Improve Your Holiday Sales by Promoting your Holiday Sales Online

In this day of increasing e-commerce importance, Black Friday is now only half of the post-Thanksgiving shopping megathon. Cyber Monday is the other half, just one more (strong) indication that the masses aren’t just shopping in-store anymore. They are, most definitely, shopping online. As we near the Christmas deadline, the shopping averse, busy mommy in me has once again found myself leaning on e-commerce… With that in mind, I send my annual encouragement to make this the year that you enjoy the increased profits possible from delving into the online world of e-commerce sales…

It’s easier than ever before: You can attract the online shopping crowd even if you’re not selling online by promoting your holiday specials via your website, blog, Facebook page, and/or Twitter account. Any presence you have online is a great opportunity to let the crowds – local and beyond – about your holiday specials.

Do a Little Decorating

Customize your website, blog, or Facebook page with a little Christmas décor. Add a graphic or two, or simply put a big “Happy Holidays” or other seasonal greeting front and center where all the visitors will see it.

Tell Them Where to Go

Put up a graphic, tab, or link on the navigation bar to direct your online visitors to your holiday specials. If you’re using Facebook, you can add a special tab designated as “Holiday Deals” or anything along that line. You can even make that tab the default-landing page for the holiday shopping season.

Talk About It

Have a blog? Put up a post each day describing one of your holiday specials, your great product, your discounts, and why what you’re offering will be the perfect gift. Get customer testimonials and put them on your blog, website, and Facebook page.

Use Twitter

Be sure to promote your holiday specials with your Twitter account. Use Twitter hash tags like #holidayshopping, #holidaydeals, #cyberweek, #shopping, and #deals. Offer good deals and great products, and make sure people know about them.

Take notes and don’t let another year go by without having online shopping options for your business. These same ideas translate nicely to Valentine’s Day, Easter, Mother’s & Father’s Day, etc. – so get out there and grow your business with online sales options!

Image by Medmoiselle T.

This is a post in the “How to Create a 2011 Local Business Marketing Plan”* series. Some of it will be shared here on [resultsrevolution.com]. The rest will be shared via my free newsletter. Get the newsletter to get the full planning series.

Don’t Put Yourself at a Disadvantage at the Start

Whether planning or executing a small business marketing plan, one of the biggest failures I see is in the area of branding. In particular, brands seem to disappear – or at best – are very weak. With that in mind, I want to encourage you that as you think towards 2011 that you renew your dedication to your small business brand (or establish one – if you’ve never cared about branding before).

Nuts & Bolts of a Small Business Brand

We’ve talked about branding basics before. You can read more about it here without me re-hashing the basic elements of visual logo, color scheme and domain name.

Behind every good brand are the “nuts and bolts” that hold it together. The breath that gives it life. And that’s what I want to focus on right now.

In my experience, there are two basic types of businesses: there are businesses that have to compete in a category (men’s clothing, ladies shoes, groceries, etc.) and those that created and own a category (like the lost and unclaimed baggage store in Alabama). The second category is pretty rare. But both categories need some branding “nuts and bolts” in order to survive because we ALL compete for the spending dollars and attention of consumers.

What will make your business stand out – no matter how “typical” it’s product – is the personality and culture of the business. Before you can promote a brand – you have to have a brand. And a brand is simply boiled down to be your reputation.

Your Brand is Your Reputation

That’s right, the logo, color scheme and domain name are just the elements that propel your brand into the marketplace. Your reputation IS your brand.

The Chick-fil-A Example

Chick-fil-A has the fun-loving personality of a bunch of cows campaigning that we all “Eat Mor Chikin.” Their antics and creativity are the “reputation” upon which the brand that sells an average chicken sandwich has soared to amazing heights of success and profitability.

The Broad Street Baking Company Example

On a local level, our client, Broad Street Baking Company, has embraced a colorful (literally) bunch of employees from all walks of life to meet, great and sell with the same enthusiasm that embodies their owners Jeff Good (a former technology sales guy  whose passion for community and people is contagious) and Chef Dan Blumenthal (a descendant of a baking family from New Jersey who loves driving very fast cars and can create amazing menu items in every possible menu category). They live the “Have You Hugged Your Baker Today?” mentality that fronts their famous t-shirts, and they also rock and roll through the day just like their new “Grateful Bread” t-shirts attest. They keep life jazzy and full of fresh colorful flavor – on and off the plate – a colossally successful recipe in a town full of great sandwiches.

The Peru Paper Company Example

On the flip side, another client, Peru Paper Company, is filled with heart-warming, genuine goodness that spills over into every life it touches – whether employees or customers. Her brand is the story of changing lives by giving previously impoverished workers a way to provide for their families safely and with dignity – and by spreading a culture of helping others in everything they do stateside and abroad. Their story is their brand – a story that is constantly unfolding because it is the “breath” of who they are. A different kind of brand – but one filled with the brand “nuts and bolts” that lead to success. (Want to read their story about “Cards That Care,” check out this online article out today.)

