So You Procrastinated Your Holiday Marketing … Now What?
You just looked at the calendar and it’s November 8th and you haven’t done any holiday marketing — yet. You’re decidedly not alone! In this episode Kim and Cara give you some great tips on marketing during the upcoming holiday quadfecta of sales days. It’s time to add some cash to the holiday coffers!
Transcript
Welcome to The Business Animal podcast. Saddle up for a
Jaz:gallop to the top of the animal industry, where you'll learn how
Jaz:to tame your wild business beast, with tips, techniques,
Jaz:and tools that will take overwhelm to obedience school.
Jaz:And have you wagging your tail with joy. And now your hosts,
Jaz:Kim Beer and Cara Taylor Swift
Kimberly Beer:Hey, their business the animals Welcome to
Kimberly Beer:The Business Animal Podcast. I'm Kim with Be More Business.
Cara Taylor Swift:And I'm Cara with Fast Horse photography. Hi,
Cara Taylor Swift:Kim. What are we talking about? Today? I'm hearing the sound of
Cara Taylor Swift:Jingle Bells on money in the air for some reason. Does that have
Cara Taylor Swift:anything to do with our topic? Yes,
Kimberly Beer:I think it does. But it's for the peeps out there
Kimberly Beer:that have procrastinated, their holiday marketing, kind of like
Kimberly Beer:we've procrastinated doing a holiday show, which we probably
Kimberly Beer:should have done some time in like July or August. There is
Kimberly Beer:something to be said about that Christmas in July, like getting
Kimberly Beer:prepared for it. But frankly, I know you probably have prepared
Kimberly Beer:for your holiday stuff. But I launched a tarot deck and
Kimberly Beer:haven't even began my holiday marketing yet. So this episode
Kimberly Beer:is for me to kind of help me get my stuff squared away. And for
Kimberly Beer:all of those others of you out there who are like, dammit, it's
Kimberly Beer:November. It snuck up on me. Oh, goodness, yep. So
Cara Taylor Swift:it's that's the thing is that this is the
Cara Taylor Swift:time of year we're moving into where the statistic is 30% of
Cara Taylor Swift:all retail sales occur between Black Friday and Christmas. So
Cara Taylor Swift:we know that's coming up, we've probably had a little bit of a
Cara Taylor Swift:shock to our system when November 1 came around. And we
Cara Taylor Swift:realized it was November 1. And if you're like me, you haven't
Cara Taylor Swift:really started your shopping yet. But you are thinking, Okay,
Cara Taylor Swift:I'm going to be shopping because I know there's going to be
Cara Taylor Swift:discounts coming out there's going to be promotions, and I
Cara Taylor Swift:need to start thinking about that. Now I usually do a pretty
Cara Taylor Swift:good job planning in advance for my holiday promotion. Because I
Cara Taylor Swift:know that's a great time to make sales. But I'm guessing that
Cara Taylor Swift:there are like you can lots of people out there that are
Cara Taylor Swift:thinking, Oh, no, it's November. And I haven't even started
Cara Taylor Swift:planning how I'm gonna really take advantage of this. What did
Cara Taylor Swift:we decide to call it a quad factor of sales days that are
Cara Taylor Swift:coming up that are rapidly approaching?
Kimberly Beer:Yes, quad factor. And for those of you who think I
Kimberly Beer:made that word up, it's not you can Google it, it actually means
Kimberly Beer:quad factor like a trifecta. But what's more, it really surprised
Kimberly Beer:me, I thought I had discovered a new word. And truth is that
Kimberly Beer:somebody else had already beat me to that probably Millennials
Kimberly Beer:ago. So yes, it is the holiday quad factor. And hopefully
Kimberly Beer:you're listening to this episode. If you're listening to
Kimberly Beer:it in 2022. If you're listening to it in the future, you're
Kimberly Beer:probably really well set up to get prepared for your next
Kimberly Beer:holiday season. But in 2022, this is going to be released on
Kimberly Beer:the eighth of November, God willing, and you're really
Kimberly Beer:dwindling down into the last few minutes of being able to get
Kimberly Beer:some holiday marketing done. Because there is a lot of
Kimberly Beer:buildup that has to come. And there's a lot of prep. And it's
Kimberly Beer:not something that you can wing all that easily for us
Kimberly Beer:procrastinators who put it off till the very last minute, Cara
Kimberly Beer:and I today have our big three. And we have some really good
Kimberly Beer:ideas. Cara has some outstanding ideas. She has lists for you
Kimberly Beer:guys like lists, nested within lists nested within lists.
Cara Taylor Swift:So that's right, I'm here to help tell you
Cara Taylor Swift:that hope is not lost. Even if it's November 8, and you haven't
Cara Taylor Swift:started planning yet, there is still plenty of time to maximize
Cara Taylor Swift:these special days that are coming up. So there's still
Cara Taylor Swift:plenty of time. I've got some awesome ideas and some things to
Cara Taylor Swift:keep you guys kind of get you moving forward.
