artistic rendering of a group of small business owners in an audience looking at a projector screen with Small Business

Small Business Saturday: A Celebration of Local Commerce… Are You Prepared?

by BlogEdmiston Group

This issue is all about planning ahead for fourth quarter and beyond. Small Business Saturday continues to celebrate and uplift small businesses, helping you discover and support the entrepreneurs in your community. Launched in 2010 by American Express, the Shop Small® movement has grown each year, becoming a pivotal part of the holiday shopping experience for both consumers and small business owners. As a small business owner American Express makes it easy to promote your small business by providing marketing assets such as social media posts.

Saturday, November 30, 2024, is Small Business Saturday – a day to celebrate and support small businesses and all they do for their communities. This year, we know that small businesses need our support now more than ever as they navigate, retool and pivot from the effects of the pandemic and multiple natural disasters. According to the 2023 Small Business Saturday Consumer Insights Survey conducted by American Express and the National Federation of Independent Businesses, an estimated 72 million Americans participated in Small Business Saturday last year, spending approximately $17.8 billion at local, independently-owned businesses. This significant boost highlights the growing commitment to shopping small and supporting local economies.

As the initiative gains momentum, Small Business Saturday has transformed from a mere shopping event into a broader community celebration. In 2023, more than 8,000 neighborhood champions took the lead in organizing Shop Small® events, bringing together small business owners to create unique, localized experiences. These champions are instrumental in encouraging communities to rally behind small businesses, spreading the word, and drawing new customers to local shops. Are you one of those champions or is it time to step up and act?

How Can You Leverage Small Business Saturday?

If you’re an independent business owner, now is the time to start planning for Small Business Saturday 2024! This year’s event falls on November 30, and by joining forces with other small business owners, you can make a bigger impact. Here are some cost-effective ways to maximize your reach:

  • Collaborative Advertising: Partner with other local businesses to share the costs of print ads, leading to larger and more prominent placements at a fraction of the price.
  • Shared Marketing Materials: Create a branded marketing piece that highlights event details and share the production costs among participating businesses. This ensures a unified message across the board.
  • Coordinated Social Media Campaigns: Develop a shared social media calendar with consistent imagery and messaging. By sharing the same posts, you can amplify your reach and create a stronger impact.
  • Leverage Newsletters and Email Lists: Spread the word through your email lists and newsletters. Each business involved in the event can cross-promote, helping to reach new audiences and drive more foot traffic.

What if You’re a Service Business?

Even if you don’t operate a traditional brick-and-mortar store, you can still benefit from Small Business Saturday. Consider these options:

  • Partner with Local Shops: Align with other small businesses for joint promotions, giveaways, or sponsorships.
  • Sponsor an Event: Sponsor breakfast or beverages at an event, offering you a chance to collect contact information and follow up later.
  • Organize a Giveaway: Contribute to a grand prize drawing to attract attention and gather leads for future marketing efforts.

Square POS software states, “In 2023, some great events highlighted the holiday’s success. Some notable events included the West Chester, PA, Small Business Weekend, which featured live music and food trucks, creating a lively shopping atmosphere. On the other side of the state, near Pittsburgh, they held a shop and taste community event where you could get your small business map stamped to enter a raffle contest”. By planning ahead and using the right marketing strategies, small business owners can compete with larger companies. Social media has become a great equalizer, allowing small businesses to create excitement around their events and showcase what makes them special.

Now is the time to plan and download your Small Business Saturday marketing assets today! If you need help planning or executing your strategy, reach out to us at 724-612-0755.

This holiday season, take advantage of the collective power of the #ShopSmall movement and make this Small Business Saturday your best one yet!

About the author: Autumn Edmiston is the CEO and owner of the Edmiston Group. The Edmiston Group is a multifaceted Pittsburgh-based marketing consulting firm providing senior-level marketing management services to businesses and non-profit organizations on a short or long-term basis. Core areas of service are business development strategies, website creation and management, social media management, marketing, strategic planning, and public relations. The Edmiston Group has consistently delivered and implemented real-world, proven business marketing ideas and strategies for business.

Red blurred backrground with Blue Small Business Saturday

How to Prepare Your Business For Small Business Saturday

by BlogEdmiston Group
Red blurred backrground with Blue Small Business Saturday

Small Business Saturday is just around the corner! It falls on Saturday, November 26, 2022. As a small business owner, this event represents a significant opportunity to highlight your business’s importance in the local community, showcase what makes your products or services unique, and increase sales during the critical holiday shopping season. So where do you start?