What is Your Brand?

As you set your sights on 2011, make a list of the elements of your own personality and that of your business that you wish to embody more fully in the new year. Branding needs a CONSISTENT presence that you and your employees can live. It must be your business personality naturally – and fit your business culture naturally. As you cannot force yourself to be someone you are not, you cannot force your business to be something it is not. Find the “nuts and bolts” of your business, then explore ways to bring them more into focus in 2011. Look at the case studies above – and others that you see around that are making their mark – in a highly competitive market. I guarantee it’s because they are far from vanilla – they have a brand that is memorable and consistent. They know who they are – and they’re BEING THEIR BRAND.

Here are just a few more small business branding ideas for you as you embark on this part of your 2011 Marketing Planning journey.

How will you BE YOUR BRAND in 2011?

This week I have a very simple marketing tip of the week for you Make sure that in the rush of the holiday season and pushing out lots of marketing messages to meet those media deadlines that you make sure you match your marketing message with your call to action.

First off, why should the marketing message & call to action match? (And similarly, why is a call to action so critical to marketing?) Here are a few of the reasons:

1. You’ll get to your goal faster (and increase sales) by asking for what you want.

2. Your marketing will be more measurable – so if it’s not working you can quit wasting money and if it is, you’ll know where to focus.

3. Clear messages and action items are easier to share – which will expose your business virally to more new customers.

Case Study: Wrong Call to Action

We drove past a billboard last night that basically said “Losing Weight Can Start Online.”

And it displayed a phone number.

Marketing Tip of the Week: Match your marketing message with your call to action.

It’s a simple step-wise process to achieve this marketing tip:

1. Have a marketing strategy. (What is your goal? What do you want customers to do? How can you reach them and motivate them?)

2. Create a marketing message. (What marketing message will motivate folks to do what you want them to do? What can you say or offer that will inspire action?)

3. Insert a call to action. (Ask them to do what you want them to do. Don’t forget to actually HAVE a call to action – and make sure that the call to action makes sense with the message that you sent.)

Examples of Matching Messages & Calls to Actions

Marketing Message: Invitation to attend an event and RSVP for a chance to win!

Call to Action: RSVP online with an e-mail address (so even if they don’t show up, you have their contact information).

Marketing Message: Get updates on new merchandise & special offers

Call to Action: Link to sign-up for the e-mail list / URL for sign-up landing page

Marketing Message: Buy Gift Certificates for Christmas Gifts!

Call to Action: Buy Online or In-Store – include web site URL where gift certificates can be purchased and store physical address

Of course, what should have the billboard have done differently?

Of course, if weight loss starts online – then there should be a URL where I can start my weight loss. Not a phone number.

What marketing messages are you sending this holiday season? Do you have a strong and connected call to action in all of your marketing messages? What’s working well for you?

Photo By: SeeMidTN.com (aka Brent)

So, let’s assume your small business has been paying attention. You’ve gotten the three elements of your brand together. Now, what are you going to do with it?

Card Package Branding for PeruPaper.com

If you use your brand widely, you will be amazed at how much more aware folks are of your business and your offerings just on this tactic alone. Similarly, if you are putting together a community, district or even your own specific promotion – these efforts to build your brand elements FIRST will exponentially benefit the overall success of subsequent programs.

Here are a few ideas of places where your local business’ brand system could appear within your brick-and-mortar community. Remember ALL brand elements should be present.

1. Shopping Bags
2. Unique Open/Close Door Signs (create your own in a desktop publishing software, then laminate at an office store)
3. Wayfinding in your store and in your community (this is any sign that tells folks where to find stuff or find their way)
4. Street Banners
5. Yard Signs
6. Billboards
7. Shopping Guides, brochures, basic business cards and the like
8. Menu Boards on the exterior of an establishment and on table menus or menu signage inside
9. Clothing items: aprons, shirts, lapel pins, caps, etc.
10. Cooperative marketing and advertising campaigns of all sorts

Get that brand out there! Don’t be shy. Activity and awareness breeds sales.

Photo Credit: PeruPaper.com

Dear Traditional Advertising Agency:

Reference: See my previous post about the three key elements of a brand.

Leaving your client’s web site URL off of their print advertising does the following harm to your client and it wastes all of their money:

1. This mistake gives you nor your client any way to measure the value of the print advertising by tracking incoming traffic to the web site.

2. This mistake leaves the reader (and potential business prospect) with no real actionable place to go to learn more without making a phone call. (In 2010, we just need a URL. Period.)

3. Worst of all, this mistake leaves the impression that your client is behind the times and isn’t worth considering for important business.