Kimberly Beer:Perfect. Okay, so for those of you who are
Kimberly Beer:wondering, we have a three step plan for you. First of all, you
Kimberly Beer:need to decide what promotions you want to offer. The second
Kimberly Beer:thing you need to do is get prepared. And then the third is
Kimberly Beer:make those sales which is where we all want to get to anyway. So
Kimberly Beer:I'm going to cover the business days, the quad factory days, and
Kimberly Beer:then I'm turning you loose for these lists because you got some
Kimberly Beer:good ones. So we start with the traditional day that we have had
Kimberly Beer:all along, which is the day after Thanksgiving, and it's a
Kimberly Beer:day most Americans have off because it's crazy to take
Kimberly Beer:Thursday off and then go back to work on Friday after you've
Kimberly Beer:eaten a semi truckload of Turkey and can't hardly keep your eyes
Kimberly Beer:open. So, Black Friday got to be the day right so it is probably
Kimberly Beer:one of the most important shopping days for retail
Kimberly Beer:oriented businesses, because that's the day everybody gets up
Kimberly Beer:really early in the morning. There's all of these doorbuster
Kimberly Beer:sales. I mean, it is amazing. I don't know what rock you've been
Kimberly Beer:hiding under, if you don't know about Black Friday. Now
Kimberly Beer:personally, I hide under a rock for Black Friday, I do not leave
Kimberly Beer:this ranch, do not want to deal with the shoppers and the lines
Kimberly Beer:and all of that stuff. And there's a lot of people like me
Kimberly Beer:out there in the world who want to shop online. And so Cyber
Kimberly Beer:Monday came along right after that, I believe the evolution of
Kimberly Beer:this. And so the Monday after Thanksgiving is the day that all
Kimberly Beer:of the online businesses start to offer their big deal. So it's
Kimberly Beer:the online equivalent of Black Friday, but it's on Monday. And
Kimberly Beer:it is a way for some businesses that are online to compete with
Kimberly Beer:those bigger box stores that have those big doorbuster sales
Kimberly Beer:and all of that kind of stuff. Not to say that people draw
Kimberly Beer:lines really well between especially these two shopping
Kimberly Beer:holidays, because I've seen online stores offer Black Friday
Kimberly Beer:deals and I've seen big box stores offer Cyber Monday deals,
Kimberly Beer:it just typically is Friday is in person and Monday is over the
Kimberly Beer:internet, then the Small Business Administration started
Kimberly Beer:promoting something called Small Business Saturday. So this is
Kimberly Beer:one of my favorite holidays of the year shopping holidays.
Kimberly Beer:Because this one encourages people to shop local, it doesn't
Kimberly Beer:get quite the fanfare that Black Friday and Cyber Monday do but
Kimberly Beer:it is a very important shopping holiday. Because people are
Kimberly Beer:encouraged to go to the local small business or shop local or
Kimberly Beer:small businesses that are online. So it is Saturday it is
Kimberly Beer:the Saturday after Black Friday. And it happens to be one of the
Kimberly Beer:busier Saturdays out there in the world. So that one is an
Kimberly Beer:excellent one to take advantage of, particularly if you don't
Kimberly Beer:want to get necessarily wrapped up in the Black Friday and Cyber
Kimberly Beer:Monday. So we cannot leave our nonprofit friends out of this
Kimberly Beer:conversation. And so there is giving Tuesday wrapped up in
Kimberly Beer:this holiday shopping quad factor. And this one is
Kimberly Beer:specifically for nonprofits. Now, we're not going to talk a
Kimberly Beer:lot about nonprofits and what we're talking about today for
Kimberly Beer:giving Tuesday, I think that the nonprofits in the world can take
Kimberly Beer:advantage of everything that Cara is going to give you as a
Kimberly Beer:list to be able to do but you're going to ask for donations
Kimberly Beer:instead of sales. But I do want to put a plug in for the profit
Kimberly Beer:based businesses out there to you can participate in Giving
Kimberly Beer:Tuesday, you're not maybe going to make a ton of sales off of
Kimberly Beer:it. But what you can do is promote your favorite nonprofit.
Kimberly Beer:And that really helps them and it also gets you publicity for
Kimberly Beer:helping them I mean, it's definitely a win win situation.
Kimberly Beer:And I highly encourage you if you're a for profit business
Kimberly Beer:owner of a small business, in particular, pick a company or a
Kimberly Beer:nonprofit that you particularly like that supports your
Kimberly Beer:industry, and go ahead and promote them on Giving Tuesday.
Kimberly Beer:Because one thing about it, what happens during this quad factor
Kimberly Beer:is especially if you're promoting on social media,
Kimberly Beer:you're gonna get a boost because there's so much engagement. And
Kimberly Beer:that really helps those businesses on Giving Tuesday.
Kimberly Beer:All right, Cara, I am ready for good ideas on how to get my
Kimberly Beer:holiday done.
