Creative Marketing Tips For Navigating The Holidays As a Small Business
How you prepare for the holidays as a small business determines not just how you are likely to close out the year, but it also speaks volumes as to what matters to you as a business owner. The holiday season is a time of year where we can practice values-driven marketing and encourage conscious consumerism. As a business owner who has navigated many holiday seasons, I have learned a thing or two about different ways we can approach the most consumerism-driven time of the year. This article breaks down different content ideas to help you creatively stand out while upholding your business values and creative ideas for how to market your business as well as your beliefs during Black Friday week. Let’s dive in!
November Content Ideas
Below is a roundup of some of the best content ideas we could come up with to try out for the month of November! Try them out and let us know how they work for you
Holiday tips you won't want to miss: In this piece of content you can share top tips pertaining to your industry and niche
Fall Highlights | Company seasonal summary: In this piece of content you can do a public SWOT analysis of your Fall season!
Things to do before 2022 is over: This piece of content can share things to help your target audience close out the year with a bang (relate to your speciality, niche, and industry)
How you can help your community in 2023: Share what services or offers you will be offering in 2023 and how people can learn more + get involved
Gift Guides: Not into the whole Black Friday craze? Take a different approach by creating a cool gift guide that shouts out other small businesses that you want to encourage your community to support!
Ways to bring more peace to your holiday season: Think about the common areas your target audience struggle with in relation to this time of year and provide some helpful tips to bring more peace and calm to a commonly hectic time of year
How you got started | Your origin story: Do a cool series that shares your brand story from conception to current date!
Get ahead of the rush with holiday prep tips: Think about what adds stress to your target audience during the holidays and provide tips on how to prep and plan ahead
Ways to book in for the new year: Share your onboarding process and ways that folks can secure a spot to work with you for the new year (or end of year!)
Support your local small businesses: Make a list of your fave small businesses and do a series to highlight them! Or simply encourage your community to support small biz for the holidays
How you're giving back: Establish a giving back game plan for the holidays and spread the word to your online community, encouraging them to participate in giving back to causes or organizations that matter to them!
The month of November is full of all sorts of events, holidays and seasonal themes that will be really great to weave into your content plan.
Here are a few things that are being recognized in November that may additionally help you in the content creation department! Keep in mind: Not everyone celebrates the same holidays, some holidays produce negative social and environmental consequences (we are in the most heavy-consumerism time of the year!), and this time of year in general can be challenging for many. With any content you create, make sure you are practicing social responsibility and taking into consideration how your content could impact those who consume it. Create with intention!
November Recognized Events
Black Friday (and #BuyBlackFriday !)
Small business Saturday
Cyber Monday
Giving Back Tuesday
November is Entrepreneurship month!
Many also participate in #NoShaveNovember
Now that you have some unique content ideas to work with for the month of November, let’s now discuss some creative marketing ideas to help you with running sales this month for your small business!
November Marketing Tips
Navigating one of the most heavily-consumerist months of the year can be tricky. As a small business, this may be the time of the year that largely contributes to your overall revenue.
Yet, many of us may also find ourselves feeling conflicted when it comes to running sales and promoting purchasing when we know that we are already in an over-consumption crisis.
Below are some creative ways to approach offering sales within your small business this month, regardless as to whether you want to even offer sales or not!
For small businesses wanting to offer sales:
Release a new product or service during Black Friday week
Feature your flagship or most popular offers throughout the week
Host a giveaway
Create a collaborative bundle offer with other small businesses!
Offer free shipping
Offer a certain percentage off of all products/services (or select ones)
Create a fun gifting guide that helps people gift your products or services to others!
Shake up what's expected by running sales longer, on different days than what everyone else is doing, etc!
Bundle your products or services at a discount
Give a free add ‘gift’ on with certain purchases
For small business that don't want to offer sales:
Pick a cause or organization (or a few!) and donate a percentage of your November income to them.
Feature certain causes or organizations that you want to highlight and encourage your community to get involved in supporting them
Create a fun gifting guide that highlights other small businesses you want your community to support!
Create an awesome freebie!
Partner with other local small businesses and create a shout out train for the week of Black Friday
Check out other brands like Patagonia that run a different sort of campaign that encourages people to do other things beyond buying stuff!
Embrace Green Friday and spend the day doing something that is beneficial to the environment!
Educate your audience on ways they can shop sustainably
We hope that this article helps generate some ideas for different approaches you can take during the holiday season to not only promote your small business but create a culture of social and environmental responsibility.
Until next time…
Natalie Brite & The DoGoodBiz Studio