Here are 5 ways to help you prepare for this special event.

1. Create special sales events to encourage spending on Small Business Saturday with food, drinks, music, contests, or promotional items to draw shoppers in. Consider special discounts or free offerings for loyal customers and set up an in-store activity that demonstrates your products or services. Promote gift cards. Many holiday shoppers buy gift cards or gift certificates for family and friends, representing a huge opportunity for new customers to try your products or services.

2. Have a meeting with your employees. Remind them to greet each shopper when they enter and exit your business to show how much you appreciate them for supporting your business. Making Small Business Saturday a success for your business is a total team effort!

3. Partner with other small businesses to raise awareness surrounding Small Business Saturday. See how you can team up to provide special offers or discounts with complementary products or services to create the ultimate shopping experience. Consider highlighting a local charity at your business. It’s a great way to embrace the spirit of the season and give back to the community.

4. Stay open longer. Small Business Saturday might be one of your busiest days of the year. Extending your hours by opening earlier and closing later could have a big impact on sales. Longer hours could draw in new customers that normally could not shop there during your normal business hours.

5. Get social on social media. Promote Small Business Saturday deals and share how you’re preparing your store. Focus on what you offer, where you’re located, and how customers can contact you. Use #ShopSmall on your social media posts to join the overall conversation and encourage shoppers to snap a selfie and tag your business. This can increase the engagement of your posts, potentially reaching new customers.

The Small Business Saturday concept was first introduced by American Express in 2010 to showcase the importance and value of small businesses. You can go to the American Express website to easily create customizable marketing materials for your business such as downloadable flyers, website badges, social posts, blog posts, and digital banners to help promote your business during this exciting event. 

According to US Chamber.com, consumers have been eager to support their local small business community. Last year, the U.S. Small Business Administration reported Americans spent nearly $20 billion on Small Business Saturday. So, on Saturday, November 26, be prepared, have fun, stay safe, and promote Shop Small!

About the author: Autumn Edmiston is the CEO and owner of the Edmiston Group. The Edmiston Group is a multifaceted Pittsburgh-based marketing consulting firm providing senior-level marketing management services to businesses and non-profit organizations on a short or long-term basis. Core areas of service are business development strategies, website creation and management, social media management, marketing, strategic planning, and public relations. The Edmiston Group has consistently delivered and implemented real-world, proven business marketing ideas and strategies for business.

Man turning knob with different stages of sales process to convert strangers into promoters. Successful inbound marketing campaign concept.

ARE YOU WINNING THE 4TH QUARTER

by ArticlesCommunications

Winning Customers

The Christmas creep is once again upon us and Pumpkin everything is being taken over by early Black Friday sales. Businesses are keying in on how to drive sales, increase consumer interest and create limited-time offers. Where in the mix is Thanksgiving?

If your company is looking to take advantage of seasonal marketing ideas, it’s best to look at some of the biggest brands in your space to see what they do to drive sales and pique consumer interest in your own business. Small businesses can compete by delivering unique products, outstanding customer service and using hashtags in posts that will pop up in social media when consumers are searching.

1. Look for easy seasonal hype
One of the easiest ways to jump into seasonal sales around the holidays is to prepare for and participate in Black Friday sales and holiday shopping days such as Small Business Saturday, which encourages people to shop locally. These days are already ingrained into people’s minds as shopping events, so it’s an easy way to jump on the bandwagon. When plugging into the seasonal sales events be sure to hashtag your social media postings.

We recently worked with a hair salon to help them plan the remainder of the 4th quarter. This included a food drive collection, special pricing on gift cards, bundling of unique products for sale on Small Business Saturday, and posting holiday hours well in advance to ensure clients were able to get their services done. Branded social media images can help increase awareness days and prescheduling posts can save time and eliminate the pressure of last-minute planning.

2. Develop an annual marketing plan
How are you incorporating monthly awareness events and fun days into your social media plan? For example, we worked with a mobile dog groomer and in her social media plan, incorporated “National Cat Day”. Restaurants have “National Taco Day”, “Chocolate Day”, etc. Think about how you can align your business. Did you know in November that it’s Military Family Appreciation Month, Men’s Health Awareness, National Hospice Month, National Literacy Month to name a few? December brings about Cat lovers month, Write a Business Plan Month.

