5 Creative Sales Hacks for Small Businesses Around the Holidays
We have so many maker clients here at Allegiant, we wanted to share some extra ideas for how to make sales this year even in a pandemic!
With Thanksgiving and Christmas both just around the corner, hordes of shoppers will be searching for gifts over the coming weeks. But for a small creative business owner, this can be overwhelming. The truth is, you can compete with larger brands, even if you aren’t able to offer crazy deals or spend a ton on advertising. You just need to be taking advantage of their willingness to buy!
In this blog, we’re discussing sales hacks. Those nifty little tricks to work for small creative business owners which might help to pull in a profit over the holiday season. We released a similar blog a couple of weeks back about marketing your business over the holidays. Combine the two and you should have tons of new ways to increase your revenue. If your business grows, you may need more sophisticated planning around profits and taxes, so get in touch with me to discuss how to handle them.
Ways to get more sales:
Black Friday
Holiday Buying Guides
Advent Calendars
12 Days of Christmas
Gift Wrapping
Black Friday
Everybody loves an incentive, and Black Friday is the perfect opportunity to give extra value to your customers. You don’t have to heavily discount your prices, maybe just include a low-cost freebie or extra personal touch as part of your offering. Many people have been saving all year for Black Friday which might break down the usual selling barriers for your business.
It could also be worthwhile to use various pricing strategies during Black Friday. When successful, this is used to get into the market and expose your brand to a new audience at a lower price than usual. You then increase your pricing after customers have returned in order to build a retained audience.
Holiday Buying Guides
These are really effective ways to market your business and can help creative business owners build an affiliate network of like-minded collaborators. Collaboration over competition is often a good thing, and in these holiday gift-buying guides, you get the chance to work with other local business owners.
You might be thinking, how on earth will I get my products in a gift guide?! Well, if your business doesn’t always do PR, now may be the time to start. You could reach out directly to the guides through email or on social media, or perhaps create a pitch and go through a PR company. However you do it, it’s important to have professional images and good copywriting, as this is what will showcase your brand within the guides.
Countdown to Christmas
If you have a large range of products, there is potential to put together a gift calendar on the countdown to Christmas. It could work for jewelry businesses, for example, including different pairs of earrings, necklaces, and rings on each day of the calendar. This idea also means you could bundle up your products without having to discount.
Alternatively, if you don’t have a large range of products, why not buddy up with other small creative business owners? Not only is this more logistically manageable for a small business, but your brand will be promoted across their audiences and you could pick up a few new customers!
12 Days of Sales
On the lead up to Christmas, you’ll find many brands creating one-day-only offers to entice those last-minute shoppers looking to buy something in a pinch. You’ll often see these offers over Instagram or email marketing, so shoppers can feel like they’re in on the secret. The effectiveness of this type of sales hack is down to exclusivity. The offer is only valid for 24-hours, sparking prospects to buy.
To avoid burnout over twelve days of different offers, make sure you switch up the deals and throw in a curve-ball or two. The trick with this one is to build anticipation on your email marketing or socials in order to keep your audience hanging. Offers might include: free delivery, buy one get one free, or a bundle of holiday products for a discounted rate.
Gift Wrapping
For many small creative businesses, packaging is everything. It shows off your brand and can actually be the difference between a sale and an abandoned basket. With that being said, you may already be wrapping your products in tissue paper or presenting them with ribbons and bows. Although this may already be part of your offering, it’s an add-on that you should be highlighting to customers! An alternative to gift wrapping could be personalized and hand-written notes for when customers are sending a gift. It adds a special touch and could be the feature pushing sales in your business over your competitors.
The Holiday Season can be unpredictable for small creative business owners, but if you can implement some of these sales hacks, your products could be hard to resist. Shopping local is becoming more and more popular, so take advantage of the customers that are willing to support small creative businesses and build your brand some income over this holiday period. On the other hand (if your business does not experience the growth you desire), let’s discuss how we can plan for off months of income and financial recovery.