Cara Taylor Swift:Okay, thank you for running through those
Cara Taylor Swift:dates. I think that pretty much summed up that that's going to
Cara Taylor Swift:be a really wild and crazy period of time. So you've got
Cara Taylor Swift:the Black Friday, rolling into Small Business Saturday, we rest
Cara Taylor Swift:on Sunday, and then prep for Cyber Monday, and then giving
Cara Taylor Swift:Tuesday. So there's four days there, that your business can be
Cara Taylor Swift:really, really super busy. I think it's really important
Cara Taylor Swift:though, that the first thing you need to do, which is what we put
Cara Taylor Swift:as our big three number one is decide what you want to offer in
Cara Taylor Swift:the first place. I think as small businesses, we need to
Cara Taylor Swift:keep it really simple. We're not big box stores, we don't have a
Cara Taylor Swift:ton of employees. We don't have the ability to be answering
Cara Taylor Swift:multiple questions at the same time on our chat or taking phone
Cara Taylor Swift:calls, we need to make it as simple as possible. I usually
Cara Taylor Swift:suggest creating one or two special promotions, that you're
Cara Taylor Swift:really prepared to market to push to your audience that you
Cara Taylor Swift:feel really good about and that you can fulfill quickly and
Cara Taylor Swift:easily to make that the focus of that weekend and the time
Cara Taylor Swift:leading up to it. So keep it simple. You don't have to go
Cara Taylor Swift:wild and crazy. You don't have to do anything complicated. Pick
Cara Taylor Swift:one or two promotions that you want to run. So this is also the
Cara Taylor Swift:weekend that I think a lot of consumers are Looking for deep
Cara Taylor Swift:discounts, they are prepared to spend money. But they also kind
Cara Taylor Swift:of have an expectation that if they're spending money this
Cara Taylor Swift:weekend that they're going to do it for special promotions only.
Cara Taylor Swift:So if you're not offering a special promotion, there is a
Cara Taylor Swift:chance that they might skip over your business and get to you
Cara Taylor Swift:later. So they might say, You know what, I'm going to spend
Cara Taylor Swift:the money I have right now on all these special deals that are
Cara Taylor Swift:out there, because I know I'm saving money in the long run.
Cara Taylor Swift:And then I'll come back and do that thing with that small
Cara Taylor Swift:business, your small business later, because you're not
Cara Taylor Swift:offering any discounts right now. So they're just expecting
Cara Taylor Swift:to have promotions, and they're expecting to take advantage of
Cara Taylor Swift:them. And for many small businesses, mine, especially
Cara Taylor Swift:this is the only time of year that they offer discounts. So
Cara Taylor Swift:this is that time of year, it's kind of an expected thing, you
Cara Taylor Swift:can set a time limit on it, and then you don't have customers
Cara Taylor Swift:waiting year round, you're not training your customers, you're
Cara Taylor Swift:bound to hold out for your monthly discount, if that makes
Cara Taylor Swift:sense. So this is that time of year. I think it's also really
Cara Taylor Swift:important when you're deciding what promotions to offer, you
Cara Taylor Swift:need to know your numbers. So you need to know how much you
Cara Taylor Swift:can discount and still make a profit. I think you even need to
Cara Taylor Swift:know are your numbers currently high enough? Is your markup high
Cara Taylor Swift:enough that you can even afford to offer a discount in the first
Cara Taylor Swift:place. Because there's not a lot of benefit to offering discounts
Cara Taylor Swift:if you're going to lose money on the end. So really think about
Cara Taylor Swift:how much you can discount what makes sense for your business
Cara Taylor Swift:and what's going to bring you profit. The next part of this is
Cara Taylor Swift:don't over commit yourself. If you're a service provider, and
Cara Taylor Swift:you offer services as opposed to products, think about how you
Cara Taylor Swift:can add clients to your schedule next year with the promotions
Cara Taylor Swift:and deals that you offer, not how you can make more work for
Cara Taylor Swift:yourself before the end of the year. So if you're selling
Cara Taylor Swift:tangible product and goods, you know, some kind of items, then
Cara Taylor Swift:you need to be able to think about okay, can I get those out
Cara Taylor Swift:to my clients beforehand. But if you're a service provider, for
Cara Taylor Swift:example, I'm an equine photographer, I'm not going to
Cara Taylor Swift:use black Friday to pack the end of my year with photoshoots. I'm
Cara Taylor Swift:going to use black Friday to push photoshoots into the next
Cara Taylor Swift:year. So if you're a service provider, you're a veterinarian
Cara Taylor Swift:or you do dog grooming or you're a massage therapist. If you're
Cara Taylor Swift:doing work that is a service, you need to figure out how do
Cara Taylor Swift:you push that into the new year. So your calendar is booked with
Cara Taylor Swift:the new year. There are several different types of promotions
Cara Taylor Swift:that I think would be really cool to consider. The first one
Cara Taylor Swift:is bundles. This is a cool time to do the whole, buy more save
Cara Taylor Swift:more technique, wholesome your products together and offer them
Cara Taylor Swift:at a discount for a limited time. So this might be a great
Cara Taylor Swift:time where you're offering a service and then you're adding
Cara Taylor Swift:on bonus material. So book a grooming and receive a free
Cara Taylor Swift:bottle of dog shampoo. So think about ways that you can bundle
Cara Taylor Swift:and offer people more for their money. So the more you buy, the
