How Small Businesses Can Show Their Thanks on Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving for Small Businesses
Fall is a time of hustle and bustle for everyone, including small businesses. With this time of year comes the holidays, and with those comes a boom of activity for all businesses. In this article, we’ll go over some of the most notable holidays and events for businesses during this time, marketing tactics your business can use to the fullest right now, and how your business can show its thanks to its community.
Notable Holidays for Small Businesses
There are several notable holidays that all take place around this time. Holiday season can drive a large portion of some business’ sales. A few of the most notable ones during fall are:
Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving marks the start of many businesses' advertising campaigns. Some businesses are closed on this day to allow employees to spend the day with their families, but others stay open to take advantage of the extra sales.
Black Friday
Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving and traditionally marks the first day of shopping for the Christmas holiday. Many businesses use this holiday to promote steep sales and discounts, although not to the caliber they used to be.
Small Business Saturday
This holiday, which takes place on the Saturday after Thanksgiving and Black Friday, was introduced in 2010 by American Express to encourage consumers to shop smaller and promote small businesses after the Recession.
Cyber Monday
Cyber Monday occurs the Monday after Thanksgiving. It was created to encourage consumers to buy from online retailers and increase e-commerce traffic. Like Black Friday, it’s a holiday known for its great sales and discounts thousands of retailers offer. The main difference between the two is that Cyber Monday is exclusively for online sales.
Marketing Tactics for Thanksgiving
Knowing how to market your business during the Thanksgiving holiday (and those around it) is essential to maximizing results and sales during this time. Here are some examples of how to best market your business:
Use fall and/or Thanksgiving themes on social media.
Social media is the gateway for many people to discover your business. When the holiday season arrives, making your social media pages and/or website thematic for the season is a great way to show some holiday spirit and connect with customers.
Preview Black Friday deals
Building up anticipation for your sales will build up excitement in your customers. Do a countdown towards your big sales or send out coupons that are only active during a specific time window to help promote your sales before they start so that anticipation builds in your customers.
Promote holiday-themed merchandise
Having seasonal and limited-time offers that are only available during certain times of the year is another excellent way to build anticipation in your customers. Fall decor, seasonal food and treats, event supplies, and other fall and Thanksgiving items are all fantastic options for your business to sell during this time of year.
Decorate your business
Make your business feel warm and welcoming with some amazing fall decor. Little pumpkins, fake fall-colored leaves, little turkeys, and cornucopias are all great options to use in and around your business to help bring the holiday spirit alive for you, your employees, and your customers.
How Your Business Can Show Its Thanks
There are many ways to show how thankful your business is to the customers who keep you open, and Thanksgiving is a perfect time to show it. Here are some ways your business can show its thanks:
Host a giveaway or contest.
This can be a 2-for-1 event if done right. It can help promote your business and what it offers while also giving back to your community and shoppers! For a giveaway, you can host a raffle event, host an event where a specific customer (ex., the 25th person to buy something or comes into the business on Thanksgiving) gets a free prize, or promote a win-a-thanksgiving-dinner giveaway (could be a great one to partner with another small business for as well!) for customers who shop or interact with your business in a specific way. For contests, you could host baking, art, or trivia competitions as just a few ideas.
Host a food drive or other forms of donations for those in need.
Thanksgiving is a time of great need for some, and getting your business involved in events to help provide them with those needs is a great way to give back to your community in a meaningful and impactful way. Some popular options for this time of year are food drives, clothing drives, and monetary donations to charities. Your business can partner with local food banks, charities, or other businesses to spread awareness and help promote.
Tell your customers that you are thankful for them.
Sometimes, the best way to show your thanks is just to say it. Telling your customers when you interact with them that you are thankful for their business can mean a great deal to them, and it can mean a lot to them that you’d take the time to tell them personally and not just in a wide-reaching social media post or ad.
For more information on how Thanksgiving can help your business, check out these articles:
Thanksgiving is a time of gratitude, appreciation, and giving back to others. We at Comprehensive Consulting Solutions for Small Businesses encourage every business to take time and reflect on who and what they are thankful for. We, for one, are grateful to each and every client we’ve had the honor of helping and talking to, those who take the time to read our articles, and our community. We hope to continue with our goal of helping small businesses complete their small business puzzle. If you want to see how we can help you, feel free to contact us for a free consultation! We’d love to help!
