It’s hard to believe, but it’s that time of the year again. We are weeks away from Halloween, then it’s Thanksgiving…and just like that, Boom, we have Black Friday, Christmas and New Years! It can be hard as a small business to compete against all the big names during the Holidays on your meager marketing budget. Fear not, we’re coming at you with some ideas to make the biggest bang for your buck this holiday season.

Start With Social Media – This is a great place to start because you likely already have a following here to speak to. 

  • Use your channels to feature a product or service as a great gift idea. All you have to do is post a picture of the item with ideas of who would love this gift.
  • Engage your audience with questions, holiday decorating ideas, do giveaways, etc.

 

Dust Off Those Email Addresses You’ve Been Collecting – As the holidays approach a lot of big businesses really ramp up their emails, but you can stand out with timely, personable, and relevant emails.

  • The holidays are a great time to use coupons and discounts in your emails. The email should provide value to your customers and attract them to your products/services. One way to write an email that provides value to your customers and also promotes your business is to send a newsletter rounding up the most popular gift items and offer a limited-time special on them.
  • You could also send personalized emails thanking your customers for their business. This helps nurtures you business relationship and positions you for further interactions in the new year.

 

Update Your Website – Make sure you change it back again after the holidays!

  • Changing out the visuals on your website to be more festive or seasonally appropriate shows customers that your site is up-to-date!
  • Make sure you are asking people for their email addresses and have a clear way for them to sign up for your newsletters, sales, and special coupons.
  • Make sure all of your content is up-to-date and easy to understand and shop.
  • If you’re an e-commerce business, you could create special bundles for holiday shoppers and promote featured products for the season.

 

Take Your Marketing Offline!

  • You could connect with other local businesses and cross promote your products.
  • Host a special shopping night with refreshments and special deals.
  • Get your customers involved! Remember Starbucks’ red cups? You could create a promotional piece that your customers could decorate and share on social media with a hashtag. Top designs could win a gift certificate.

Or you could make a big impact this holiday season without worrying about doing any of it yourself…. Hookd Promotions can do it for you! We can help you with advertising on Facebook and Google, Email Marketing, Blogging, and more. You’ll see a lot of traffic to your business and have more free time to enjoy the holidays. It’s a win-win!