Cara Taylor Swift:more you save that mentality another idea, something simple
Cara Taylor Swift:that you can offer is a free gift with purchase. So you can
Cara Taylor Swift:add a little bonus gift with your purchase as a it's a really
Cara Taylor Swift:great incentive. It can be something really small, maybe
Cara Taylor Swift:you have samples of a product that you want to give out. Maybe
Cara Taylor Swift:you make goat's milk soap, is that what it's called, I'm not
Cara Taylor Swift:sure goat's milk. So yes, and you want to offer samples you
Cara Taylor Swift:have. So you want to offer some samples of that. So if people
Cara Taylor Swift:are purchasing a product or a gift basket, you can offer some
Cara Taylor Swift:samples of a product that you're just pushing out into the
Cara Taylor Swift:market, you can also offer as a free gift with purchase a
Cara Taylor Swift:mystery gift. So this could be a really fun surprise gift that
Cara Taylor Swift:comes with purchase. Or you can add something that really easily
Cara Taylor Swift:pairs with the product that they purchase, like the example that
Cara Taylor Swift:I gave of purchase a dog grooming service, and receive a
Cara Taylor Swift:special grooming brush or a comb of some kind. So then the next
Cara Taylor Swift:one that I was going to mention is the clearing house sale. And
Cara Taylor Swift:Kim and I went back and forth a little bit on what the name of
Cara Taylor Swift:this should be. And we came to clearing house sale. This is the
Cara Taylor Swift:time of year and this is a great time to get rid of all that
Cara Taylor Swift:extra product that you've got sitting around that you haven't
Cara Taylor Swift:moved this year.
Kimberly Beer:Yes, I know we have a lot of photographers that
Kimberly Beer:listen to this podcast. And I'm going to tell you my favorite
Kimberly Beer:time of year when I was doing horse shows was doing this
Kimberly Beer:clearing house sale because I got really smart and figured out
Kimberly Beer:I really left my galleries up for a really long time after a
Kimberly Beer:horse show people went by and stuff got right. So we all know
Kimberly Beer:that it's not a good idea to leave that stuff up. So I would
Kimberly Beer:leave it up for a few weeks, like maybe three they had to get
Kimberly Beer:their purchases done. And I would put it a really tight
Kimberly Beer:deadline on those three weeks and then at Christmas time I
Kimberly Beer:would open all the galleries back up for another four week
Kimberly Beer:period. Well first of all, that's smart because people want
Kimberly Beer:to buy pictures for Christmas gifts either for the themselves
Kimberly Beer:or somebody in the family, but it really made it nice. So
Kimberly Beer:that's a way of photographer. So when you guys think about a
Kimberly Beer:clearing house thing, like if you if you're not a business
Kimberly Beer:that has like a stock room full of stuff, your business can take
Kimberly Beer:advantage of sales, like clearing house sales, I think
Kimberly Beer:that that's a smart thing to do. And I'll tell you, as a horse
Kimberly Beer:show photographer actually made more money in that month that I
Kimberly Beer:kept it open between Thanksgiving and Christmas, that
Kimberly Beer:was back in the day, however, when I could actually get the
Kimberly Beer:images to them. Now you got to be careful because the post
Kimberly Beer:office and I know Cara talked about that, but the post office
Kimberly Beer:just takes for ever to get anything anywhere. Make sure
Kimberly Beer:that you think outside of the box, don't get yourself boxed
Kimberly Beer:into the corner and think, Well, I don't have a whole room full
Kimberly Beer:of stuff to sell. So I can't do clearing house or gift
Kimberly Beer:certificate wouldn't work with me or I don't know about
Kimberly Beer:bundling. So see if there's something new and innovative
Kimberly Beer:that you might be able to come up with within your business, to
Kimberly Beer:offer these promotions. And I'll tell you, you may find some
Kimberly Beer:stuff you want to keep for the whole year,
Cara Taylor Swift:that's really true. It's not a bad idea to
Cara Taylor Swift:along those lines to go and look at what other industries are
Cara Taylor Swift:offering and how they're bundling their products and
Cara Taylor Swift:services. Because you might find something that really
Cara Taylor Swift:transitions well to your industry and to your small
Cara Taylor Swift:business. One piece I would add here. One last type of promotion
Cara Taylor Swift:to offer is the gift certificate promotion, this weekend is
Cara Taylor Swift:really a great time to offer gift certificates, it's an easy
Cara Taylor Swift:thing that you can put out, there are ways that you can set
Cara Taylor Swift:it up for online purchase. So it can be really hands free for you
Cara Taylor Swift:in having a system in place in advance that can sell those
Cara Taylor Swift:easily and deliver virtually, that really is possible. And
Cara Taylor Swift:it's a great way to set folks up for next year. And it's
Cara Taylor Swift:interesting because I've sold gift certificates for several
Cara Taylor Swift:years. And I always like selling them because it's I know it's
Cara Taylor Swift:business for next year like I know it's coming and that it's
Cara Taylor Swift:money in the bank. And I don't know what the statistic is for
Cara Taylor Swift:gift certificates that don't actually ever get used. But
Cara Taylor Swift:while that's not the goal, there is a piece of that there too,
Cara Taylor Swift:that it's money that's coming in. That's non refundable. And
Cara Taylor Swift:they don't always get used. No, there's just some extra thought
Cara Taylor Swift:there to be put into it. That shouldn't be the goal. But it's
Cara Taylor Swift:definitely a piece of it.
