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Making Good, the podcast for small businesses who want to make a big impact.

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33: Marketing Ideas for Better Holiday Sales

Welcome back to Making Good, the podcast for small businesses who want to make a big impact.

I’m your host, Lauren Tilden, and this is episode 33.

If you’re wondering why there’s a second full episode coming out this week, go listen to the quick bonus episode that came out today alongside this episode for more details.

But the short version is: HAPPY HOLIDAYS! I am so grateful that you’re here, and as my holiday gift to you, I’m doubling up on episodes for the entire month of December. I gave a sneak peek of the different topics we’ll be covering this month in the bonus episode (title starts with SURPRISE!).

And what better topic to kick off this month of holiday gifts, than an episode about holiday marketing.

This is a very very important season for most small businesses, but especially product-based small businesses. At Station 7, we do about 25% to 30% of our annual sales in the single month of December. 

Add to the fact that many of us have had a tough year with COVID19 and its impacts on all businesses, but particularly ones with a retail component.

So, if you’re anything like me, doing well this holiday season feels important.

In this episode, I’m going to give a bunch of ideas on things you might want to consider doing to “up” your holiday sales.

Okay, let’s get into it!

One thing I want to say up front is very important:

This is not a checklist. 

I’m not suggesting you do every single thing on this list, I’m certainly not going to. It’s more of a menu to pick and choose from depending on what best fits your business, bandwidth and skillset.

The backbone of all of these marketing ideas is basic. We always want to do our best to put ourselves in our customer’s shoes, and imagine their life right now. What are they dealing with? What would be helpful to them? What would help them relax or decompress in an inevitably stressful time. What do they need to hear?

Here are the holiday marketing ideas we’re going to talk about today:

  1. Free shipping

  2. Clear shipping deadlines

  3. Put together gift guides or gift suggestions.

  4. EXTRA good customer service

  5. Infuse the holiday spirit

  6. Give your audience a gift

  7. Help your customers relax

  8. Do a giveaway

  9. Bundle discounts

  10. Send a holiday card

  • Free shipping

This one’s for people who sell products. When it comes to the holiday season and gifting, buyers these days have so many options. They can go to a store on Christmas Eve to pick something out. They can go online and buy from a big retailer and get it delivered for free in a couple of hours.

As small businesses, we can’t always compete, but one thing we can do to level the playing field is to offer free shipping. As online shoppers, many of 

As we know, offering free shipping has a real cost to us… because if we’re not charging for shipping that means we are paying for it.

My suggestion is that you offer free shipping on purchases over a certain dollar amount. For example, free shipping on purchases over $50. Or, if you have certain products that are very expensive to ship, you could exclude those products from your promotion.

But frequent online shoppers know that free shipping is a compelling incentive, so if you can find a way to offer it, I think that is only a good thing!

  • Get super clear on your holiday shipping deadlines and be conservative on them.

Related to the first suggestion of free shipping, my second suggestion for people who sell products is to get very clear about your holiday shipping deadlines and communicate them widely.

This is a bit tough this year as there have been disruptions in mail service and delivery, so I would recommend that you set a conservative date for shipping.

But communicating (a real) sense of urgency around ordering, will remind people to make their order from you or other small businesses before it’s too late to ship and they have to scramble last minute.

If you have a deadline, communicate it early and often! Via social media, email marketing, and have it prominently displayed on your website. 

  • Round up gift suggestions or gift guides.

I find picking out gifts super difficult. Anyone else relate? Even though I know my nearest and dearest well, figuring out what to gift them that they’ll LOVE can be difficult.

You can help your customers with this indecision, because you know your products best. For example, if you have a stationery brand like I do, you know which of your art prints are most popular and therefore might be the best bet for someone looking to gift one.

I would suggest that you round up a list of gift suggestions, or gift guides. For example:

  • 5 gifts for the urban gardener

  • Gift Guide for Your Favorite Homebody

  • A year’s worth of stationery for the card writer in your life

Your customer knows the person they’re giving a gift to, but you know your product. Meet them halfway.

  • Extra good customer service.

On the same vein as gift guides or suggestions, what if you have an online chat concierge live and ready to help with gift suggestions? It could be you, or a member of your team, who is available on your website’s chat service to talk through it with people.

Station 7 is a physical retail shop, and due to restrictions and safety, there’s a whole lot less in-person shopping right now. So, we’re looking for ways to bring the in-person shopping experience online.

