Holiday Hustle: Marketing Techniques to Boost Holiday Sales

The holidays are a festive time of year, but for small business owners, they can also be a hectic and stressful time. If you want your small business to thrive this season, you need to have a well-thought-out marketing strategy. To help, the Canandaigua Chamber of Commerce shares some of the best methods for boosting sales and foot traffic.

Share Holiday-Themed  Content

The Thrifty Marketer notes that your website is one of your most powerful marketing tools, so make sure to take advantage of it during the holiday season. Create some festive holiday content for your website and update your homepage with a holiday message. This will show your customers you're in the holiday spirit and get them excited about shopping with you.

Stay Social

Social media is a great way to connect with your customers and build relationships. During the holidays, make sure to post regularly and interact with your followers. You could even run some fun holiday-themed social media campaigns. For example, you could ask people to share their favorite holiday traditions or decorating tips.

Pop-Up Party

Pop-up events are all the rage these days, so why not host one for your small business? As The Boutique Hub points out, this is a great way to generate excitement and foot traffic during the holidays. Make sure to promote your event using all of your marketing channels, including social media, email, and even traditional methods like flyers and posters.

Hold Holiday Giveaways

People love to win, and they especially love freebies, so hold a holiday giveaway on social media or on your website. This is a great way to attract new customers and show appreciation for your existing ones. Just make sure to promote your giveaway properly so people actually know about it!

PDF Gift-Giving Guide

A perfect way to ease holiday stress for customers is to create a holiday gift guide. A gift guide can help customers to identify the perfect gift for their loved ones, and it can also make it easier for you to keep track of inventory. When creating a gift guide, be sure to include a variety of items at different price points. You can also use the guide as an opportunity to promote sales or new products. 

Once you've created your guide, share it via PDF so that customers can easily access it from their computers or mobile devices. You want the document to load quickly, from whatever device, so be sure to keep the file size manageable – you don’t want an endlessly loading file to turn customers away! Use an online PDF editor to delete the unneeded pages to reduce the file size, then re-save for sending and sharing the document.

Festive Wrappings   

If you sell physical products, consider switching to special holiday packaging during the months of November and December. This will make your products more likely to be purchased as gifts and it'll also make them look more festive under the tree (or wherever else they may end up). 

Give Back to Local Charities      

Giving back is always important, but it's especially important during the holidays when there are so many people in need. Find a local charity that aligns with your values and donate some of your proceeds or hold a charity event at your store or office. 

A Team Effort

Teaming up with other businesses can be a great way to reach new customers and grow your brand awareness. During the holidays, team up with other businesses in your area to cross-promote each other's products or services. You can also join forces to raise awareness for local charities, host holiday events or even create a friendly holiday competition.

Show Your Appreciation

Now is also a great time to show how much you appreciate loyal clients. One way to do this is to offer holiday discounts or special offers. For example, you could give a percentage off total purchases, or offer a free gift with purchase. You could also host a holiday party or open house, and include some festive activities like gift wrapping or ornament making.

Plan for Next Year

After all the hustle and bustle of the holidays dies down, take some time to reflect on what went well and what didn't. This will help you fine-tune your marketing plans for next year so you can come back even stronger.

When you plan ahead and utilize clever marketing strategies for your small business, you can ensure that your venture thrives during this festive season. And whether you try a few of these tactics or all of them, you're sure to see an uptick that makes for a great final quarter.

Join the Canandaigua Chamber of Commerce to connect with local entrepreneurs and resources that can help your business grow.