With the holiday season quickly approaching, what is your small business doing to prepare? Check out these 5 quick tips to help your business be on the nice list!

Start working on your campaign now. Have you turned on the TV since Halloween? I’d say a good majority of the commercials deal with the holiday season. People are shopping earlier than ever for gifts and adding your marketing to the mix will only help you.
Tell people why they should shop at your store rather than the big box stores. The big box stores have million dollar advertising budgets and will draw many people in almost automatically. You need to tell your customers why they need to shop at your store instead of big name retailers. Using things like Small Business Saturday, stressing your unique inventory, and offering ‘limited quantity’ items are all great ways to draw traffic.
Host a holiday season kick off. Have a tree lighting, wine tasting, holiday food sampling or a visit from Santa to bring people into your store. Get into the holiday spirit and really go all out decorating and promoting your event for optimal results.
Make a daily sale calendar. A great way to drive traffic is to have new specials often. You may find it useful to offer a new special each day; $5 burger special on December 5, $1 greeting cards on December 15, and $5 Christmas lights on holiday blow out December 20. This draws traffic into your business all month long; just make sure the deals are good and you are well stocked on your sale items!
Use social media. I wouldn’t be the marketer I am without reminding you of this FREE option. Make Facebook events and invite your customers and friends, promote posts, share funny pictures, and involve your customers to increase sales.

Jump start your holiday sales and end the year with a bang by using these simple tips.

Until next time!

~Melissa

Thanks for the inspiration Business 2 Community!

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