5 Crucial Things to Do This Holiday Season as a Small Business Owner

By Smith Willas

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The holiday season is one of the most hectic phases of the year, especially for business owners. People make a beeline to storefronts and enjoy their shopping spree. Gifts are being exchanged among consumers and millennials celebrate the holidays in a big way.

If you are running an online or offline business, how are you preparing to welcome these holidays and increase your sales? Although the holiday time can be highly frantic for you, it also poses a great opportunity to plan ahead for success. As the competition will get intensified, you have to implement valuable marketing strategies in order to stay ahead of your adversaries.

Here are 5 important things to do this holiday season that will keep your business on the road to success:

1- Create a powerful storefront branding

 

Since everyone loves holiday-themed decorations and store branding, so it’s time to set the mood for your business, too. The first thing to do is plan your budget and then develop holiday-themed campaigns in order to get the most out of the season. Holidays are all about expressing gratitude, reuniting with family and friends, and celebrating profusely. So clearly, the time is ripe for great branding opportunities. Make sure your intent is consistent with the spirit of the holiday season, and this calls for innovative campaigns that resonate with your audiences. Fresh signage, display signs, and decorative touch will attract your customers. This will provide a remarkable customer experience as they interact with your storefront. As a result, it will improve your reputation and solidify yourself as a legitimate player in your industry.

2- Plan for your post-holiday marketing initiatives

 

It’s natural to relax after the holidays are over, but this is always a perfect time to nurture those newly acquired customers. You need to make sure that they stay on top of your mind and turn them into lifelong, loyal customers. The fact is your customers will never stay engaged if they haven’t heard from you. Onboard your new subscribers effectively to create a lasting relationship right from the start, which means the post-holiday phase is a crucial time to devote efforts to retain them. To achieve this, you can soften the hard-sells and incorporate brand education to create lasting fans and brand-advocates.

Just after the holiday season, you can also ignite the post-purchase journeys as your database is full of recent purchase information. Start communicating with them on how they can start up their own post-purchase journeys. Talk about the ways how your consumers can use your new products. You can also consider custom tailoring post-purchase journeys.

3- Be more active on social media

 

Remaining active on your social media platforms during this holiday season is very important to maintain growth and keep your prospects engaged. Your social presence can have a huge impact on shoppers’ final decisions. According to a SproutSocial report, 74% of consumers rely on social media to making a buying decision. The main reasons behind this are: social media allows consumers to keep up with the latest trends; they can learn more about the products and services of a company; they can provide feedback and join brand fan community. You can dress-up your social media posts by creating holiday-specific content. There’s no doubt in the fact that social media is a great avenue to engage and interact with your customers. It’s also an important tool to know their needs, preferences, and other defining features.

4- Consider giveaways and freebies

 

Holiday is the season that is synonymous with exclusive giveaways and freebies. So offering attractive deals is a great way to give a gift to your current followers and incentivize them. Try to link your brand to what you give and how to give it. You can provide them with previews for your new product sets, or set up a special discount code in order to make their purchase easier.

Customizing gifts is another profound way to go. You can customize everything from scented candles to wine bottle labels. Apart from free gift hampers, food is something everyone would love to receive. Certain food items with a long shelf-life, especially seasonal foods really get people’s attention. This is good for the branding purpose all well – you can put your company logo on a removable sticker over the original one.

Furthermore, as an alternative to actual items, you can give vouchers of certain products or destinations for future use. Finally, if you are running an e-commerce company, you can greet your customers by offering free shipping. You can determine the amount by adding up the minimum order value as well.

5- Leverage the experiences of your employees

 

Employee advocacy is a powerful way of branding, marketing, and advertisement. So the holiday season is an appropriate time to leverage the experiences of your employees to your advantage. Being one of the greatest assets of your company, your employees can attract more and more customers. They can effectively bridge the trust gap by acting as brand advocates for your business and cultivate relationships with consumers, industry experts, and potential clients. You can encourage them to share their positive experiences through their different social media profiles.

When employees share content with their friends, family, and followers, the company message reaches more people at a minimum cost. This extending relationship can translate into increased revenue generation and sales. You can engage your employees at multiple levels by reinforcing the reason why they joined the company. When you allow your employees to feel valued and respected, you essentially create an advocacy group that unwaveringly promote your brand at a personal level.

Final Thoughts

The holiday season is already here and businesses need to brace themselves to captivate their customers and increase sales. From leveraging social media to incorporate employee advocacy strategy, there are many unique ways to make the most of this holiday season. The above-mentioned tips are an attempt to create effective holiday season strategies for small businesses.

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