Instead of allowing this sort of image torture to happen for your client, I would recommend that if you insist on pushing print advertising into your client’s budget that you at least implement the following strategies to give the ad spending the best shot at giving a return on investment:

1. Build a vanity URL (www.clientname.com/magazinename).

2. On this specific web page (within your main web site), put valuable, advertisement specific copy, images and links to a wealth of business information, testimonials, and include another call to action to the prospect into your sales funnel deeper. (How about asking them some information about them or providing them with a valuable tool for free to grow their loyalty towards your client’s business?)

3. Put a call to action in the print ad that answers the “What’s in it for me?” question for the prospect and lures them to the vanity URL you created earlier.

4. Collect the data about who visits the page including geography, what else they look at on the site, what information is working and not working and conversion to next step or other actions within your sales funnel.

5. Help your client make adjustments in their process based on this new business intelligence.

Sound simple? Well, it really is pretty simple. No matter how complex the business model, a simple strategy like this followed through to the end (with measurement and continuous improvement) will show your value to your customer as an advertising professional.

There are a million ways to kick that idea up another notch, but for now, let’s start with getting that URL onto the advertisement in the first place and having a web site that’s ready to accept traffic. That’s the first step to building credibility and brand legitimacy in 2010.

Thanks for listening.

Sincerely,
Marianna

Editor’s Note: Thanks to Tom Beck, owner and commercial photographer extraordinaire, at Beck Photographic for sharing his thoughts with us… Tom is the best in the business, check out his web site or connect with him on Twitter to get to know him better.

Why would you want your brand (advertising) photography to not look professional?  What purpose does it serve, except to make your business look unprofessional.

A good portrait photographer is not necessarily a good commercial photographer, and vice versa.   Photographers tend to have specialties, and just because one shoots great portraits doesn’t mean they can shoot products, or food.  Research who you’re hiring, and notice what photos of theirs stand out.

What does a “good enough” photo mean to your business and your ad?  If it looks blah, then it’ll get lost and forgotten in all the other ads out there.  And even if you do see results, how much better would the results be if you actually had a GREAT photo in your advertising?

When you hire a pro photographer, you’re insuring that you’re going to get great results.  Does the person you hired for $100 off of Craigslist have pro equipment?  Backup equipment?  A certificate of insurance in case they break your merchandise?  Are they going to behave professionally on the shoot?  Do they know the technical specs of what you need delivered, and will they deliver in a timely manner?  These aren’t (usually) a concern when you hire a true professional.

If you (or your graphic designer) is purchasing microstock photography (iStockphoto, Shutterstock, etc.), then your competition can too.  How embarrassing will it be to see the image you’re using being used by your competitor (and yes, it HAS happened, more times than you know)?  Also, is that image “good enough”, or does it stand out?  If the image is just “OK”, even if you didn’t pay much for it, how much is it costing you in business you COULD have had? In other words, are you getting the biggest bang for your buck?

What say you? What is your experience with good enough vs. great photography?

It’s a proven fact: Great retail and restaurant displays SELL MORE STUFF! We’ve talked about how to create great displays before and we always love window designer Amy Meadows ideas that she shares with us.

This week, we especially love the displays at Charlotte Skelton’s latest small business venture, CRAVE, in Cleveland, Mississippi. Talk about packing a punch of delicious color, enticing presentation and straightforward customer education and alluring sales messages… CRAVE’s great displays make you, well, crave their goodies.

CRAVE is a small coffeeshop and café in a converted convenience store on the main drag in small town Cleveland, Mississippi. The owner is a veteran of the local food scene, but this time she’s pulled out a few new tricks…

Let’s analyze the visuals of this small biz:

1. Upon entry into the coffee shop, you are welcomed with a bold punch of name branding, brilliant colored candy jar displays as a focal point and a black board that gives you the must-know details of the day and some sales offers. Creative – but I’m guessing it wasn’t that expensive to create, making this display idea easily modified for your own purposes.

2. Point of sale. Well, let’s just say that having a mass display of amazing looking cupcakes, brilliantly elevated on multiple cake plates, creatively labeled with handwritten cards all behind a pristine glass case makes it difficult to resist taking 1 or a dozen of these goodies home for later enjoyment. The allure of this “bonus” item probably adds many dollars to her average ticket, an improvement that can pay big dividends on your small business’ annual bottom line.

What can we learn from CRAVE?

1. Educate your customers from the moment they walk in the front door. Never assume they know what to do with your products – even if your products are as simple as cupcakes and coffee!

2. Grab customers’ attention right from the start. Have a wow factor and focal point to your store displays, especially at the entry area.

3. Look for ways to use alluring visual elements to inspire the up-sell at the point of sale and increase your average sale / transaction amount.

4. Creative doesn’t mean expensive. Look for ways to repurpose ordinary objects and low-cost display elements like brightly colored candy, black boards, scrap fabric and ribbons, and old furniture to add new life to your displays.

P.S. We wish CRAVE had a web site and Facebook presence – but they don’t. We highly recommend that pack their bold punch online as well in the very near future!!