Kimberly Beer:Yeah. So I think what Kira is trying to nicely
Kimberly Beer:say is it's free money for you that you don't actually end up
Kimberly Beer:working for? Yeah, in a very nice and polite way times. Yeah.
Kimberly Beer:Unfortunately, unfortunately, yes, for the person who bought
Kimberly Beer:it. But gift certificates are great, like, Okay, so for my
Kimberly Beer:coach clients out there in the world, and I know a lot of you
Kimberly Beer:guys listen to this podcast, gift certificates are a really
Kimberly Beer:good way for you to be able to offer coaching as a Christmas
Kimberly Beer:gift. So that gives an opportunity for people to be
Kimberly Beer:able to purchase that and putting a little bug in your
Kimberly Beer:followers ears on social media to say I have gift certificates.
Kimberly Beer:And if you want to have like some of your coaching sessions
Kimberly Beer:paid for, you might ask your friends and family you'd give
Kimberly Beer:your friends and family the link. So share it so they can
Kimberly Beer:click on it and buy the gift certificate. So like I said all
Kimberly Beer:of these things that for the promotions that you want to
Kimberly Beer:offer, look at it just so it seems like it would be for a
Kimberly Beer:very traditional brick and mortar retail business that
Kimberly Beer:sells products. I know the animal based industry, we get
Kimberly Beer:pretty creative on what it is that we offer. But it doesn't
Kimberly Beer:mean that we can't take some of those ideas and elevate them a
Kimberly Beer:little bit for ourselves and be able to use them in a very
Kimberly Beer:creative way. Lots of good plans.
Unknown:Absolutely. So you've decided you've done your work,
Unknown:you've decided what kind of promotion you want to offer. So
Unknown:now is big three, number two, you've got to get prepared for
Unknown:it. Okay, so for me, and for a lot of folks out there that
Unknown:maybe offer a product or are thinking about okay, I need to
Unknown:get prepared, you have to think about your supply chain. So if
Unknown:you have inventory that you need to stock, you need to do this
Unknown:well in advance of the shopping weekend, so that you're
Unknown:prepared, the last thing you want to do is run a promotion
Unknown:run out of product because you didn't prepare in advance or
Unknown:sell a whole bunch of stuff and then realize that your vendor
Unknown:cut off dates have passed. So know when your vendor cut off
Unknown:dates are, know that you can fulfill those orders and stock
Unknown:up on the inventory that you want to include in your
Unknown:promotion and whatever way is best for your business. But that
Unknown:has to be a forethought. I definitely recommend building
Unknown:the anticipation in advance as well with your online community.
Unknown:You already have a community you have an audience that's out
Unknown:there. So if you're not being active on social media, you need
Unknown:to start doing that. Now. You do not want to wait until Black
Unknown:Friday or Thanksgiving to start showing up in front of your
Unknown:audience. You need to be doing this in and It's separation,
Unknown:that they're going to be up and ready to spend money on you. So
Unknown:be active on social media, be active in your emails, offer,
Unknown:sneak peeks of your special offer, get people excited, build
Unknown:the excitement, this is really the time that you should be
Unknown:educating your customers that a big awesome promotion is coming.
Kimberly Beer:Okay, I want to say something here, for those of
Kimberly Beer:you who have not been active on your social media all summer,
Kimberly Beer:and now you're getting in the house a little bit more, you're
Kimberly Beer:outside a little less because of the weather's changing. And
Kimberly Beer:you're like, oh, my gosh, I have two weeks to get this done and
Kimberly Beer:get some engagement going. So for you guys, it is a good time
Kimberly Beer:for you to toss a little money to metta and pay for some
Kimberly Beer:advertising to help get some deeper engagement in your
Kimberly Beer:audience. So the best way to do that is to boost some posts,
Kimberly Beer:just throw a little bit of cash behind some of the things that
Kimberly Beer:you're doing and buy a little bit that depends on how much of
Kimberly Beer:a return you want, at the time that you like, do the big ad on
Kimberly Beer:Black Friday, or Cyber Monday or whatever Small Business
Kimberly Beer:Saturday, go ahead and start now, with a week long campaign.