If you are a B to B or a B to C – aligning with some of these causes and adding hashtags will help to increase your brand awareness.

3. Capture Emails and Go from Seasonal to Subscription or stay in touch with news updates
By increasing your email list, you can touch your “fan base” with news, offers, and discounts. Use the list to create a subscription service. For example, restaurants may have a VIP wine club that members pay a fee to belong. What does that get them?  Perhaps access to specialty wines nonmembers can’t experience, wine pairing events, as well as other perks.

If you are a B to B, we utilize a given process to increase your newsletter subscribers. Why is that important? It keeps your company top of mind to supporters and people who you want to do business with. For our construction clients, we share news on new projects, project updates and community involvement.

4. Plan your own seasonal sale
It’s planning ahead to take advantage of one-off discount days. Where I see businesses fall short is they lack the advanced time to promote and plan. Think about your celebration and consider offering this on an annual or quarterly basis.

We work with an eye doctor and they have an annual back to school sale. Every year in August and September they promote this sale. Their customers know it is coming and they are booked solid. They don’t discount prices throughout the year, only at this event.

The holidays may be right around the corner, but by planning ahead, your business can create its unique holiday promotions that will help you increase sales, grow brand awareness and connect with customers. Need help in pulling a plan together? Email us or call 724-612-0755 and ask about our Business Marketing Planning Package.

About the author: Autumn Edmiston is the CEO and owner of the Edmiston Group. The Edmiston Group is a multifaceted Pittsburgh based marketing consulting firm providing senior-level marketing management services to businesses and non-profit organizations on a short or long-term basis. Core areas of service are business development strategies, website creation and management, social media management, marketing, strategic planning, and public relations. The Edmiston Group has consistently delivered and implemented real-world, proven business marketing ideas and strategies for business.

small-business-saturday

SMALL BUSINESS SATURDAY

by BlogCommunications

small-business-saturdaySmall Business Saturday celebrates and helps you discover small businesses. The Shop Small® movement began in 2011 and each year has continued to evolve and become a springboard for small businesses to leverage the holiday shopping experience.

According to the Small Business Saturday Consumer Insights Survey commissioned by American Express and the National Federation of Independent Businesses, in 2017, an estimated 108 million consumers reported shopping or dining at local independently-owned businesses on Small Business Saturday — generating roughly $12 billion in reported spending.

As shopping small catches on in communities everywhere, Small Business Saturday goes from a cause to a day of community celebration. In 2017, there were 7,200 neighborhood champions organizing shop small events throughout their local communities. These champions spread the word about shopping small and supporting local businesses and encourage fellow business owners to unite in a community effort to attract new customers.

If you’re an independent business owner, now is the time to think about how you can leverage Shop Small Business on November 24, 2018!

By garnering support from fellow business owners, you can save by:

  1. Combining monies in a coordinated advertisement. Participating business owners, share in the cost of a print ad resulting in larger ad size at a fraction of the cost.
  2. Branded marketing piece featuring event highlights. It is recommended that this piece is professionally created by a marketing specialist and cost shared. Then each business participating in the event will be sharing the same message.
  3. Coordination of branded social media imagery and messaging. For those of you who manage your own social media – a joint calendar of standard messages can be created and shared amongst participating businesses. Therefore, all participating businesses are sharing the same message.
  4. Leverage newsletters and email lists. Tell your customers what you’re planning and to save the date. With each business sharing the same information, your business reaches new audiences.

Perhaps you’re a service business and not a brick and mortar store. How do you leverage this movement? Find a group of businesses to partner with. Participate as a sponsor. Have a grand prize give-a-way and collect contact information for follow-up. Be a breakfast or beverage sponsor.

The Edmiston Group works with a number of small businesses. By leveraging the power of the #shopsmall movement and planning ahead, small business owners can compete. Social media has made has helped to level the playing field. Create buzz around your event and get shoppers excited to see what each business has to offer. Download your Small Business Saturday Marketing Assets today. Need help to plan and execute? Give us a call at 724-612-0755.

About the author: Autumn Edmiston is the CEO and owner of the Edmiston Group. The Edmiston Group is a multifaceted Pittsburgh based marketing consulting firm providing senior level marketing management services to businesses and non-profit organizations on a short or long-term basis. Core areas of service are business development, marketing, strategic planning and public relations. The Edmiston Group has consistently delivered and implemented real-world, proven business marketing ideas and strategies for business.