Small Business Saturday is fast approaching – mark November 30thon your calendar! It is never too early to begin planning for how you can promote your business and stand out from the crowd on Small Business Saturday. Read on for some simple but effective things you can do to get your business noticed.
Share the Benefits of Local Shopping with Your Customers – In the months prior to Small Business Saturday, display signage that states WHY it is so important to shop local (find ready-made “Shop Small” graphics from American Express HERE or use our FREE GRAPHICS). Post them around your store and add them to each bag at checkout. Make sure to include the impact that shopping local has on the local community on your signage!
Host a Contest – Ask customers to take a picture of themselves in your store and then share it on your social media platform with a unique hashtag like #ABCPaintSupportsSmallBusiness or #ShopSmallABCPaint for a chance to win a free product from your store or maybe tickets to a local sports event. You could also hold a raffle (after checking your community’s local laws about raffles) and give away a gift basket of products. Promote your contest or raffle on your social media platforms and announce the winner in a live-stream on Facebook on Small Business Saturday.
Hold a Crafter’s Event – The sky is the limit for this idea! Serve refreshments, play music, have several local artists/crafters from your area set up tables with examples of their work and have information on the products used in making their items available. Don’t forget to live-stream your event on social media, and make sure you emphasize that your main purpose for holding the event it to help your community thrive by promoting the small businesses in the area.
Host a Demo Day – Set up tables and let employees demonstrate the use of one or more of your best products. Paint and decorating stores lend themselves especially well to this, as there are so many products and fun techniques you can show your customers how to do. Definitely do a live-stream or video posted to your social media platforms. Most of all, let your audience see how much knowledge you have of your products and the extra service they will receive by shopping locally with you. Achieving success with many DIY products comes from knowing the proper way to use them, and you have the market cornered on know-how that you can share with your customers!
Create a Facebook Event – Create a Facebook Event online and then the day of the event, live stream it to your followers. Introduce your employees, show your Facebook audience around your store, do a demo of a product you want to promote. Get some stats ready to share with your audience about how shopping local is a win-win for everyone in the community. As an incentive to keep them watching, announce that at the end of your Facebook Event live stream you will give out a code word for your audience to use that day at your store in order to receive a free product or discount.
Host a Holiday Party – Have Santa visit, bake up your famous gingerbread or chocolate chip cookies and serve them along with some punch or hot chocolate. Decorate with festive lights and hold a “Guess How Many Candies Are In The Jar” contest with the candy jar and a discount coupon as the prize for winning. In advance of this event, hand out a Holiday-themed or shop-local themed coloring page for kids and have them bring it back to the party all decorated in exchange for a small prize, then hang those beautiful pieces of art in your store. Again, use your social media platforms to publicize your party and to encourage your followers to have some holiday fun while shopping local!
There are so many engaging ways to promote Small Business Saturday as well as the “Shop Small” theme that the hardest part will be deciding what you want to do. Don’t wait until the last minute, get going now and make your plans. Getting the word out on why shopping local is so important is something all small businesses should do on an ongoing basis, but Small Business Saturday gives you an extra excuse to have some fun and make a difference in your community!