Kimberly Beer:Hopefully you're listening to this on Tuesday, and get your
Kimberly Beer:campaign and boosted posts out there in the world. So that you
Kimberly Beer:can start getting that engagement because engagement is
Kimberly Beer:what determines how many people are going to see your posts and
Kimberly Beer:curate is spot on. You can't just post something on Black
Kimberly Beer:Friday and cross your fingers and hope that it gets out there
Kimberly Beer:to people. Even if you pay for it on Black Friday. If you
Kimberly Beer:haven't built up some engagement, you're not going to
Kimberly Beer:get the result that you want. And it's not too late, it's
Kimberly Beer:edging over to too late. But it's not too late to go ahead
Kimberly Beer:and start doing that and start marketing stuff up on your
Kimberly Beer:business pages and ramping that with a little bit of money.
Unknown:The other things that you need to consider when you're
Unknown:getting prepared is you need to make sure you know your shipping
Unknown:costs, your packaging costs, your carrier of choice that you
Unknown:want to use for delivery, you need to know your delivery
Unknown:timetable so that you can deliver as promised. And also
Unknown:that so that you don't lose money on the shipping side of
Unknown:things that can be really disheartening to make a sale,
Unknown:run down to the post office and find out that shipping is way
Unknown:more than what you expected it to be or that they're not
Unknown:actually going to be able to deliver your product on time as
Unknown:expected. So that's a real quick way to make your audience
Unknown:unhappy is to not deliver as you had promised, a fun thing that
Unknown:you can do to help get prepared is to create a holiday gift
Unknown:guide that's specific to your industry. So you can highlight
Unknown:your products and services that maybe your consumers aren't
Unknown:aware of at this point. This is a really just kind of fun thing
Unknown:that you can have out there. Navigating just kind of rolling
Unknown:around the world on a regular basis. I've seen some of these
Unknown:that are super cute, where if you're in for example, the
Unknown:equine industry, someone will pull together their favorite
Unknown:equine health products and it some of them will be from their
Unknown:own business or maybe from other businesses. This is a really
Unknown:cool way to get people thinking about shopping and add on gift
Unknown:ideas. I think in terms of prep, you also need to have a way to
Unknown:plan to collect email addresses and turn those holiday shoppers
Unknown:into year round clients. So if you're not already collecting
Unknown:email addresses now is more than ever the time to take advantage
Unknown:of this uptick in people shopping uptake and people
Unknown:engaging especially if you do what Kim recommended which is
Unknown:run some paid promotions, you need to take advantage of
Unknown:gaining access to those people year round. You want to make
Unknown:sure your website's ready. So spend time hopping through your
Unknown:website that everything is set up the way that you want it to
Unknown:be set up that maybe you have a landing page that's specific to
Unknown:your holiday promotion. You want to make sure you've got accurate
Unknown:reviews and testimonials visible on your website to encourage
Unknown:people to stick around and do some shopping. You want to make
Unknown:sure that your FAQ page your frequently asked questions page
Unknown:is available for quick and easy reference. Think about what some
Unknown:of those new questions that might pop up around your holiday
Unknown:promotion. And go ahead and add those to your FAQ page. If you
Unknown:don't know how to create a Frequently Asked Questions page.
Unknown:We did an entire episode on this earlier in the year. So check
Unknown:back on that it'll give you a bunch of great tips. And then
Unknown:the next piece of that in one of the most important pieces is you
Unknown:need to get ready to make sales. So you need to make sure that
Unknown:you are ready to take payment in multiple ways so that it's as
Unknown:easy as possible. I will tell you I can be a super lazy
Unknown:shopper. I have shopped from bed and if I have to get up and go
Unknown:find my credit card in my wallet. I'm not always going to
Unknown:complete the purchase. It'll sit there forever. But if I can
Unknown:click on a pay with PayPal and all my information is already in
Unknown:there, they're going to be have a better chance of making a sale
Unknown:while I'm shopping from bed. So Kim, I'm telling me I'm wrong.
Unknown:Tell me I'm wrong.
Kimberly Beer:Well, I was just thinking I love Google Chrome
Kimberly Beer:because it like stores, I mean, it's probably not too safe, but
Kimberly Beer:it does store all your credit card data. But you're spot on,
Kimberly Beer:if I've got to go find my wallet, I will a lot of times
Kimberly Beer:just not do it. It's terrible. Oh my god, humans have got it's
Kimberly Beer:true. Like, I'm not gonna say we're lazy. We're just so
Kimberly Beer:overwhelmed. One more thing is like the straw that broke the
Kimberly Beer:camel's back, and we just won't do it. So yeah, I always tell
Kimberly Beer:people make it. So stupid, simple and easy. And just so you
Kimberly Beer:know, for those of you who are doing this online checkout
Kimberly Beer:thing, every time you ask people to click, like, every time
Kimberly Beer:there's a reload on your website, they have to do
Kimberly Beer:something else, you will lose between 30 and 50% of the
Kimberly Beer:people. So if 100 people click on it, and then they've got to
Kimberly Beer:click every click that they have to make to complete the
Kimberly Beer:purchase, you lose a percentage of people, and it's a big chunk.