One thing we are doing virtual private shopping, where we will get on a video call with you and show you around the shop to help pick items out, and I’ve also been thinking about introducing some “office hours” where we’ll be on chat to help customers pick out gifts - the same way we would if they were actually in the shop.

  • Infuse the holiday spirit.

So much of marketing is creating a feeling, and many of us have years of memories and feelings associated with the winter holidays. Get festive!

My preferred way to do this is to not speak specifically about any one holiday to be inclusive, so when I think about this it’s more about cozy sweaters and sipping cocoa by the fire.

Infusing some winter/holiday spirit into your marketing (things like your website, email marketing, and social media), is just one more way to connect with your customers, who likely have the holidays on their mind.

  • Give a gift.

Giving gifts is a way of showing someone that we care about them. So why not give a gift to your customers or audience?

There are so many ways you can show your audience how much you appreciate them. Some ideas:

  • A special discount just for your email subscribers

  • A free gift with all purchases

  • A guide or workbook

  • A free consultation

In my case, my gift to my Making Good community for the holidays is a bunch of bonus episodes to help you make the most of the holidays and start 2021 strong. (This episode is one of them!)

Again, to my point in the beginning of this episode: this all comes down to what your customer wants.

What is something they would benefit from right now that you could easily provide them?

Spend 10 minutes brainstorming answers to that question and I can all but guarantee you’ll come up with something great.

  • Help them relax.

Here’s the truth: The holidays are stressful. I probably don’t need to convince you of that. I feel it, and I’m guessing you do too.

And you know who else feels it? Our customers.

One way you can help them relax is by making their holiday shopping easier! We talked about gift guides earlier; this is a great place to start.

You might also consider round-ups of “favorite products under $25” and “favorite products under $50” for example, for people looking to stick to a certain price point.

Another way you might do this is to go a bit more literal and really think about what would be relaxing when it comes to your marketing and messaging. Is it beautiful calming photos? Is it inspiring and grounding quotes?

This is a time of year when many of us are running around, trying to get as much done in as little time as possible, trying to make everyone around us happy.

What can you do to interrupt that pattern of frenzy and help someone stop and take a breath?

That’s worth something.

  • Do a giveaway

Imagine that you have a lot of holiday shopping to do, and you see the opportunity to get something that would be a perfect gift -- for FREE! 

The holidays are a great time to do a giveaway, which is less a way of making sales and more a way of growing your audience.

If you’re a jewelry business, for example, you could run a giveaway on social media to give away 2 bracelets: one for the winner of the giveaway to keep, and one for them to gift a friend.

In order to enter the giveaway, you’d have to follow your account and tag a friend in the comments.

Simple and effective way to grow your audience.

  • Bundle discounts.

The fact is that this time of year, we buy more. Whether it’s stuff, gift cards, experiences, services -- our spending goes up at the end of the year.

So, this means that people shopping with us may be buying more at a time than normal. One thing you may want to offer to encourage them to do their holiday shopping with you is bundle discounts. 

A couple examples of what I mean here:

  • Buy 3 candles and get 1 free.

  • Get 20% off your order if you buy 4 or more greeting cards.

  • Put together a gift basket of several items and discount it from the retail price

  • Send a holiday card.

I know. I saved the wildest one for last! Why not send a handwritten holiday card to your customers?

The stationery designer in me has to put this caveat in here: I would recommend that you don’t send a greeting card that is just your logo on the front or something that is clearly advertising.

You could buy greeting cards and include your business card inside (or better yet a really good coupon!). Or if you make your own, make it something that’s enjoyable to look at. Something people would be happy to tack up on their wall of holiday cards, rather than immediately recycle it because it looks like an advertisement.

If you’re a product-based business with A LOT of customers in your base, you could pull out your customers who are most loyal to your business, or just your wholesale accounts. If you’re a service provider, you probably don’t have SO many clients that you couldn’t send one to each and every person.

Okay! That is my roundup of holiday gift ideas. I hope that you got an idea or two from this episode. If you did, I’d love to hear what you’re going to do!

Send me a message on Instagram @makinggoodpodcast.

 You can find links to the resources I mentioned at makinggoodpodcast.com/33.

If this is your first time tuning in and you’re interested in hearing more about my businesses, check out my plant-inspired stationery company goodsheila.com, or Seattle retail shop Station 7, station7seattle.com.

Thank you for being here, and for focusing on making a difference with your small business!

Talk to you next time.

29: 5 Things Your Website Needs

35: How to Identify Your Values