Build a Small Business Saturday campaign.
Make the most of Small Business Saturday by creating a multichannel marketing campaign plan now. Here are some things to consider as you build out your own Small Business Saturday campaign:
Create a complete campaign that leverages different ways to communicate with your customers and extend your reach to new prospects. Sequencing your outreach is critical. You want to be relevant, not annoying. Calendar out all the activities so you can see how many contacts you will be making with your customers.
- Create a unique message for your business that ties into the Small Business Saturday theme but highlights the value you deliver to your customers.
- Don’t miss out on the future relationship-building opportunity this campaign creates. Capture contact information from your customers and prospects so you can continue to communicate with them.
Here are some tactical things to consider within your marketing campaign:
Website customization
– Add a banner to your Website in support of Small Business Saturday.
– Add a landing page to your Website where you can feature your special campaign offer. Using coupons is a great way to give value to your Website visitors. Twenty-two percent of U.S. adults say their household uses digital coupons from email or the Internet. Allow your customers to redeem the coupon either in-store or online on Small Business Saturday.
- Direct-marketing campaigns
– Create a series of emails to your current customers that tie into Small Business Saturday with special offers and coupons. Send two to three emails regarding the promotion, and if you have a retail location and are looking to generate in-store sales, make sure the last email is sent the day before your event as a reminder.
– Always include links to your social sites as well as refer-a-friend options in your customer emails.
Use direct mail to target prospects and attract new customers to your business. Direct mail recipients buy 25 percent more items and spend more than non-direct-mail recipients, according to recent data published in a study by the U.S. Postal and Deliver Magazine, “How Direct Mail Strengthens Online Sales.” Direct mail is a great way to reach out to prospects and encourage them to begin a dialog with you via future email campaigns. Ensure that you are targeting the right customers with your direct-mail offers. Services like Experian’s Clone My Customer can help with refining your target audience for your direct-mail campaign.
– Create a personalized URL (pURL), or landing page, for your direct-mail campaign where you can capture email addresses of new prospects. Use a special offer on the landing page to encourage consumers to give you their email addresses.
Social marketing
– Add new content to your blog that features the value of shopping local. Tie into the Small Business Saturday national advertising theme to make the most of blog postings.
– Use Twitter and Facebook to promote your Small Business Saturday event. Link your tweets back to your landing page and your special offer. Facebook is a great way to not only get your message out and dialog with your customers, but also give special offers to your fans.
Event marketing
– Don’t forget to plan out the day of the event. Include messaging on your Website or in your business location that promotes your support of Small Business Saturday.
Capture email addresses from your customers. The best way to capture email is to offer a value, such as a free gift, a special discount or a newsletter subscription. These are all ways to encourage your new customers to give you their contact information.
Click here to download our entire ebooklet of tips to get your business prepared and ready for Saturday, November 26th.
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