The holidays are a magical time, and as a small business owner, you have a unique opportunity to shine brightly! ✨ And even if you don't have a product or a sales platform, you still have options for promoting during the holidays.
To help you get ready, we've put together a user friendly checklist to give you a few ideas for holiday preparation that are both practical and fun.
What We Know About Consumers and Holiday Shopping
As we know, the future depends on what we do today. We also know that it's not enough to post, cross your fingers and hope things work out. Finally, we need a plan for the holidays that includes research and a look into trends that tell us what has happened in previous moments in time.
The winter holidays are an important tradition to many American families, and shoppers are prioritizing their holiday purchases for the people most important to them,” NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay said.
“Retailers have been preparing for months to ensure their inventories will meet demand (and so should you), while at the same time helping consumers maximize their budgets with shopping events and discounts running throughout the extended holiday shopping season.
Nearly all U.S. adults (92%) say they plan to celebrate events such as Christmas, Hanukkah or Kwanzaa this year, which is on par with last year.
Similar to previous years, 43% of holiday shoppers say they generally start their holiday shopping before November.
The top reasons people begin their shopping ahead of time are to spread out their budget (60%), avoid the stress of last-minute shopping (46%) and avoid crowds (45%).
Regardless of how early consumers start, the majority (62%) expect they won’t finish until December.
“However, early sales may sway consumers to shop even earlier,” Prosper Executive Vice President of Strategy Phil Rist said. “This year, seven in 10 holiday shoppers say they are considering taking advantage of October sales events to pick up holiday gifts, décor and other items on their list.”
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Create a Holiday Marketing Plan
- Develop festive marketing campaigns and promotions.
- Choose the products and services you will sell.
- Design holiday-themed content for your website and social media.
- Map out a timeline for selling during the holidays.
- Update your website and social media profiles with festive visuals and promotions.
- Share holiday-themed content and run special campaigns to spread cheer and draw in shoppers.
Recommended Sales and Marketing Tools
Here are the tools we use for blogging, shop management and everything you see here. If you have tools that work, feel free to use them in the exercises.
Lead Magnets
Opt-In Forms
Automated Posting
Email Marketing
Landing Pages
Scarcity Campaigns
Payment Processors
Don't have a shop? Create links that will enable you to get paid.
Set Clear Earnings Goals
- Determine your revenue targets for the holiday season.
- Project your holiday expenses.
- Set SMART income goals and reverse engineer the path to reach those goals.
- Break down goals by month or week (e.g., September, October, November, December).
Review Last Year's Performance
- Analyze sales data from previous holiday seasons.
- Identify trends, successful strategies, and areas for improvement.
Short on Time? Watch This Video on the Go!
Sell More Products This Holiday Season
If you start early (like now) you will have time to build assets that can be used to sell during the holidays and all year long. Here are a few options you can get started with.
Open a Shop
Sales Strategies to Boost Sales
If your goal is to sell more products, once you have a selling platform, and a few products, here are some ideas for hosting a series of sales campaigns over the holiday season. Run simple campaigns like buy one, get one (BOGO), flash sales, and free shipping over a certain dollar amount.
Plan out the dates, set up and schedule the deals in your shop and use email and social media to advertise the events.
After the campaigns are completed, use the analytics in your social media accounts (that you've converted to business accounts) to measure how well things went.
Did you reach your goals? If so repeat what worked. If you didn't reach your goals, determine areas you can improve and try again.
Use tools like Tailwind to schedule your social posts and allow them to run on auto pilot.
Plan Your Inventory Needs
- Start by reviewing your inventory and services. Make sure you’re stocked up on popular items and that your offerings reflect the festive spirit.
- Forecast the demand for your products or services.
- Order inventory and materials to ensure you’re stocked up and ready.
Develop a Sales Strategy
- Plan special offers, discounts, or bundle deals.
- Create and promote gift guides for him, her, home, kids, pets and other demographics in your target audience.
- Research hashtags for holiday social media campaigns.
- Set up a calendar and campaigns for flash sales and limited-time offers.
- It’s a great chance to introduce seasonal specials or limited-edition products that can captivate your customers.
Lead Generation Exercise
For example, if your goal is to build an audience of 100 people that you can talk to about your business, use social media and the sales and marketing tools outlined above to grow during the holidays:
Use social media to drive traffic to your landing page allowing visitors and social media followers to become a lead.
Make sure to design your landing page to provide the benefits users will receive when they sign up to encourage as many interested visitors as possible to sign up.
Once you have launched your lead magnet campaign, monitor and track your progress to determine whether it is working as planned. Update or tweak anything that needs improvement.
Organize Logistics and Operations
- Prepare for increased customer traffic and orders.
- Streamline checkout processes and shipping methods to avoid delays.
- Ensure you have a solid plan for managing increased traffic, both in-store and online.
- Efficient systems will help you handle orders smoothly and keep stress levels low.
Don't forget about your team! Communicate any holiday hours or changes, and if possible, plan some seasonal team-building activities. A little holiday spirit can go a long way in boosting morale and ensuring your team is ready to provide exceptional service.
By staying organized and embracing the holiday spirit, you’ll not only delight your customers but also set yourself up for a successful and joyful season.
Plan for Customer Engagement
- Schedule social media posts and email newsletters with holiday updates.
- Consider running contests or giveaways to engage customers.
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Monitor and Adjust
- Track your sales progress against your goals throughout the season.
- Be ready to adjust your strategies based on performance and feedback.
Cheers to a wonderful holiday season ahead!
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