Kimberly Beer:I mean, it's not like a one person drops off. No, it's a
Kimberly Beer:chunk of people, I believe it, you have to remember that
Cara Taylor Swift:I'm a lazy shopper. If it takes too long
Cara Taylor Swift:for the page to load, I might move on. So I totally, totally
Cara Taylor Swift:get that. So you've got to have multiple options available to
Cara Taylor Swift:take payment, it should be quick, it should be easy. And
Cara Taylor Swift:I'm going to be honest with you, you need to test this yourself
Cara Taylor Swift:before the big day. Okay, don't let your first customer be the
Cara Taylor Swift:one that tells you that they can't check out that your system
Cara Taylor Swift:is not working, because you've potentially lost their sale. Who
Cara Taylor Swift:knows how many other people are sitting there clicking trying to
Cara Taylor Swift:access and then you're stressed, you're super stressed because
Cara Taylor Swift:people can't make the sale. And here I am, I'm ready to make
Cara Taylor Swift:money. So that moves us to the next phase, which is make sales.
Cara Taylor Swift:This is my favorite part. That's right, you want to make money.
Cara Taylor Swift:So that's what that shopping holidays are about. For
Cara Taylor Swift:businesses. And for small businesses, this can be a really
Cara Taylor Swift:big boost for the new year moving into their new year. So
Cara Taylor Swift:one of the things the mistakes that I have made in the past is
Cara Taylor Swift:this weekend of events happens at a time when I have family in
Cara Taylor Swift:town, I have friends in town I'm celebrating, we're checking out
Cara Taylor Swift:of our businesses at the same time that we should be really
Cara Taylor Swift:honed in and being responsive to our clients. And that's a really
Cara Taylor Swift:tough thing to balance as a small business owner. So
Cara Taylor Swift:unfortunately, we need to plan for the time we need to address
Cara Taylor Swift:customers questions during this time period. If you have
Cara Taylor Swift:promotions running, you need to be available if you work a full
Cara Taylor Swift:time job, and you're off over the holiday and you're excited
Cara Taylor Swift:about that. But you've got a side hustle that you're running
Cara Taylor Swift:a promotion on, you really need to plan to be in your office and
Cara Taylor Swift:ready to respond quickly to close the sale. And that may
Cara Taylor Swift:mean something as simple as you know what I'm going to Grandma's
Cara Taylor Swift:house for Thanksgiving, and I'm going to be there all day, I'm
Cara Taylor Swift:bringing my laptop, I'm setting it up in the corner, and I'm
Cara Taylor Swift:going to be checking it routinely to see if there's any
Cara Taylor Swift:issues with my sales going through the customer support
Cara Taylor Swift:during this time period is really essential to closing
Cara Taylor Swift:deals. So be in a position where either your system runs smoothly
Cara Taylor Swift:without you. Or if you need to be a part of that process that
Cara Taylor Swift:you are assessable and that you can close those deals. In
Cara Taylor Swift:addition, be prepared to ship promptly. So when you make those
Cara Taylor Swift:sales, you have your process in line, you need to get that stuff
Cara Taylor Swift:out as quickly as possible. We know Kim has already mentioned
Cara Taylor Swift:it. The postal delays have been no joke this year. And it's been
Cara Taylor Swift:really disheartening and you do not want to drop the ball on the
Cara Taylor Swift:back end. And then the last thing I'm going to add to this
Cara Taylor Swift:make sales is have a plan for those abandoned carts. And I put
Cara Taylor Swift:that in quotation you may not have an online shopping system.
Cara Taylor Swift:If you do look at your abandoned carts and send an email find a
Cara Taylor Swift:way to reconnect with those people. It may just be a matter
Cara Taylor Swift:of they forgot they were in bed like me. And they meant to go
Cara Taylor Swift:back and get their credit card when they got up could be
Cara Taylor Swift:something that's simple. If it's someone that reached out to you
Cara Taylor Swift:because they wanted to book a service or they wanted to
Cara Taylor Swift:purchase something from you that they need to purchase in person.
Cara Taylor Swift:But then they never reconnected. There's nothing wrong with
Cara Taylor Swift:following up with them, reminding them that the
Cara Taylor Swift:promotion is about to end. And if there's anything that you can
Cara Taylor Swift:do to help them close the sale that you can do that. Kim, what
Cara Taylor Swift:do you want to add to the make sales piece of this?
Kimberly Beer:I want to add two things to that one. For those of
Kimberly Beer:you who are wondering how on earth do I do this abandoned
Kimberly Beer:cart email thing. So in the world of marketing, that's
Kimberly Beer:called a retargeting campaign. And there's actually a multitude
Kimberly Beer:of ways that depending on how much you want to sink into it is
Kimberly Beer:time and money that you can actually make that happen. Most
Kimberly Beer:shopping cart software has a checkbox that will allow you to
Kimberly Beer:say reach out to somebody that has abandoned the cart after
Kimberly Beer:they've given their email. Some don't others depend on the CRM
Kimberly Beer:or there's connections or blah blah blah. So the best thing for
Kimberly Beer:you to do rather than spend an hour with me trying to explain
Kimberly Beer:all of it is to go to YouTube and and type in retargeting
Kimberly Beer:campaign. And then whatever online shopping software you use
Kimberly Beer:that will help you determine how to make that actually happen in
Kimberly Beer:the software that you have. The other thing I wanted to add Cara
Kimberly Beer:was on these sales, you need to have a clear deadline for
Kimberly Beer:whatever it is that you're doing and yell waver a lot on that
Kimberly Beer:deadline. And you need to make it very apparent, because lazy
Kimberly Beer:shoppers also are lazy decision makers. So if you don't say you
Kimberly Beer:have to close this, so So here's the scenario that happens to me.
