Tis the season for a holiday marketing strategy. Want to sell more in your retail store or restaurant this year? Try these marketing tips for your holiday sales event, and we bet you’ll sell more stuff!!

Know what people like about the holiday seasons? It gives everyone the excuse to party a little bit more. Holiday events – complete with holiday food – are one of the things people like most about the winter holidays. From Halloween bonfires and chili fests to New Year’s Eve late-night bashes and appetizer buffets, the whole gamut of winter holidays gives us all plenty of opportunities to get together, celebrate, eat, and enjoy the season.

So why not use the natural inclination we all have to mingle and munch? Create a holiday event for your brick-and-mortar local store; invite your customers; promote it publicly; and then be a great host or hostess and watch sales happen.

Keys to a Successful Holiday Event

First, you’ve got to create some holiday spirit.
Don’t try to host a Christmas open house if the only decoration you have is a spindly wreath on the front door. Put up a Christmas tree, hang some lights… you know, deck the halls. Get a selection of Christmas music and make sure it’s playing throughout the party. Make the place smell Christmasy by burning cinnamon-scented candles or having a big bubbling pot of apple cider.

The point to remember is that if you’re going to invite your customers in to celebrate the holidays at your retail store or restaurant, you need to create a holiday-themed, celebratory atmosphere. Go all out.

Second, give people a reason to linger.
Food is a key ingredient in a successful event; have plenty of munchable items and a selection of drinks. Make it easy for people to munch, browse, and talk. Keep trays and drinks refilled.

If you’re hosting a holiday event in your restaurant, your food options increase exponentially. You can host a themed dinner, a dessert party, anything you want because you’re equipped with the kitchen and seating. If you’re a retail shop, set up a food area and a bar, hire a couple of servers, and make the food easy to eat (think finger food) so people won’t struggle with using a fork while balancing a plate and a cup.

Entertainment is always a good option as well. You can have party games, a live band, an old holiday movie showing on a big screen, a raffle, a dance floor, a stage for karaoke. It’s up to you and what will work for your space and resources. People don’t need expensive, fancy entertainment to have a good time.

Third, display your products prominently.
Don’t be shy about what you’re trying to sell. Create holiday specials and make big, beautiful displays to show them off. Make it easy for people to see what you’re offering. You might consider having a raffle or giveaway and let one of your holiday specials be the prize. Offer special, event-only discounts and deals. Go over the specials with all your employees so they can easily show them off to guests.

Use your online presence (website, blog, Facebook, Twitter) to promote your event. If you have an email list, send out a special invitation to your email customers. Put up signs in your store. Put an ad in the local paper. Invite the town and be sure they know what you’re offering: food, drink, entertainment, a fun night out. And, of course, some of the best deals of the holiday season.

Image by ms. Tea.

Want to know how to make money in the retail business? Doesn’t matter what retail sector you’re in: fashion, spa, shoes, or home decor – even the restaurant business… There’s one simple way to make money.

Here’s the magic formula:

Sell more stuff at better margins.

Are you doing that? Why not? Maybe it’s because a bunch of complications sneaked into your life and your business that are keeping you away from the primary job at hand.

New & Improved Marketing Tools – or New Distractions?

I spent two hours this morning researching new marketing “bells and whistles” that clients had e-mailed me about this morning – mostly so I could explain why they were a bad idea.

They were a bad idea because they are a distraction. They will distract the customer, and they will distract the retail business owner. A few years ago, retailers were easily distracted by the local radio, television and newspaper guy that came knocking and selling the must-have advertising slot in their media.

Today, it’s the folks from Groupon and Living Social, Facebook ads and apps, text message marketing and e-mail gimmicks that don’t even drive traffic to your own web site. There are search engine optimization gurus and Google and YouTube ads and virtual tour creators. And the old fashioned Real Yellow Pages with their new amazing web-based tricks, the newspaper now has added their own set of online offerings and all the old faithful media still call, too…

It’s easy to become distracted by all of the options – and to say yes to the one that sounds the best. The problem with more options is that we get further and further from the purpose of owning a retail business: to sell more stuff at better margins.

