3 Tips to Make This Small Business Saturday Count

According to a Redshift Research study, 67 percent of consumers reported that they are aware of Small Business Saturday (SBS). Although the national movement has gained plenty of momentum since its inception in 2010, there is still a lot of work to turn that awareness into knowledge! Small Business Saturday has the potential to push customers to shop local all year long. Be part of the movement and support shopping local on Nov. 29 by gaining awareness and support within your community.

Educate Your Following

Use your marketing channels to show customers just how much of an impact they can make when they shop local. Elevate the importance of shopping small by sharing stimulating statistics, facts and messages within your social media community. Repurpose this content as part of your latest email or a graphic for the homepage of your site. You can find a lot of information that supports previous SBS impact right from the Small Business Saturday webpage. Utilize these educational bits to prove to your community just how important it is to shop local.

SBS and shop local stats and facts for your marketing:

• Money spent at a local business generates 3.5x more wealth for the local economy

• $1 spent at a local retailer is usually spent 6 to 15 times before it leaves the community

• 80% of each dollar spent at an independent retailer goes back to the local community

Develop a Theme

Get customers in the spirit of SBS the same as you would for any other holiday. Adopt a theme to use in your marketing and other forms of communication or visuals. Your theme can include official SBS logos and colors or simply follow a “shop local” look and feel. Begin utilizing your theme one month in advance so that your customers associate your business with SBS and make a visit on Nov. 29.

• Utilize SBS email templates to invite customers to your store for a special SBS event, promote locally-made products or add a reminder about last year’s impact
• Change out your social media cover images to ones that promote SBS
• Post, tweet and Pin messages about shopping small and the impact that SBS has on the community
• Blog about your SBS event
• Use the hashtags #SmallBizSat, #SmallBusinessSaturday, #ShopSmall and #ShopLocal
• Put up signage and change your storefront display to embrace your local roots

Get Involved in Your Community

It takes more than one business owner to make a significant impact on your local economy. That’s why it’s so important to get others involved in generating traffic to your community on Nov. 29. Begin by contacting your chamber of commerce, main street organization or downtown partnership. These entities can offer free education, exposure and relationship opportunities for their members. Utilize these groups to rally neighboring businesses on SBS. The bigger the group of advocates, the more local residents you’ll reach with your message.

Lastly, one of the easiest things you can do to support SBS is to get out there and shop! You can make an impact yourself by visiting some of your neighbors. Enlist the extra help and head out in your community for a few hours of shopping. Remember those stats we told you to share earlier? Here’s another one for you: For every $100 spent at a local independent business, $45 goes back into the community. Now get out there early and make this SBS count!

Want more support? Encourage your community to get Small Business Saturday ready with images like the one above from SnapRetail! Click here.