Kimberly Beer:If I'm shopping in bed, and I see something I want to
Kimberly Beer:purchase, and I don't have my credit card over near me, and
Kimberly Beer:it's not stored on my computer where I can grab it. If it looks
Kimberly Beer:like I could order that next week, I will put the computer
Kimberly Beer:down. If it's a countdown to say you have 15 minutes to get this
Kimberly Beer:done, I will get my bed up out of bed and go find my credit
Kimberly Beer:card. So as a person who is business owner, who is like
Kimberly Beer:putting out the sales, you need to make it very clear that this
Kimberly Beer:has a deadline and do not push that deadline, right? People
Kimberly Beer:will push it for you. So don't you do it in the beginning, set
Kimberly Beer:a clear deadline and actually set it sooner than you would
Kimberly Beer:like that creates something called urgency and urgency
Kimberly Beer:sells. So that gets that person who's shopping from bed or who
Kimberly Beer:is like, I just don't feel like going to the store today because
Kimberly Beer:it's raining and well. They'll have that special tomorrow. No,
Kimberly Beer:don't do that. Cut those dates off so that people get there and
Kimberly Beer:it's okay, you know, you have somebody show up like in your
Kimberly Beer:storefront 15 minutes later who says hey, I'm sorry, I missed
Kimberly Beer:the deadline. No, that's up to you give them the special if you
Kimberly Beer:want or be like No, I'm not going to but definitely
Kimberly Beer:advertised that it's very clear that that's the cut off for that
Kimberly Beer:and people will behave better and getting their sales turned in.
Unknown:It's so true. And I love how you and I are sitting
Unknown:here picturing all these people shopping from bed like that's
Unknown:like the most normal thing. I mean, maybe it is the most
Unknown:normal thing but I love I love envisioning everybody sitting in
Unknown:bed shopping their black friday holiday Cyber Monday, Saturday
Unknown:sales and being very lazy about closing the sale.
Kimberly Beer:So I think that's like a fantasy for me is because
Kimberly Beer:the day after Thanksgiving, no one bothers me here in my
Kimberly Beer:business like there's not a met a lot of phone calls. There's
Kimberly Beer:not a lot of text messages. And frankly, that's a day I can
Kimberly Beer:sleep late. And I don't have to get out of bed quite so early.
Kimberly Beer:And usually the weather here in Missouri is kind of that the day
Kimberly Beer:after Thanksgiving. I mean it's usually kind of rainy and dreary
Kimberly Beer:and gray November and so I'm not anxious to get outside and it's
Kimberly Beer:like the perfect sleeping weather. So let me fantasize
Kimberly Beer:about shopping in bed. I don't know what you Floridians have
Kimberly Beer:for an excuse for that. But here it's definitely a gray lazy day
Unknown:we're riding horses on the beach. That's like our trail
Unknown:riding time a year man if you can picture you're in bed in
Unknown:Missouri in the gray we are galloping down the beach
Unknown:horseback with seagulls flying around us it's an amazing time
Unknown:of year.
Kimberly Beer:That's awesome. I'm going to I'm going to have
Kimberly Beer:to come visit Florida in November and gallop with the
Kimberly Beer:seagulls that sounds like a very freeing experience I I'm
Kimberly Beer:imagining myself on a black horse and like waving my arms
Kimberly Beer:like the boy and all right the Black Stallion that's right
Unknown:that movie. The Black Stallion Yep. Wake me up. Wait.
Unknown:Let's wrap this up. As soon as you guys finish this episode, we
Unknown:hope you're jumping into your so you procrastinated your holiday
Unknown:marketing now what attitude so we hope you're jumping into that
Unknown:if you haven't already, just a wrap up our big three one more
Unknown:time. First, decide what promotions you want to offer,
Unknown:get prepared and then make the sales we hope that this has
Unknown:inspired you to put a promotion into place and that if you liked
Unknown:this episode, you'll let us know hop over to social media. Give
Unknown:us a hello let us know you listened. It means the world to
Unknown:us when we hear that you've been listening. And don't forget to
Unknown:rate and review the show. You can find us at The Business
Unknown:Animal pretty much anywhere that you listen and on Instagram and
Unknown:Facebook. Thank you guys so much. We'll talk to you later.
Jaz:Thanks for listening to this episode of The Business
Jaz:Animal. Be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode. And
Jaz:if you learned something today, leave us a review. To learn
Jaz:more. Find us at thebusinessanimal.com We'd love
Jaz:to hear from you. Until next time, keep your business well
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