gifs.
They have photos.
They have copy.
They have posters.
Check 'em out - here's the link. Download the marketing kit and start promoting your participation!
3. Spruce up your headers and profile photos
This can be a simple gesture and produce big results.
Remember: Your Twitter and Facebook headers are like tiny, yet mighty, billboards, announcing to the world, via the internet, that you're open for business.
If you plan on having a holiday sale - say 10 percent off all purchases made on Small Business Saturday - then plan on having creative social media headers to reflect that.
You can quickly and easily make a branded header in Canva.
This is a free tool and easy to use. You can create your holiday headers for Facebook and Twitter in about 30 minutes or less.
If you need help, check out this short video.
Small Business Saturday map example
4. Get on the Small Business Saturday map
We're in Pittsburgh, so here's what our map looks like: You can get on the map too! That way when the shoppers who support small businesses - like your business - look at the map they'll be able to find you. Learn how to get listed here.
5. Hashtag it up
Use #shopsmall to join the conversation. As a reminder, hashtags help archive similar discussions on social media and it helps followers and non-followers alike find you.
Shout out to the world that you're part of the bigger movement to support small businesses across the U.S., aiming to keep them a part of our gift-giving traditions.
Even if your business isn't participating in Small Business Saturday, being a part of the conversation on social media can help generate awareness for your business. This could be a way to introduce your brand to a whole new audience and, according to the Huffington Post, small businesses need to be using social media to even start that relationship, which could lead to revenue for you.
6. Propose a partnership with another local business
Example of a small business owner cross-promoting other small businesses
If you're a small business owner, chances are you have friends who also have a shop, stand or boutique. Like attracts like, right?
So call/text/email/message your fellow entrepreneur and see if they're interested in cross-promoting. Here’s an example of that happening in real life:
Or
You could also see if they'd be interested in joining forces for the day. For example, if you're selling candles and your friend sells baked goods, invite him/her to set up a table in your store.Then, on social media, tag each other and let your followers know.
Don't forget use #shopsmall too!
7. Run a promotion or special offer in advance
Small Business Saturday is growing in popularity – generating $15.4 billion in 2016 – so just participating can help boost awareness or sales for your business. If you want to go the extra mile, you can boost visibility and incentivize customers to come, shop and buy through your very own promotion.
And you can do it using social media.
Example: One option would be to offer a special promo for followers who share your posts on social media. You could offer a 20 percent off promo code for anyone who shares your post. When someone shares it, you can privately message them or direct message them a special code they can use in-store on Saturday.
Good Luck with Small Business Saturday
If you're a small business owner, congrats - you're part of the backbone of the American economy. Small Business Saturday is just the tip of what a huge opportunity social media gives you to engage with your customers, gain repeat customers and give your business a boost at the end of the year. Good luck!