Competition between businesses gets fierce during the holiday season. Add global pandemic to the mix, you’ll have local businesses still pinning their hopes on a decent festive season in order to recuperate the revenues they lost during a couple of rather tumultuous years. This means your marketing game needs to be on point if you want to steal the spotlight from your competitors and attract more customers during this busy time of year — especially if you’re a local business operating on a limited budget.
What should I, as a local business owner, do to attract more customers during the holiday season? And why is this an effective approach? To help get you started, our web experts share their answers.
Here are a few of the methods we think can propel your holiday marketing to new heights.
1. Maximise your online presence through content
A commonly overlooked local marketing tactic that local businesses can use to attract more customers is sharing content. Content can take the form of special offers, videos, images, etc. One of the most underrated content sharing platforms is Google My Business (GMB) listing. Google posts can increase your visibility in Google searches, show up in Google Discover (over 800 million users) and are now also prominently displayed in the Google Maps app ‘Explore’ tab. Make use the most of your GMB listing by creating Google posts and share them across your social media channels.
While we’re at it, why not use geolocation ads on social media? Geolocation advertisements on social media are an excellent way to reach more local customers during the holiday season. When you set geolocation parameters, you can choose who sees your ad based on their location and preferences. This strategy gives you the freedom to create unique offers for the people who live close to your business, which could certainly drive more sales.
As far as content goes, you can also use email newsletters to connect with your local audience and boost your conversions and sales during the holiday season. Email marketing is an effective way to reach your customers so you can sell products, promote deals and more.
2. Get involved and collaborate
An important way for small and local businesses to get more customers is to get involved with the community. People value group events and familial gatherings during the holidays. By being part of a local charity event or some other attraction, you will win the goodwill of your audience. This will lead to greater loyalty and bring more customers to your door.
Depending on your business, some companies can do well by getting a booth at one of the local Christmas markets. Many towns will do one or even several of these and it’s a great time to meet with the community face-to-face while selling your products.
One way you can get involved with the community is by collaborating with other local businesses. It’s a great way to cross-promote each other’s brands. Suppose you have a clothing store and you collaborate with a coffee shop. You can give away a free coffee coupon from that store to your customers every time they buy from you. The coffee shop can also do the same by giving a discount coupon to their customers for your clothing store. It helps you attract leads. For maximum exposure, promote your collaboration across your social media platform and, of course, your Top4 advert through the Promotions feature. This way you can spread some words about and get your special collaboration out there.
Another way we can think of how you get involved with the community is by reaching out to local influencers for campaigns. Meet with people who host events and run small organisations like charities, mom groups, hobbyist groups and more around your community. Of course, what you sell has to be of value to these influencers and, in extension, to those you want to reach. If they like your product, others will buy too. Results can be pleasantly surprising if done well.
3. Leverage a word-of-mouth strategy
No marketing strategy can work better than word-of-mouth. So, try leveraging it to maximise your profit. To do that, you have to focus on quality. This is not just for your products, but for customer service as well. If people are satisfied with your business, they will definitely tell others about it.
One way to do this is to do a giveaway. Give out pieces of your products or services for free. Let people try a piece of it at no charge. The ‘free’ will attract them and, after they use it, they will want to move forward with finding out more information. From there, you can connect and sell.
And while you’re at it, why not create a holiday party approach? A holiday party approach should not only reflect in your marketing but also be amplified in their physical and online stores. That means going beyond holiday decor. It also means music, party favours, hot apple cider and goodies for all customers walking in. This is great for brand awareness.
A word-of-mouth strategy involves the concept of social proof. People are willing to buy a product or service because others have as well. Encourage your satisfied customers to leave testimonials and reviews. The more detailed/specific the review, the better. A five-star review that says ‘great service’ has value, but a review along with detailed personal experience can be very valuable for your business. Make use of our unique, location-based marketing platform’s Reviews feature. Take control of your own online reputations by managing reviews you’ve received outside of Top4 – such as customers’ testimonials, emails, your website and other webtool platforms. Organise them all in one place on your Top4 advert.
4. Use Google’s Local Inventory Ads feature
“One local marketing tactic I recommend is Google’s new local inventory ads feature. When people search for a product, Google displays ads with the top three businesses offering that product and their exact location. Often, people search for the product they’re looking for, including the phrase ‘near me,’ so when using this feature, you can generate more walk-ins to your store.
To find out how we can help you with your Website + Marketing, using our unique location marketing platform called Top4, get in touch today at www.top4marketing.com
Looking to build customer loyalty through social media? Don’t forget to add your business to Top4.com.au
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