3 Small Business Holiday Strategy Marketing Tips
Whoa! Christmas is around the corner, and small businesses everywhere are trying to ramp up for the holidays! Considering 2020 has hit small businesses THE HARDEST, this is the perfect opportunity to ramp up your holiday calendar starting with these 3 tips.
1.Create a Holiday Content Calendar
Bloggers and content creators know this all too well! I am happy to share this known secret with you because simply put… IT WORKS. A holiday Calendar can be created as fancy as using Asana, or as simple as using Excel. I started my content calendar with Excel and now I just jot down my tasks for the month using Monday.com. However, for our passion project DFW LATINA BLOGGERS we just started using Asana. Whatever you decide to use, the best part is that you can make it your own. Go with what you know best, learn a knew tool for this later! The idea is for you to get to a place where you can visually see how your month is going to look like and get your brain juices flowing! Be sure to include:
Important Dates: Have fun and include those fun holiday days that no one really knows about (i.e National Ice Cream Day)
Your own important dates: If you have a business anniversary coming up, perhaps you can do something special that day! The main part of this is to look at your own business and include dates, when appropriate, as it relates to the business.
Deadlines: Sometimes, including deadlines on a content calendar can get a bit messy. I encourage you to include them as a task or to-do or if you are using Excel, include them somewhere on the page but not on the calendar unless you function better that way. It’s important that you see the tasks and things you need to get done and by WHEN you need to have them done - all on one page if possible. (Note- this is where your content calendar becomes unique to you)
2. Goal Setting
This next step may help you adjust or add or the content calendar. By reviewing your promotions and efforts made from the year before, you will get to see what work and what didn’t work. Remember, the ways in which we can promote today ARE different than how we were promoting our business last year. So much has changed in such little time, and especially with everything becoming virtual and online.
Promotions that were successful last year, if you are able, try them again this year. If they were successful because it was an “in-person” effort, grab that idea and see how you can tweak it. There are a lot of ways now to be creative and replicate some of the same but online. With a little creativity and Imagination, you can get it done! Once you review what worked last year, use it to set your goals for this year and what you’d like to achieve.
3. Ideas to Promote your Product or Service
When it comes to business being online or curbside, how will you achieve your goals? Now is the time to try some new strategies if you haven’t tried them already.
Story highlights: Instagram is such a great tool for business! It’s visual and people can make fast decision if they want to purchase your product or learn more. Story highlights is a great way for your story to stay on Instagram for longer than the max “up to 24 hours” time limit. Also, the more recent you have added to one of your story highlights, your highlight will appear as one of the first ones in the line of highlights to watch! And trust me, people do check them out.
Instagram Reels: This is brand new to instagram as of this year and let me tell you, it gets the most watched! I highly encourage you to learn how to make quick videos using InShot (app). It’s free and user friendly when it comes to editing videos.
Pinterest Boards: If you are on Pinterest often, chances are your audience is too! Regardless, Pinterest is great during the Holiday season because of all the ideas people are gathering around this time! Did you know, the average “lifespan” of a Pin is about 6 months? Yes! That means your pin can be circulating for 6 months before your next big pin! Get to researching What Makes a Good Pin on google and see how you can make this happen! Can you imagine how many potential sales you can get? Then get to it!
Try a different angle!: Considering showcasing your product at a different angle with one or all of the following:
Flat Lay: A flat lay is when you lay your products down on the floor with a clean background or canvas to create a visual of the product. With a flat lay you can add other elements to give the viewer a better understanding of when or how to use your product.
Collage: Collages work well when you have take photos professionally of your product and you have a sense of creativity! You can use Canva or more advance with Keynote. With keynote you can remove the background of your product, exposing the product itself and adding fonts and arrows to engage the viewer. Bloggers use this all the time! It’s a secret strategy that has not been shared much to businesses that can utilize this tool.
Detail Shots: While showing the entire product is great, try uploading a detail shot of your product and see how your audience reacts. Details shots work well when your product has elements like bright and colors, or unique textures. You know your product best and will know if detail shots are right for you (but still doesn’t hurt to try!)
Facebook and Instagram Ads: Not a lot of businesses that I know of have worked with ads before. While, yes, there is a whole other level when it comes to ads and learning from an Ad Expert… Facebook and Instagram do offer simple ways that you can show your product or service to your audience and that is by “boosting” or “Promote” the post. The best part about this, if you know who your audience is, you can tailor the ad to be shared to those within your demographics. The even BETTER part of this is, you don’t have to spend a lot of money to reach thousands of people. As a matter of fact, as you tailor your ad, facebook and instagram will show you how much as little as $2 a day can reach.
Note: Facebook and Instagram are constantly changing so be aware that what the minimum amount of ad spend allowed today, may be different depending when you read this article.
I hope these 3 Small Business Holiday Strategy Marketing Tips were helpful! If you tried any of these tips, I’d like to hear how they worked out for you! Write me at vanessaindallas@gmail.com or leave a comment below. Happy Holiday Strategy Planning!
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