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Getting Your Business Ready for the Holiday Season

The holidays are an excellent time to give your small business a much-needed facelift, with an assortment of new opportunities to attract new customers and bring back the past as well. With 60% of US shoppers preferring to make their purchases online, now is the time to get in on attracting customers to both your online and (if possible) brick-and-mortar storefronts. Beyond the basics like decorating your physical storefront with festive touches, there are several ways to increase traffic to your store. Read on to learn how to upgrade your marketing strategy, use social media, and get those last-minute customers making orders left and right.

Work with Specialists to Rev Up your Marketing

'Tis the season for small business owners to sleigh their holiday marketing game! Consider bringing in professionals like social media managers, content creators, and digital marketers to sprinkle some festive magic on your brand. When collaborating with graphic or web designers for those merry designs, converting PDFs to JPGs comes in handy for easy sharing of high-quality web images. A trusty PDF-to-JPG converter ensures that your yuletide visuals maintain their sparkle, making your holiday marketing not only visually stunning but also effortlessly shareable across various platforms. If you need to convert PDF to JPG files, check out this free, easy-to-use tool from Adobe Acrobat. It's the gift that keeps on giving — to your business!

 

Upgrade Your Marketing with SEO

 

SEO drives 1,000% more traffic to your site than organic social media, and it’s important to take advantage of what it can do for you. Utilize SEO keyword searches (Google AdWords is a great free option) to find which words you should utilize in your descriptions on your website and social media posts. By utilizing SEO keywords, you’ll be able to expand your reach on Google search results (which is crucial, being that 94% of searches happen on a Google property), meaning more direct connections with customers via organic search results. 

Rethink Your Logo

Having a memorable, attractive logo is key to leaving a lasting impression and differentiating your business. If you don’t have a logo yet or are looking to redesign yours, consider using an online logo maker. These programs make it easy to create a well-designed logo. You can select an icon, style, and colors, and add text to include your business name or slogan. It’s a cost-effective way to amp up your business. 

 

Marketing Your Products Through Instagram Micro-Influencers

Micro-influencers are those with audiences ranging from 1,000-100,000 followers. You may be thinking that to really see a spike in customers, you should go for accounts with millions of followers. Not so! Micro-influencers have much more active engagement than mega-influencers, hovering at around 4% versus just over 1% for mega-influencers. Micro-influencers also allow you to pay less for their reach, with many simply looking for free products or charging a small fee in exchange for an honest review. Finally, micro-influencers are also readily available for nearly any demographic, meaning you can find one just for your niche, allowing your ideal customers to see your products or services via someone they trust.

 

Get Last-Minute Customers with Quick Shipping

Believe it or not, many shoppers won’t begin their holiday shopping until December. This means you can swoop in and grab their interest relatively easily with some last-minute offers. These discounts don’t need to be deep, either. One in 3 last-minute shoppers are actually looking to get a gift as quickly as possible, so offer a “by Christmas Eve” guarantee (when applicable) to get those procrastinators on your digital doorstep. By offering last-minute shoppers the ability to get gifts on time, you just might be getting a new customer for life.

(Gift) Wrapping Up

Now is the time to reel in the holiday shoppers, and by having a plan that lasts all month long rather than a one-time Black Friday sale, you’ll see your profits soar through the roof all season long. Have your best holiday season yet by following the above tips. Happy holidays!

 

Join the Mason City Chamber of Commerce to get the tips and tools you need to find small business success in our community all year long!

 

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