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‘Tis The Season For Small Business Online Marketers


It’s that time of the year for memories, doing good and shopping, including – shopping online.

By now your own email inbox is inundated with the eye-candy holiday subject lines. If you’re a small business marketer, just follow the big boys lead. Introverts will particularly like these ideas because they include short bursts of energy and time, and revolve around planning. ’tis the season!

1. Hurry! Just 5 days left to save!

If you are like me you are signed up for your favorite retailers emails. In approaching the holiday countdown, along with a special price, there’s often a shorter timeframe for the most recent special. This creates a similar sense of urgency today as it has in marketing in years past because – it works! People know the holiday season is just so long and you want to take advantage of it. Consider your pricing and how long you want that price offer. Then consider making it shorter.

2. It can be 12 Days of Christmas.

As short as the season is, you can still plan things out. It might be a short holiday editorial calendar but it will be a plan. Since you are online, maybe even in brick and mortar in addition, there are many things to consider. To take advantage of the festive mood, you want to be certain you consider as many pieces as you can: your blog posts, your special offers, coupons, how often you will email, the products you will promote, and the timing, for example. Whether you write it all down or get some fancy online calendar program is up to you.

3. Gifts for everyone on your list.

There are coupons, lower prices, free shipping, and BOGOs, buy one get one. Put yourself in the shoes of the person shopping this season. You want easy. Making your prospect jump through hoops when another sale, even with a non-competitive product or service, isn’t helpful. Be creative with things like, lowering all pricing, one discount code applies to all, suggested gifts for friends and family, but keep it simple. Make things easy for your customer.

4. Ho, ho, ho, spread the word.

When you are online it’s highly likely you’re hanging out on LinkedIn, FaceBook, Twitter and more. If people are using hashtags to broadcast what they want for Christmas, why not create a hashtag to broadcast what you’re offering? Or if not a hashtag, some attractive holiday quotations? Just use a search engine for, Holiday quotes for Twitter. Then after about ten or so of these content kind of posts, direct people to a related special offer. Or use your blog (you have one right?) to lead off for your promotions.

5. Look now to ringing in the New Year.

If you feel you’ve got enough under your own business sales tree for the current holiday, then now is the time to start planning for next year. If you find yourself now able to add to your calendar for this big holiday bang, then ring in the New Year with a similar pattern: specials, planned out with a calendar, make it about how your customer can help themselves and others and ask them to spread the word.

Most people are now primed for the holiday season. You can feel it in the air, smell it in what’s cooking and know it from your own focus – shopping. Right now, people are usually happier, more generous and in a buying spirit. Use your introvert thinking and organizing preference to take advantage of spreading the holiday cheer in a planned and purposeful way.  It’s up to you to make it a ’tis the season for your online marketing.

By Patricia Weber, a contributing blogger for JenningsWire, a blogging community created by Annie Jennings.