CREATIVE HOLIDAY SEASON TIPS FOR SMALL BUSINESSES
The holiday season is just around the corner. If you have a computer and an internet connection (if you don’t then we don’t know which rock you have been living under) you must have received a billion-holiday email from every company imaginable, or you will be. The problem arises when you are also the owner of a small business or a startup.
Should you send an email just like this?
Should you go for something else?
You might start thinking that you don’t need all this hassle and start building your plans for next year. But if you think like this, you are going to miss out on a star opportunity to connect with your customers during the holiday season. This is the season of spending. This is the season when people are more focused on giving than buying for themselves. So no matter how many hurdles you think you might have, this is your chance of earning new clients.
Yes, you might make a few mistakes. But they don’t compare to making the big mistake of not doing anything during this season. Here are some of the ways you can stand out from the other billion campaigns and make your way into the customers’ hearts:
THE NEW YEAR RESOLUTION
Everyone on the planet makes one of these. Whether they uphold their resolution or not is a totally different matter altogether. But at the start of each year, everyone is motivated and wants something better for themselves as compared to the previous year.
You know that you have made a difference to many customers’ lives through your products or services. Your brand is the reason they have it easy. A great way for a sales promotion is to reach out to your customers for their testimonials and attach a free giveaway with it. Nothing beats real and specific accounts when it comes to marketing. These testimonials will give you the credibility that you are always looking for and provide word of mouth recommendations. So ask your customers about their New Year resolutions and how your products will help them achieve it. or you can ask them how your products helped them achieve last year’s resolutions. For every customer that participates in your campaign, offer them something of value like a free guide or a discount on future purchases.
HOLIDAY SPECIFIC CONTENT
One of the best tops of the funnel promotions is to offer your customers something of value that is related to the holiday season. It could be anything from a holiday season buying guide to holiday-themed photograph templates and everything in between. Go for a DIY video that helps your customers make something by themselves. It could be a fun project for the family and a good source of lead generation for you. Just make sure that whatever you make for your customers should have the intended WOW effect and it should show off your expertise. If you can’t think of anything to make, just check out the different questions that your customers have asked you in the past or check out the lead generation process that you’ve used to generate the most leads. At the end of the guide or whatever you are making, add a call to action as your main goal is to convert the potential prospects into leads.
NEVER FORGET WORD OF MOUTH
Word of mouth marketing is not just the oldest way of marketing, it is the best and still is. One of the best ways to use this method of marketing and increase your sales is to offer a gift or something else of value to your existing customers if they refer you to someone they know. You could offer them free services or a free product if they refer their family or friends to you and they become customers.
An excellent example of this is Dropbox. The company shot and best logo design to fame through and word of mouth advertising. They offered their customers additional storage space for every confirmed referral. Soon they had more customers than they could handle and it was all because of word of mouth advertising.
It is known that customers show more loyalty to a brand if they have been referred by someone that they know. This approach not only helps you access your clients’ networks, but it also helps you create a stronger bond with them.
FREE TRIALS
Giving away your product for free is one of the best ways to entice customers but it is also very expensive for you. So if you have a little budget left, offer a free trial for the first 10 or 50 customers depending on your budget. It will excite your customers and help you generate leads. Make sure that your offer is for a limited period of time to keep the costs as minimum as you can. Spend a little time creating a buzz before you offer the trial to the customers. Make sure that everyone is excited and jumping off their seats before you actually offer them something. The more buzz you create, the more leads you will generate.
SANTA’S IN TOWN
The holiday season is all about giving and receiving gifts. Everyone is super excited about the gifts that they are going to receive. It’s fun being at the receiving end of the gifts. But the one thing that is more exciting than receiving a gift is not knowing what the gift is until the last minute. It’s the thrill that counts.
You can use the same idea for one of your sales promotions. Instead of offering a product or a traditional rebate like a gift card or a voucher, create some mystery into the whole process and offer a mysterious prize within a certain price range. You can even have different ranges for different customers. It could mean that the first customer to click your CTA will get the highest rebate and so on or you can have a lucky draw and announce the customers’ names who have won the different rebates on your social media pages. This will propel your existing customers and new ones to take a chance and give you a heap of leads. It will also create a buzz around your brand.
Holidays are all about fun, so make sure that whatever you offer is also fun and inspiring. If you can’t use all the above ideas, try using just one. This will help you increase your sales and you can have fun as well.