Retail marketing should drive SALES – good, solid sales numbers.

Around here, our private clients are posting double digit sales increases across the board. No exceptions. And they’re following a simple system that builds long-term valuable customer relationships (and retail sales) and teaches customers how to most effectively share their experience with their friends. Sure, we’re using “new technology tools” – but we’re using them in a simple and effective way that produces sales and long-term customer relationships. We’re using simple systems that keep us on track – on the sales track.

Let your competitors follow the gimmicks.

Be okay with that. Then laugh all the way to the bank while you keep it simple. It’s cliche – but “keep is simple stupid” is still a sound business strategy for your retail business. Sell more stuff at better margins. Go do it.

Andy and I are privileged in our work to conduct a lot of one-time consultations with small businesses who need a push in the right direction and an action list to help them take their small business marketing to the next level and create a more remarkable and consistent customer experience.

We also have the privilege to work very closely, literally in the trenches, to develop, implement and then teach a small number of business owners how to execute marketing strategies and tactics as well as customer experiences that will grow their businesses for the long term. In these relationships, we seek to be game changers – revolutionaries – who encourage “drastic and far-reaching changes in ways of thinking and behaving” when it comes to small business marketing and small business customer experiences. (If you’ve been hanging around here a while, you’ll recognize that quote as the dictionary definition of “revolution” and the reason behind the name of this blog.)

Looking for a customer experience revolution for your small business? Here are TEN posts from the deep archives of this blog that I thought were worth a second (or third) look when it comes to helping you create a profitable customer experience. These posts are FULL of great ideas and tips for small business customer service and experience improvements. Your customer experience, after all, is the most critical element to the short and long-term success of your business. It is the linchpin to your success. Click on the tip to read a full blog post on the topic (and don’t forget to leave behind your comments and ideas on each topic!).

1. Make sure your front-line sales team knows how to do their job – and the importance of it.

2. Make keeping customers (customer retention) and getting new customer referrals from your happy customers a primary focus.

3. Don’t assume anything about your customers. They probably do NOT know what to do with your stuff.

4. It really does pay to understand your customer. Customer feedback is critical (a bonus post for this tip!).

5. Use great photography in your small business marketing.

6. Use lighting as a cheap and easy way to improve your customer experience and to market your business 24 hours a day.

7. Pay attention to the auditory aspect of your customer experience. It matters.

8. Make shopping with you more convenient for the time-crunched shopper – which is all of us.

9. Don’t forget that marketing doesn’t stop when the customer walks in the door – it’s really just beginning.

10.   Last but not least, here are a few more great ideas for improving your customer experience. A revolutionary customer experience is possible for your small business!

Want more? If you’ve been trying to figure out how to achieve that in your business or are looking for a small business revolution, community or non-profit organization, please get in touch with us – we’d love to hear from you.

Photo Credit: advencap

I got this message from MyScoop Mississippi a while back and stuck it in my “idea file” under “great retail promotion ideas using Facebook.” In this case, the message was probably distributed other ways, but the only way I heard about it was through a Facebook message that I received as a results of being a member of their Group on Facebook. (If you’re not familiar with MyScoop, check out Mississippi Publisher, Elizabeth Fowler’s interview on ResultsRevTV).

Here’s a copy of the actual Facebook message promoting this special retail event:

Subject: Debit Cards Ready…Set…Sale!

Does your debit card love a good sale?  Mine does!

I hope you will mark your calendar for a special sales event at Blithe & Vine and Cosmo Tots.  Stop in this Thursday night (May 27) from 5 PM until 8 PM to take advantage of 30% off full-priced merchandise (sorry girls, handbags, shoes and jewels not on sale).  If you’re already “booked” and can’t do a drive by for the event, stop in anytime tomorrow (Tuesday) through Saturday and ask to see the sale items.

Keep your eyes peeled for a sneak peek; My Scoop will be posting snapshots of our favorite sale items to our facebook group now through Thursday.  If you live out of state, just give Blithe & Vine a call — they have UPS on speed dial!

