Tis the season for holiday shopping! It’s that blink-and-you-miss-it time of year when calendars fill up with holiday parties and shopping carts are filled with gifts.
For businesses, this is one of the busiest times of years and while it may seem like the whole world does their holiday shopping on Amazon Prime, there’s a movement aimed at giving small businesses a piece of that holiday shopping pie.
Small Business Saturday is the perfect opportunity for every small business owner who is looking to make bank this holiday season.
What is Small Business Saturday?
The Small Business Saturday campaign created by American Express encourages people to Shop Small and support local businesses every holiday season. It’s strategically placed on the Saturday after Thanksgiving so that it falls during one of the biggest shopping weekends of the year.
There’s nothing small about Small Business Saturday. (Sorry, we couldn’t let that pun go to waste!) 75% of shoppers say they feel compelled to support small businesses in a post-pandemic world.
With millions of shoppers and strong awareness, Small Business Saturday is a no-brainer for small business owners.
How Does Small Business Saturday Work?
On Small Business Saturday small businesses like bootstrapped SaaS companies typically offer discounts or incentives to encourage people to shop with them. It’s also the perfect time to be part of a global social media campaign to get your brand to stand out and in front of new audiences.
Who can benefit from Small Business Saturday?
We’re firm believers that when you shop small, everyone wins so if you ask us, then everyone benefits from Small Business Saturday. But truly, any small business can take advantage of the Small Business Saturday!
Small Business Saturday isn’t limited to brick and mortar stores or traditional mom and pop shops. If you are a solopreneur who sells courses, then you are a small business! If you are a two-person e-commerce Etsy shop selling handmade bracelets, then you are a small business!
Online or off, a small team or riding solo, there’s a chance for everyone to win customers and sales this Small Business Saturday.
It’s not only businesses who benefit from Small Business Saturday. Shopping small can have a tremendous impact on the local community as a whole. Studies show that if you spend $100 in a local business, $68 of it goes back into the local community. If you spent the same amount at a large business, only $43 of it would stay in the community.
7 ways to use your social media for Small Business Saturday
So let’s make the most of it! Here are 7 tips you need to make the most of Small Business Saturday this year.
1. Start now
Here’s a crazy thing to consider: 50% of consumers plan to start their holiday shopping before Thanksgiving.
It’s hard to be too early for holiday marketing but it’s clear that November isn’t early at all. It might even be a little late!
So you want to prepare and get the word out soon about your holiday specials and sales. If you haven’t figured out the details of your holiday offers, then we want to make the tiny suggestion to think about those details as soon as possible, like yesterday.
2. Be specific in your marketing
These days, you can’t even look at your phone without being shown some type of ad for something. And during this time of year, ads seem to be everywhere.
This means you have to be super specific in your marketing and your offer if you want your customers to take notice and, more importantly, remember your Small Business Saturday ads and offers.
Vague messages like “Shop our Black Friday sale” are going to get lost in the content tornado that is holiday sale ads. Instead, tell your customers exactly what to expect and when to expect it. Make your Small Business Saturday posts specific and to the point and most importantly, make sure they stand out from the crowd!
So “Shop Our Black Friday Sale” could become “Enjoy free gift wrapping and shipping on all orders over $50 on Small Business Saturday!”
This offer tells the customer exactly what they’ll receive and what they have to do to get the deal. Your customer isn’t going to investigate what your offer is because they have too many options available to them. If it’s unclear, they’ll simply go to the next message on their newsfeed.
3. Use the American Express Small Business Saturday Kit and Marketing Materials
American Express wants small businesses to earn big on Small Business Saturday so they offer Small Business Saturday marketing resources and Small Business Saturday social media templates to help small businesses get the word out about their offers.
There’s no graphic designer needed with these tools! American Express provides email templates, Small Business Saturday graphics, signage, and more, all for free!
You can download the free “Small Business Saturday kit” which gives you everything you need to promote your Small Business Saturday offers.
Don’t forget social media too! Increase the reach of your posts using Small Business Saturday hashtags including #ShopSmall, #SmallBusinessSaturday, #DineSmall and #SmallBizSat.
4. Be consistent this month
Consistency is key year-round in social media but it’s even more important during the holidays. There are thousands of messages flying around the internet during this time of year. So your customers might not always see your posts or open your emails so it pays to be consistent.
But remember, quality is always more important than quantity in social media, and what matters most is the strategy. If you can find the right strategy and be consistent with it, you can see just as much success on social media as big businesses do!
Plan your content in advance so that it doesn’t slip through the cracks and remind customers of your offers often throughout the month. One Small Business Saturday post on the day won’t cut it! You need to create some excitement and a build-up to the big day.
If you are only offering your special deals on Small Business Saturday sale day itself, then try posting countdown posts or highlight products to keep your audience engaged with your offers because everyone loves a good sneak peek!
If you are an Edgar user, you can set up a Small Business Saturday category in Edgar and schedule it to fit in with the rest of your content. Once Small Business Saturday is over you can delete the category so the content won’t remain in your queue.
5. Share YOU as a small business
Small Business Saturday was built to remind shoppers why small businesses are important and how shopping small supports individuals and communities. Do you know what makes your business special? You!
You are the secret sauce behind your business and when someone shops from your business, they are not just getting a product, they are supporting you.
Use social media to get a little personal with your audience this month. Share behind-the-scenes content of your business, introduce your team and remind your customers that there are humans behind the business.
Washington DC-based bakery Whisked! uses their Instagram account to share personal messages from their founder Julia. These posts offer a behind the scenes look at the business.
6. Engage your communities
Leveraging your communities and groups is a smart strategy all year round but they can make a huge difference for your Small Business Saturday sales.
