The most significant shopping time of the year has finally arrived! According to the National Retail Federation (NRF), approximately 165.3 million people plan to shop in stores and online from Thanksgiving to Black Friday to Small Business Saturday to Cyber Monday.
While many larger corporations can offer deeply discounted deals and increase profits throughout this time, small business owners can position themselves to do just as well. Here are a few easy but impactful ways:
1. Offer discounted products and services for Black Friday
Do you have a service packaged and ready to go? Or do you have a surplus of products? This time is a great time to review your inventory or offerings to see what services can be discounted but still increase your bottom line.
Offering gift cards is also a great way to increase revenues at this time. Consumers are expected to spend $27.5 billion on gift cards this holiday season, according to NRF. So why not offer them?
2. Create an email campaign to boost revenue
After you have determined what services you can offer, next, it is time to get the word out. Using free newsletter providers such as MailChimp, Constant Contact, and others are great ways for little to no cost to get your message to those who matter. Create catchy subject lines, use pictures that pop, and keep your words to a minimum to capture your readers’ attention.
3. Find more customers
While it is good to spread your net wide, this is not always advantageous when advertising. If you have operated your business for some time, you should have an understanding of who your customer base is. For instance, if young professionals are likely to purchase, then you should focus your advertising efforts on this group.
Take advantage of social media postings and ads to target these groups. Lastly, write in your target audience language! Capture their attention by focusing your advertising efforts specifically to their needs and what they are likely to respond to.
Editors’ Note: This article has been updated since its original publishing date of November 24, 2017.
