Truth: Christmas is creeping up on you.
In fact, for many bricks and mortar businesses, November 15th marks the date when we turn on the holiday music and get ready for the onslaught of business that takes place the last six weeks of every year. It is notoriously the busiest time of the year for many retail organizations. A time where employees work crazy hours, do their best to serve busy shoppers, keep their stores in great shape and feel stressed to the max about hitting big sales numbers.
Things are changing though, and they have been for years. The consumer has more and more options when it comes to shopping and gone are the days where most consumers fear using their credit card online to make their purchases.
If you have a product or a service that you are trying to sell this holiday season I have one word for you: Traffic
How are you going to drive more traffic?
Traffic to your website and/or traffic to your physical location?
This year there are more than one billion people using Facebook and over half of them are using mobile devices to stay connect to friends, family and brands.
The question I have for you is this: “How do you stand out and how do you leverage Facebook to drive traffic?”
I know, the word traffic sounds cold and impersonal, but retailers are taught from a very young age that you need traffic in order to convert a small percentage into sales and you need those sales in order to make your numbers.
This year when it comes to marketing, the noise will be loud. There will be ads on TV, radio, billboard, in store, and even on Facebook. Learning how to differentiate yourself from your competition is key.
So, to give you a bit of an edge on your competition, here are Four Things You Need To Know To Get Your Business Ready for the Holidays:
1) If you are using a personal profile instead of a page on Facebook for your business you are going to lose. You must convert it to a Facebook Page so you can take advantage of the tools and opportunities Facebook has for you. People do not want to be friends with your business – they want to like it.
2) You must understand Facebook ads, how to use them, and how to drill down to your ideal audience. You cannot sell all of your widgets to everyone. You must be able to focus on the people who are your best clients and you need to know how to speak their language in sound bites.
3) You must get past 400 people who like your page so you can promote your posts to those people who are connected to your business. The news feed is going to be fast and furious and if you do not have 400 people who like your page you cannot compete.
4) You need an in-store way to keep the conversation happening. Too many restaurants and retailers hire some agency or some kid to post on their behalf and treat their Facebook page like a silo they market in instead of a communication channel they have with their clients. Give those people connected to you on Facebook something special when they cross the lease line. At the very least – find out if they are connected to you.
You don’t have a lot of time. The busiest shopping weekend of the year is just around the corner. Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday are just over a week away.
Are you ready?