One of the most popular reasons people shop small is to support the local community. American Express rallies the community for Small Business Saturday with Neighborhood Champions. These neighborhood champions can be any involved community members but are often associations, chambers of commerce, and community leaders who work to organize events and engage the community with Small Business Saturday.
Offline, you can leverage communities such as Facebook groups or Twitter chats to help spread the word and share your Small Business Saturday offers. You can start a campaign to cross-promote other community members’ offers or create complementary offers with community members.
Online and offline communities often benefit most from shopping small as small businesses are more likely to put their money and time back into the community.
7. Prepare customer service
Lots of sales and promotions usually lead to a high number of customer service inquiries and missing a customer service inquiry can cost you a sale. Shoppers care about their shopping experience and they expect fast responses. 54% of consumers expect an instant response to inquiries.
One way that small businesses can differentiate themselves from the competition is by offering stellar customer service. You may want to organize your time so that you can be more present answering questions on social media or in emails or you may want to implement Facebook messenger bots for frequent questions.
Examples of Small Business Saturday Social Media Posts
Looking for some inspiration for how to kill it and stand out on small business Saturday? Look no further than the following four businesses that are showing you how to do it right.
Hoot Design Co.
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
Hoot Design Co. is a women-led branding and design agency who creates memorable brand experiences.
Hoot Design Co. uses social media to share their brand by sharing bright visuals that reflect their work, behind the scenes moments and highlighting their clients and client work.
Hoot Design Co. is a brilliant example of how to showcase a brand on social media through visuals and messaging. Their color scheme is consistently bright and bold and makes you look twice as you are scrolling through your feed. They also share their personality through their posts with relatable language and a conversational tone.
The lesson to learn from Hoot Design Co. is to get extremely clear on your audience and who you are as a brand.
Before you start posting on social media, research your audience, create personas and get clear on your brand. When you are creating content, consider your tone, message, and visual graphics and ask yourself if they are in line and consistent with your brand.
Upswing Poker
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
Upswing Poker shares resources, courses, and training for online poker players of all levels. Upswing Poker uses their social media to drive traffic back to their website by sharing high-quality content and then leveraging that content to attract paying customers.
Upswing Poker is the perfect example of how websites can leverage all of their content to create consistent social media posts. Upswing’s social media feeds share a mix of podcast episodes, blog posts, free quizzes, sneak peeks of premium content and promotional content.
Check out this small business Saturday Facebook post.
By sharing several high-quality but varied pieces of content, they are able to engage every member of their audience, from advanced players to newer players, paid members, and casual readers. Every segment of their audience can engage with something on their feeds.
The lesson to learn from Upswing Poker is to vary your content. In a recent survey, 21% of social media users said they would unfollow a brand for posting repetitive content.
Share a combination of photos, videos, blogs, and sales promotions to reach every member of their audience. Edgar users can use Edgar’s categories to balance your content mix.
Mod Girl Marketing
Facebook | Facebook Group | Twitter | LinkedIn
Mod Girl Marketing is an inbound marketing agency who helps businesses reach their business goals through digital marketing strategies.
Mod Girl Marketing uses social media to spotlight their owner, Mandy McEwen and share her expertise through masterclasses, videos, and webinars.
They also use social media to build a community through their Facebook group, Mod Agency Insiders. Inside the Facebook group, Mod Girl Marketing shares exclusive content that engages their audience with questions, advice, and solutions. Group members are encouraged to share their marketing questions and seek advice.
By prominently featuring Mandy and creating a strong community, Mod Girl Marketing instills trust and loyalty with their followers.
The lesson from Mod Girl Marketing is to create a community with social media. Whether it’s a Facebook group, Twitter chat or a branded social hashtag, find a way to engage your followers as a community.
Mod Girl also shows how important it is to share you and your team on your social. Don’t hide behind a brand name. Get in front of the camera and showcase you! Share behind-the-scenes photos, host Q&A sessions on live streams, or post video tutorials or new product demonstrations. There are plenty of ways that you can get in front of the camera and in front of your audience.
ShootDotEdit
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
ShootDotEdit is a professional photography editing service for professional wedding and portrait photographers.
ShootDotEdit uses social media to engage their followers by sharing valuable content that educates and entertains its audience. They share tutorial blog posts, funny memes, and photography quotes.
ShootDotEdit knows the importance of great content and how to use social media to be helpful and not salesy. Messages that scream “Buy, buy, buy!” won’t connect with an audience. When you create content, consider how if it is valuable to your audience.
There are four general goals of any content marketing. Content should educate, inform, entertain or inspire. If your content doesn’t fit into one of these four boxes, then you might want to reevaluate why you’re sharing it!
Social media is all about connecting with your audience and discussing shared interests and topics is what builds that connection. Selling isn’t the right tactic.
If you feel like your audience isn’t connecting with your content, check to see if you’re mostly sharing content about you and your business. If you are, then you’re probably boring your audience. Try adding in content that is more focused on your audience and their needs.
These are just a few small businesses that are using social media to grow their business. It can be easy to feel like the only way to succeed is to have a huge budget but the great thing about social media is that it really did level the playing field for everyone.
Try these tactics and get creative with some of your own and above all, be consistent with social media and you’ll start seeing success whether it’s small business Saturday or not!
Make the most of Small Business Saturdays
Every year, there are many ways to make the most of Small Business Saturday but the most important thing is that you as a small business owner take advantage of the opportunity it gives your business. Get in front of new audiences, boost your sales and set yourself up for a fantastic holiday season.
We want to hear from you! How are you going to make the most of Small Business Saturday?
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Learn more Small Business Saturday tips on our the MeetEdgar Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2vzFjuGUuw