How to Prepare Your Small Business for the Holiday Season

The holidays arrive in a mad rush of events, with everyone preparing for festivities and shopping for gifts. No matter what type of business you own, they're a time when you can up your profits and reach new customers.

Small Business Day attracts new customers every year, with around 43 percent of consumers shopping and eating at independent small businesses in their area. For many small businesses, the last two months of the year are the most profitable. Preparing your small business for the holiday season is a good investment of time and resources. Here are seven great ways to get ready.

1. Ramp up Content Marketing

Content marketing is one of the most effective forms of marketing online. Content gets three times the leads as outbound marketing. The cost is also less than half that of outbound marketing. One way to prepare for the holidays is by getting your holiday-themed content pieces in place well before the holiday shopping period hits.

Content that ties into the holidays includes gift giving guides, tips for surviving the holidays and more. Tie these ideas into your product and other features that show the advantage of your product or service during the holidays.

Recommended: Being Creative: How Content Marketing Boosts Online Sales

2. Design a Festive Storefront

If you own a brick and mortar store, take a step back and consider how the storefront appears as foot traffic passes. While traditional elements tug on the emotions of people, you also want your storefront to stand out from the crowd. Incorporate your top holiday products so that people see items that would make perfect gifts for their family and friends.

3. Get Organized

The holidays are hectic for everyone. Not only do you have more events to attend, but you're juggling fewer daylight hours and finishing up shopping for the season. One of the best things you can do to prepare your business for the holidays is to get organized and stay that way to avoid forgetting any critical elements that need to come together.

One basic thing you can do is to set aside a time period each day to respond to emails. To-do lists are also an excellent way to manage your workflow and ensure you don't forget any important tasks.

4. Improve Customer Service

Since you'll attract new customers during the holidays, you want the first impression they have of you to be a positive one. Ramp up your customer service well before the holidays hit by offering extra training to your employees. Make sure you have a solid customer service policy in place and that everyone understands return policies and the company philosophy about how to treat customers.

If your customer service stands out from the competition, you can get by with charging a bit more for your goods and service. Around 86 percent of people say they'll pay a little more for good customer service.

Recommended: A Starter’s Guide to Providing an Efficient Social Media Customer Support 

5. Offer Holiday Coupons

Another great way to draw in holiday sales is by offering coupons specific to the holiday or running sales. For example, Black Friday is a time when many people get all of their holiday shopping out of the way. Cyber Monday is another big shopping event that ties in nicely for businesses that are online or have an online presence.

Last year, consumers spent $3.36 billion on Cyber Monday, and the day has overtaken Black Friday in the percentage of consumers shopping. Even though Amazon snags about 60 percent of sales on Cyber Monday, there's still plenty of room for smaller businesses. The key is to figure out what your target audience is most likely to purchase for gifts and offer specials on those items.

6. Utilize Social Media

Yes, there's a lot of noise on social media, and people are paying a bit less attention to marketing on there. However, if you come up with a campaign that's interesting enough, it's still an inexpensive and effective way to advertise. You have a couple of options with social media. You can spend most of the year building your following so that you can market to them when the holidays arrive, or you can spend money on ad placements and hit the exact target audience you want to gain new leads.

Recommended: Why Social Media Is Still Important for Businesses

7. Check Your Mobile Responsiveness

More and more people are accessing websites using mobile devices. Around 76 percent of millennials use multiple device types to go online, while baby boomers are right behind, with 67 percent using multi-platforms. If your site isn't mobile-responsive, now is the time to fix that. If it is, test everything — especially holiday promotions — to make sure your pages load properly on smaller screens.

Survive the Holidays

The holidays are hectic for everyone, but particularly the small business owner who has to wear so many different hats. Focus on completing one task at a time and giving your attention and care to every extra customer you gain.

Lexie Lu

Lexie is a designer and typography enthusiast. She enjoys writing HTML code and creating new styles guides. In her spare time, she works on her design blog, Design Roast.

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