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This year, November 30 marks the 10 year anniversary of Small Business Saturday. It's amazing to think that shoppers have spent a decade helping lead the #ShopSmall movement forward!
Launched by American Express, Small Business Saturday is sandwiched between Black Friday and Cyber Monday. While these two days are famous for being the biggest holiday shopping days of the year, many shoppers frequent local small businesses in support of Small Business Saturday. Local businesses host open house events, decorate their storefronts with customized marketing materials and engage with shoppers via social media to encourage their biggest shopping day of the year.
What can small businesses do beyond encouraging shoppers to use the #ShopSmall hashtag to get customers out and about on Small Business Saturday?
There are several social media platforms, including Facebook and Instagram, that provide the ability to add your location and “check in.” You can do this in the body of the post, and in Instagram Stories by tagging a brick-and-mortar store’s location. If you're a local business that allows its customers to check in via social media, encourage shoppers to do so on Small Business Saturday.
When a shopper checks in to your storefront, they expose your business to a much wider audience. Their friends and followers take notice, and may be curious to learn more about your business. Once they tap on your company name, they'll be redirected to a page filled with tagged check-ins from other customers. This allows potential shoppers to learn more about your business and its location.
Now that these curious potential customers know what you offer and that you’re participating in Small Business Saturday, these individuals may get excited about visiting your store '” and head out the same day to go shopping!
You might also offer customers an added incentive to check in to your store online, like $1 off their in-store purchase if they show proof during checkout.
The Shop Small Studio is a tool provided by AmEx's Small Business Resource Center that offers a wide variety of custom marketing materials. You can use it to create custom posters, social media posts, and more in just a few minutes.
While utilizing the tools provided by the Shop Small Studio, add your own hashtag to the marketing materials you create.
In addition to using the #ShopSmall hashtag, you should include creative business-specific hashtags on your marketing materials.
Let's say you run a local bakery called The Sweet Spot. Include #TheSweetSpotBakery on your marketing materials, from mail flyers to e-newsletters, encouraging shoppers to use it in their social media posts. This way, you can find their posts faster and be able to regram, retweet or reshare them on your company’s social accounts, creating engagement and word-of-mouth marketing.
While it’s true the Small Business Saturday mentality receives peak awareness in November, that doesn’t mean its core ideas should only be promoted this month.
Keep the conversation going about the power of the Shop Small movement year-round on your social channels by doing the following:
Create excitement around Small Business Saturday at your brick-and-mortar by counting down to the event across all of your social media handles. Spice up your countdown by including a fun reason why shoppers should look forward to shopping small at your business in particular.
Will you have a surprise offering unveiled in-store the day of? A special guest? Tease this as you count down to November 30!
To learn how to have a successful (and profitable) Small Business Saturday with extra holiday financing for your business, click here.
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