Your Last-Minute Guide to a Successful Small Business Saturday

November 25, 2014

Carpe diem! Seize the day! The Small Business Saturday, that is.

According to American Express, customers spent an estimated $ 5.7 billion at small, independently owned businesses in 2013. Those businesses who did seize the Small Business Saturday got a pretty piece of that profitable pie. This year, Small Business Saturday is on November 29th, but If you haven’t gotten your business ready to participate, no worries. We have some quick and easy tips to get yourself in line for a slice of that pie before this Saturday.

What is Small Business Saturday?

First celebrated in 2010, Small Business Saturday is a shopping holiday created by American Express to coincide with already highly anticipated shopping holidays such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday. An impressive 93% of American consumers think it’s important to shop small and support their community. That’s a decent amount, right? With that said, if you’re a small local business, you have the ability to reap major benefits from participating in Small Business Saturday.

(Enjoy the Small Business Saturday Last-Minute Guide to Success infographic below), or click here to check it out.)

Here’s how to get customers to #ShopSmall with you this year:

Define your goals.

Brand awareness: a fantastic goal to have all year round. get your business out there and let everyone know you’re an advocate for shopping small and helping out your community. At the very least, they’ll see your business as a “team player” and asset to the community, and if they don’t make it in to “shop small” on Saturday, they might still pay you a visit before the holidays (or after).
Boost holiday sales: If you’re a local business trying to boost holiday sales, here’s your chance! Encourage people to shop local with you just in time for the holidays. When promoting, be sure to feature popular items and gift ideas.
Social media followers & engagement: Since you’ll be busy on social media this week to promote your participation in Small Business Saturday, encouraging people to share your status with friends is going to help with your social presence. Talk with fans and followers about your deal, be personable – it goes a long way.

Create an enticing offer.

Stand out from your competition: See what other businesses/competitors are offering – not to copy, but to get inspired. See what kind of deals are out there and that people are responding to on social media. That should give you some good ideas on offers for your own business and an even better idea of how you can stand out from the rest!
Make it exclusive: Making an offer exclusive adds a sense of urgency. Something like, “The first 100 customers in the door get 20% off their entire purchase!”
Think about your audience: If you know your audience, you should have a good idea about what deals they would love if you offered. What kind of items do your customers love?
Be realistic: Don’t over-promise and under-deliver. You don’t want to offer a huge deal on an item you have a limited inventory for. Also be sure that your offer is in alignment with your holiday goals – you want to give a great deal, but offering 75% off everything might not be realistic if you’re trying to make a profit.

Make it more enticing

Be local and show community support: Show people how much you love and care about your local community. Shopping local helps the community grow, so remind people of this. We’re
Make an event: A lot of small businesses are opting to turn their Small Business Saturday into a special event, much like a gathering for friends. Offer refreshments while people shop around your physical shop, maybe even breakfast or a special tasting if you sell food items. You’re guaranteed to make a lot of friends and advocates of your business this way!
Registered AMEX cards that spend $ 10, get $ 10 back – up to three times! Let everyone know about this deal, it certainly incentivizes to buy. AMEX cardholders can register up until noon on Saturday, November 29th (Small Business Saturday). Learn more about registration and share the details with your customers here.

Customize your online presence

Free Marketing Tools: American Express is making it super simple to customize your online presence for this shopping holiday, and doing so is going to make your audience aware of your participation. The suite of marketing tools includes personalized social media cover photos, sample social media posts and email temples, a printable poster, a customized banner and more! Since we’re talking about last-minute marketing, UTILIZE THESE. Talk about time saving!
Keep it consistent across all your marketing channels.

Spread the word

Email Marketing: Send out an irresistible email this week to friends, family, subscribers to your blog or email updates, and customers, letting them know about the awesome stuff you have going on for Small Business Saturday!
In-Store Promotions: Print out signage (time-saving tip: use the printable signage that American Express provides you) and hang it up in your store window, also print out flyers to keep at the check-out counter.
Social Media: Sure, posting to social media can be tedious, but if you take the time to do it even a few times this week, it could really pay off. (More advanced tip, if you want to get your posts as much visibility as possible, try boosting them with a budget of your choosing, start small if you’ve never done it before, and try targeting people in your local area. Click here to get more information from Facebook on what to boost and how.) Don’t forget that American Express gives you social media post examples/templates you can use!
- Facebook: Make a post about your offer and make sure people know it’s coming up! (1 per day)
- Twitter: Tweet about your offer and be sure to include the hashtags #ShopSmall and #SmallBusinessSaturday. (Twitter is fast-paced so you don’t want to annoy people, but you can try 3-5 times per day and see how it works for you)
- Instagram: Create an image and countdown the days until Small Business Saturday. (Try 1 per day this week.)

Lastly, keep it going the rest of the year! If you’re a small, local business, you should be promoting #ShopSmall all year long! Take advantage of movements like Small Business Saturday to get the word out about your business. Bigger isn’t always better, and this is your chance to prove it! Happy promoting!