As the holiday season approaches, small business owners have a golden opportunity to capitalize on the projected growth in retail sales for 2023. Despite concerns about inflation, the holiday retail forecast anticipates a 4.5% increase in sales, providing a chance for entrepreneurs to recover from tough economic conditions. This holiday list provides individuals, entrepreneurs, and small business owners ways to quickly position themselves to maximize their revenue during this holiday season. These simple items require minimal investment and technical knowledge, enabling businesses to tap into the market and attract customers ready to spend during the holidays. Now is the time to begin planning your business holiday season.
First – Determine Your Top Products and Services
Identify items with a good profit margin that can be discounted as specials and still yield a reasonable return. Consider using a pricing platform to intelligently determine your pricing. “If you can’t afford to discount your products, explore alternative deals such as free shipping, extra loyalty points, or small freebies added to every order.” -Ad Roll
Second – Engage Your Audience Early
As early as October, start engaging your audience by announcing exclusive holiday specials for VIPs through your email list. Solicit their input on the VIP holiday sales list by sharing a curated selection of preferred products. Generate curiosity among your followers with intriguing social media posts about the upcoming offers. According to Envoke, engaging your customers early helps keep your products and services on top of your customers’ mind.
Third -Create a Content Marketing Schedule
Develop a comprehensive holiday content marketing schedule detailing the content type, release dates, and preferred platforms for sharing. Organize and strategize your content to maximize its impact during the holiday season. By having a well-structured plan in place, you can ensure a cohesive and effective marketing campaign.
Fourth – Establish a Strong Online Presence
Enhance your online presence by securing additional domain names for priority holiday products and services. “Having individual domain names for specific purposes can be beneficial. It enables you to communicate effectively with the target audience and differentiate products or services” (Landbot, 2022). Build a digital website using user-friendly platforms. Create landing pages to promote your top holiday products and link your ads directly to these pages for a seamless customer experience.
Fifth – Promote and Present Your Online Business and Products
Consider an omni-ecommerce platform to promote your products across multiple channels. This provides a seamless user experience for your customers. Utilize Google My Business to list your business and promote holiday products and services free. This is essential if you have a local business accessible to customers. Leverage Google Ads and Display ads to reach custumers actively searching for products like yours. “Google display ads run like typical banner ads like a billboard for your business across the internet. Google uses AI to bid and place your ads next to related content, allowing you to be in the right place at the right time.” (Roopco)
Sixth – Design High-Impact Landing Pages
Design compelling landing pages with attention-grabbing headlines, clear offers, and strong call-to-action buttons. Run high-impact ads to gain prime visibility in search results. According to marketing guru, Neil Patel, landing pages provide your leads with the information they need to move them further along the customer journey and closer to a conversion.
Seventh – Enhance Website Visibility with SEO
Implement basic SEO strategies by optimizing titles, descriptions, and slugs for each page, specifically focusing on holiday products and services. According to SearchEngine Journal, creating a positive user experience is one of the building blocks of creating good search performance. From attracting links, increasing page views, improving conversion rates and earnings, a site cannot lose by focusing on the user experience.
Eighth – Leverage Email Marketing
Utilize email marketing platforms like Constant Contact to reach potential customers and effectively promote your holiday offers. Send weekly emails to keep your audience engaged throughout the season and personalize subject lines and “To” lines for increased engagement and conversion rates.
Ninth – Create Attractive Offers and Promotion
Entice customers with attractive holiday specials and sales promotions. Leverage coupons to boost customer loyalty beyond the holiday season and consider offering free shipping to attract more online buyers. Rafflepress.com has some great ideas on how to engage your customers like adding a page to your website that displays your Christmas top products. Another one I like is run a Christmas giveaway on your website. If you don’t have considerable website traffic, consider a Christmas social media photo contest.
Tenth – Create a YouTube Video
By creating a captivating YouTube video to showcase for your products, you can enhance your online presence, engage with potential customers, and drive sales during the holiday season. Remember to stay authentic, showcase your products in the best light possible, and infuse the holiday spirit into your video to leave a lasting impression on your audience. With over 120 million users per day, YouTube is a great option and opportunity to market your products and services.
Embrace these strategies to connect with holiday shoppers and secure a successful and profitable holiday season for your small business in 2023. Start now creating your content marketing schedule and then start executing it as early as October. Get ready to capitalize on expected revenue for this holiday season.
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