All my best,

Elizabeth
Editor & Publisher, My Scoop Mississippi

Let’s analyze why this message and this promotion works:

1. Subject line is snappy, sassy and grabs attention. It doesn’t just say: Sale and Blithe & Vine starts on Thursday. BORING. This subject line is fun and attention grabbing.

2. Body copy is also snappy and sassy with the perfect level of attitude and cool for the target audience. How can you bring the perfect level of personality into your e-mail messages?

3. The offer makes a special event out of an everyday thing: a seasonal sale.

4. The offer is flexible and accommodates the customers – it’s EASY to participate. (insiders who got this message can ask to see sale items ahead of time or call and order and they will even SHIP it to you!)

5. Sneak peak of sale items will be posted using a Facebook photo album – great cross media promotion and engagement opportunity beyond this message!

6.  It’s a personal letter style format similar to the letter style format for e-mail marketing that we recently discussed – except this letter was send through Facebook’s messaging system where you can send messages directly to all of your Facebook connections using your administrator options.

Great job by MyScoop Mississippi! How can you spice up your promotions, your promotional messages and get more out of ordinary business happenings? Share your ideas in the comments, and you might also get a featured post on this blog!

Guest post by Mandy Becker, owner of Swagger in Cary, North Carolina

Do your sales slump a little during the summer months?  Maybe since “no one is around” you slack off on your marketing efforts.  Sound familiar?

I used to do this. I was a major summer slacker. We would be having such great May sales numbers, but I would be depressed, because I knew June, July and August were right around the corner, and our sales would slow down.

Thank goodness I finally kicked myself in the rear and said “you, Mandy, are in control of your own destiny.” Well, it went kind of like that, but you catch my drift.

I realized that our summer sales were slow, because I made them slow.  How did I make them slow?  Well…

1. I wasn’t sending out our store newsletter as often during the summer. Why bother – people weren’t around to read them anyway – right?
2. I didn’t order as much “new” stuff to come in during the summer months. Why bother – people weren’t around to buy the items – right?

Um – WRONG!  Yes, people do go on vacation, but not (usually) for the entire summer!

I finally realized that:

1. Our customers still had friends and family who had summer birthdays.
2. Our customers still needed summer hostess gifts for parties or gifts for the people they were visiting on vacation.
3. Our customers still “needed” little summer pick me ups for themselves!

So I changed my entire attitude. Summer was going to be a time for new items, new promotions, and new energy in my business!

First off – new product!

Keeping new product rolling in all summer long is key. Even if it is new colors or patterns in best sellers – that’s NEW to your customers. New merchandise gives your employees fresh stuff to talk about with customers and reasons for the customers to come back. Think about your busy seasons. Do you tell your customers “Ooh – come in next week too – we will have these really awesome new things coming in”? It works in December and it will work in July – you’ll see. People love new, and they LOVE to be in the know! Entice them and they will come back.

Your monthly (e-mail or print) newsletter is a great way to “get the word out” about your new items and store events, so is your Facebook Page or your blog. And the latter two can be done so easily! New product comes in, picture is taken, picture is posted to Facebook with witty saying and VOILA – 30 minutes later the world knows you have “new stuff”! I am a big fan of Photo Albums on Facebook. Create them for new product lines or do a “snapshot of your store right now” album. We have sold a lot of products out of photo albums!

New promotions

This one is my favorite because it’s fun! There are lots of ways to promote your store – giveaways, contests, and more – be creative! Your customers will love it! This year, we decided to do a summer Facebook photo contest “Where have you Swaggered lately?”  We believe it will help us reach our goal of 2000 fans by November and our customers are basically promoting our products to other customers! I’ll let you guys know how it goes, but we have already created quite the buzz in our store and online! Just yesterday a customer wanted the “baby mat” from the photo contest!

And finally – New Energy!

Our new energy comes in the form of cause-related marketing events during the summer.  We team up with local charities and have trunk shows or other types of events that are promoted to our customers and the charity’s supporters. We give back to the community, and we get exposure to new people – it is a win-win for both parties involved!  Be sure to promote the events both online and off.

I hope this helped get you motivated for a great Summer Selling Season! What are some of your summer promotion ideas? I know we would all love to hear them!

Thanks!

Mandy