This year has been a little different in the holiday marketing playbook. It’s brought both challenges and in the case of local businesses, the opportunity to connect with the community. Businesses like your own have curated a bigger online presence to keep up with your customers and more importantly advertise that you’re still here! 

Now, moving into this holiday season, shoppers and clients have moved online to get a majority if not all of what they need. So, this raises the question. How can we stand out from everyone else? To better understand the importance of social media and the role it plays for your business, let us use our expertise and experience to guide you through the basics. 

Understanding Your Audience

The biggest piece of social media that tends to get lost in the all the content is understanding your target audience. Specifically, what are their values and what are their barriers.

Your goal as a business is to know the answers to these two questions and then tying it into EACH AND EVERY MARKETING PIECE you create. As an example, if you sell locally made beeswax candles you would ask yourself the question, What are the values of someone who buys locally made beeswax candles?

• They’re environmentally conscious
• They want to buy locally
• They value craftsmanship

What are their barriers to buying locally made beeswax candles?

• The current pandemic might make purchasing them in person uneasy (can you provide curbside pickup?)
• Locally made beeswax candles might be more expensive than buying them on Amazon (remind them of the craftsmanship, tell them your story so that they connect to YOU and not just the product)

Your goal is to MATCH their values and OVERCOME their barriers 🙂

Simple Steps Towards Holiday Marketing

When it comes to actually using social media to help your business and audience grow, there are a number of things to you can do to stand out. Some are more important than others, so here are 3 things we recommend. 

• Know your brand voice. Don’t be like everyone else, your brand is already unique because you thought of it. 

• Don’t be afraid to be human. Being the face behind a brand is great but you also need to show those faces. 

• Be fun but be consistent. Being consistent ensures audience engagement because people know when you’re posting. It’s important to be fun with your posts because that plays a part in audience engagement. Being able to be involved and talk with a brand or business is valued by consumers because it makes them feel heard. 

The best way to cut through the holiday marketing mist is to lose the holiday jargon. Think of digital marketing like in-person networking, how would you talk, excite, encourage the person in front of you?

Using Hashtags to Grow Your Audience

Social media has many facets to it, we’ve given you some tips and tricks to get yourself noticed but that’s not all you can do. Being able to use hashtags is another trick when it comes to gaining an audience, especially during your holiday marketing campaigns. Using hashtags like #supportlocal or #yycbusiness puts you on the map for people who use those hashtags and search up those hashtags. You want to be able to reach a wider audience than just the people that follow you. 

The wonderful thing about hashtags is they aren’t exclusive to Twitter or Instagram, you can also use them on Facebook, TikTok, etc. This makes your business much more visible by being involved in the community. 

Whether you’re expanding your socials or just starting out, just remember that your business is already a local business. Be involved in the community, grow your audience and most importantly, don’t forget to be you!