Are you a last minute planner when it comes to making the most of Small Business Saturday and Black Friday? Fret not, there still time to make the most of the most profitable shopping season of the year, but the time to begin is now. We certainly acknowledge that this time of year can be especially stressful for our solopreneures and those with really small teams. This post includes some helpful tips that will guide you to making sure you’re not pulling your hair out the night before Thanksgiving trying to build new programs and set up all the technical elements to making your Small Business Saturday a success.
Real quick, before we dive in…we have a resource for you! In preparing for your Black Friday/Small Business Saturday event, understanding where your business currently stands is can also be super helpful. We have put together a Business Growth Assessment to pinpoint your exact spot in your entrepreneurial journey. This insight will help you tailor your sales strategies to your business’s unique needs, ensuring a more effective and profitable event.
Keep Your Offer Simple
- Focus on One Key Offer: Choose a service or product that you know resonates with your audience and put it at the forefront of your sales strategy. Something tried and true will always work the best.
- Use What You Have: The week before Thanksgiving is not the time to launch something new. To keep stress and overwhelm to a minimum, take advantage of things you already have done, completed and ready to go.
- Create a Bundle: Combine services or products into an irresistible bundle that offers value and convenience to your clients. Then price it to make it so they can’t resist.
Automate Your Marketing
- Email Campaigns: Now this applies to more than just Small Business Saturday. Email campaigns are a great please to put good planning into practice. By using pre-written email sequences to nurture leads you’re able to set it and let it run on auto pilot to inform your audience about your special offers.
- Social Media Scheduling: Pre-schedule posts to go live across your platforms, ensuring consistent messaging without the need to be online all day.
- Start Now: Automation will save you so much headache later. However it does take time to set it up, test it and make sure that it works as intended. Be sure to give yourself enough time to do all the backend.
Leverage Your Community
- Engage on Social Media: I struggle with this from time to time myself, but it can certainly be invaluable to showing the value of your offerings. Using live sessions, stories, and posts to engage with your community, offering sneak peeks and exclusive deals gives people more ways to interact with you.
- Collaborate with Peers & Use Partnerships: Partner with other like minded businesses to collaboratively share each others specials. One or two emails/posts can go a long way to getting in front of a new audience.
- Partnerships: Recognizing that we are competing with every other business taking advantage of Small Business Saturday partnerships are gold! Think creatively about how you might get your special offer in front of both familiar and new audiences.
Streamline Sales and Follow-Up
- Easy Checkout Process: Ensure your sales process is straightforward with clear calls to action and an easy checkout system.
- Test Your Checkout Process: Make sure everything works! From your checkout form, to your automated delivery. A bad customer experience will inevitably result in your customer taking their business elsewhere, possible forever.
- Follow-Up Automation: Set up follow-up emails or texts to thank customers for their purchases and offer additional value.
Preserve Your Wellbeing
- Set Boundaries: Decide in advance how much time you’ll spend on promotional activities and stick to it. Don’t make yourself a crazy person just because you think you have to. The skills and tips we’re sharing here are not exclusively for Small Business Saturday. If it’s going to make you crazy this year, maybe skip it and make your own special holiday event.
- Self-Care: Schedule downtime after the event to recharge and reflect on your successes.
Conclusion:
Launching a Black Friday/Small Business Saturday event doesn’t have to be a source of anxiety. With a focused offer, automated marketing, community engagement, streamlined sales processes, and a commitment to your wellbeing, you can create a profitable and enjoyable event. Remember, the key is to work smarter, not harder, and let automation take the strain.
Call to Action: Ready to automate your Black Friday success? Join Automation on a Mission today and unlock the full potential of your business with ease. Don’t let tech troubles hold you back – let us be your guide to a stress-free and prosperous holiday season.
