Sandwiched in between Black Friday and Cyber Monday this weekend is Small Business Saturday. It is a day where consumers are asked to drive past the big box retailers and shopping malls and instead spend time — and money — at local stores that do not have the benefit of huge marketing budgets.
Small Business Saturday has been around since 2010. American Express sponsored the first Small Business Saturday in Roslindale Village, Mass. While the target recipient of Small Business Saturday are local retailers, like bakeries, used book stores, and flower shops, business-to-business companies like mine can also use the day as a great marketing opportunity. And since this year’s Small Business Saturday is only four days away, here is how you can get cracking.
It’s difficult for B2B companies to discount their services or monthly income streams, but here is an idea that your marketing team can whip up before the big day:
Offer a secondary service to your clients or prospects at a steep discount, such as an audit, or logo design.
Here is how you do this:
- Come up with a secondary service that can be easily discounted.
- After the idea is solidified, create a landing page for this offer that is only valid if purchased on Saturday.
- Integrate your merchant account, Paypal, or any other payment system you use into the landing page
- Create an email campaign to be sent to your clients, prospects, and networking contacts and email them the offer on Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday
- Be sure to respond to them first thing on Monday morning
Here is another thing you might do – support your local small business community by visiting and shopping.
Four days is not a lot of time to get ready, but if your marketing team has the time, get this done. If not – schedule this for your marketing roadmap for next year (you have one right?).
If you do not have a marketing roadmap for 2018, reach out to me at 860.899.1860 and I’ll help you build one.