Prepare Small Business Print Marketing Today for the Holidays
True to the summertime heat, many small businesses have already begun sweating their print marketing campaigns in preparation for the upcoming holiday season.
In 2015, Small Business Saturday generated approximately $16.2 billion in sales and convinced more than 95 million people of the importance of “shopping small,” according to a study by the National Federation of Independent Business.
And that’s just a single day among many profitable opportunities for small businesses. Black Friday, Cyber Monday and wintertime shopping excursions throughout December for various other holidays — any and all of these represent potential for your small business to attract new customers, get the word out about new products or services and grow your brand in positive new directions.
Print marketing should be the cornerstone of your small business’s fall sales initiative. What printed materials round out the best fall/holiday marketing plan? What differentiates a decent marketing campaign from a stellar one?
Planning documents
It’s all got to start somewhere, right? With so much time until the holidays, small businesses should take advantage of every second available for planning out fall and winter marketing strategies.
That said, for SMBs without enterprise mobile technology to share information electronically or high-capacity printers/copiers to produce proposals and mock-ups on-site, planning can be a huge drain on a budget or a tight schedule. After all, who has time to wait for a personal printer to churn out proposals one page at a time?
To stay cost- and time-effective, small business owners should team up with print and marketing services that provide everything they need in one place for an affordable price. Partner with vendors offering a price match guarantee to save money, self-service equipment or same-day printing to save time and/or free shipping on printed goods to save yourself a trip to the store.
Signs
Nothing sends the marketing message home quite like signage, such as custom banners, sandwich boards and posters. Check out these design tips for your holiday sign campaign:
- Make it special: You're advertising for the holidays, remember? Create a design that not only accents the occasion but utilizes brand colors. That way, you balance the joy of the season with the brand your customers trust.
- Make it simple: Too much background design can make signs illegible. Clashing color combinations can too. Be vibrant, but always keep the reader in mind.
- Make it informative: You’re not the only business hosting a promotional event this holiday season. Don’t overemphasize the reason you’re having a sale, but rather the savings or deals customers can expect if they shop with you instead of your competitors.
For more tips on attention-grabbing sign design, talk with your local print and marketing specialist.
Handouts Brochures, postcards, business cards and other printed take-home promotional materials remind customers to return to your small business when it’s time to shop for the holidays. But in an increasingly digital world, printed materials should align with online offerings like company websites and social media pages to connect with your virtual audience.
According to the National Retail Federation, more Americans shopped online over Thanksgiving weekend 2015 than turned out to brick-and-mortar store locations. What does that mean? Even if printed flyers can’t convince shoppers to brave the madness of holiday shopping in person, these resources can easily refer customers to an online store where they can purchase gifts and goodies from your small business at their leisure. You make the sale, and they get to spend the holiday weekend in their pajamas. Everybody wins.
Pro tip: Include a coupon code in every handout to make sure customers hang onto printed promotionals until winter rolls around.
When you plan ahead, you improve your chances of success. And for small businesses, that could mean huge seasonal returns. With that in mind, trust in a print marketing vendor that understands how small businesses prepare for the holidays and can complement your foresight with real value.