We didn’t realize it, and another year has come to an end. The end of summer and the start of the holiday season bring so much excitement and tension in industries. Businesses start forming marketing strategies and promoting their products and services on social media. Some rely on SMS and email marketing to entice their customers with stock clearing, holiday, end-of-season, and whatnot deals.
However, the post-pandemic market is fragile, and consumer behavior is difficult to perceive. So, if you are someone with a small business, you don’t want to ruin your holiday season with some arbitrary strategies. Hence, we have researched and articulated valuable tips for companies to finish the year strong, harnessing the marketing efforts.
I’m sure these tips for small businesses to finish 2021 will help grow your business, making the most out of the holiday season. Before we dive into tips, let us glance at what researchers have implied through their market studies for this holiday season.
What top researchers say about small business success opportunities
- Since it’s the second post-pandemic holiday season, consumers continue to hunt for conveniences, with 73% choosing standard delivery, BOPIS (buy-online-pickup-in-store), and curbside pickup, exceeding pre-pandemic levels.
- CNBC reported findings of a new holiday survey from American Express Pay It Plan It that during the holiday season last year, about 86% of millennials (23 to 38) spent more money than they planned to. This makes 21% of them have crossed the budget by approximately $500 or more.
- Furthermore, expanding onto the survey, it reports Electronic gifts were the most common reason that caused millennials to overspend by 69%, compared to children’s toys by 57%, clothes by 53%, jewelry by 38%, food or drinks by 33%, and other gifts by 4%.
- On the other hand, McKinsey’s survey on shoppers for this year’s holiday-shopping landscape says; Shoppers are embracing the omnichannel experience to avoid facing stock running out. Plus, they are grabbing opportunities to buy sooner rather than later. The FOMO has also made them switch brands or retailers more than ever.
- Pertaining to the responses to their survey accompanied with consumers’ debit/credit card spending data, McKinsey’s analysis indicates that consumer spending is likely to rise 7% over 2020 and 9% compared to 2019 in fourth-quarter 2021. Although with so many options available, consumers tend to bounce between in-person, websites, and mobile app shopping for inspiration, ordering, and fulfillment.
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Consumer spending is increasing. So, every retailer will work hard to land the maximum consumer budget into their revenue basket. By brushing up your marketing and operations, your company, too, can hit a high note with this year’s vigorous shopping trends.
Then, let us back to our tips on how to finish your year with business success.
Tips For Small Businesses To Finish 2021 Like a Pro
Make Consumers Spend Their Saving
Saving a part of the budget for later is human instinct. Meaning, if you have a surplus budget, so would have your customers. What you need to do about this is to figure out what they might need at this point. Using the analysis, structure a marketing strategy that speaks straight to that need to make it a holiday special.
You can use social media platforms to influence millennials’ consideration and purchases. For example, by creating viral TikTok videos, following trends, clothing retailers can drive sales from younger consumers.
Take Care Of Your Workforce
It’s equally important to maintain good relationships with your employees. Otherwise, your holiday season plan will go down the drain due to empty cabins. Therefore, to hold on to the staff you have, find creative ways to appreciate your workforce.
Take Walmart, for example. They rewarded employees who worked on Thanksgiving with a free meal and offered 15% off in addition to the usual 10% employee discount on a variety of products.
Efficient Marketing
Make capturing new leads, driving traffic to your business, and retaining existing customers a part of your holiday campaign. That might sound too generic, but the twist is, here, you need to target each type of audience separately. Create custom groups and recommend them to different offerings than the ones that bring them to your platform in the first place.
Besides, you can personalize a positive consumer experience to strengthen your brand and reputation with this strategy. Not to mention, you will also need to be visible in front of your prospects to get noticed. Hence, prioritize when and whom to target through search engines, email, or social media.
Think Universally
Your audience in the US may have been caught up in the holidays. So, instead of pushing yourself too hard to get their attention, you can use this time to target outside the US. For that, employ language and location targeting tactics and focus on your sales messages to those who might be paying attention and interested in it.
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Utilize The Downtime Rightly
Of course, there will be times when your business faces low traffic. Slow things in the company indicate that your people lack entertainment and inspiration or updates from you. You take it as an opportunity by providing good content for them to interact with.
Alternatively, you can utilize any downtime to plan for the future so that your business can take off well in the next quarter.
Conclusion
Retailers are more likely to face challenges during holiday seasons, competing for consumer loyalty coupled with managing the supply chain. The rising demand, however, brings opportunities for companies to optimize inventory, recognize efficient marketing channels, and meet consumers’ needs.
Henceforth, the time is to buckle up and not burn out so easily. If you like our tips for small businesses to finish the year bold and want to learn more, feel free to reach out to us.