Started in 2010 by American Express (a very large, Fortune 100 business!) Small Business Saturday (#smallbizsat) was intended to encourage consumers to support small, independent and local businesses. Celebrated on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, it may appear to be Black Friday’s lesser-known cousin, yet it has grown each year in participation by businesses partners, communities, elected representatives and by the 88 million shoppers who showed $14 billion worth of love and support in 2014 for small businesses. It is now an official initiative of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) and President Obama has given his seal of approval with this message from the White House.
Is your small business ready for the outpouring of love about to come your way? Here are five tips to help you prepare for the Shop Small (#shopsmall) campaign.
- Take advantage of free marketing and registration materials from American Express to promote your small business, available here.
- Use social media channels to promote special features and events and tie your website to all of it with a special home page.
- Make sure your website is mobile and e-commerce ready. Consumers shop with their smart phones and they want transactions to be fast, easy and secure.
- Create a way for new customers to share their email on your website, store or event and add them to your email marketing outreach or create an email marketing distribution from the list, whichever is applicable.
- Hold extra staff training on customer service (how to greet clients, etc.), business priorities and policies (are returns accepted after the holidays, for example) and special promotions and sales. (20% discount on the red tagged items or whatever).
Secure new customers, serve your clients, get inspired by this video and join the celebration of you.
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