It’s officially less than 100 days until Christmas. And, believe it or not, people are already getting ready for the silly season. To help you get your small business ready for Christmas, we’ve pulled together our top tips to ensure your online presence and marketing strategy keep you front of mind during the busy spending period.
1. If you don’t have an online presence, get one
For the purpose of this article, we’re going to assume you already have a website, Facebook Business Profile, Google Business Profile and Google Analytics setup. If you don’t, this is your first tip…get it all! The wider your online footprint is, the more people your business will reach.
2. Check your NAP and citations
NAP is marketing lingo for your business’s name, address and phone number. A citation is simply the name for anywhere your NAP is shown online. It’s important to check your NAP and citations because search engines use your NAP to confirm they’re looking at your business whenever they find a citation. So, your NAP should be the exact same anywhere it’s shown online to ensure you’re reaping the benefits of some of your search engine optimisation (SEO) activities.
Here are a few places to check your NAP is consistent:
- Your website (including your header, footer, contact page and location pages).
- Your online listings (including your Localsearch.com.au business profile).
- Social media pages (including Facebook).
- Your Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business).
3. Start your paid ad campaigns
If you want to generate sales or enquiries over the Christmas period, it’s time to start your paid ad campaigns now.
For those planning to run Facebook Ads, you’ll want to run a brand awareness campaign for at least two months before you run any customer-led campaigns because the Facebook ads platform takes time to learn about your audience, and who the ads should be targeting. In failing to do this, you’ll waste precious marketing dollars while the platform learns who best to push your ads to.
Google Ads is a similar platform. However the campaign types differ to Facebook. To put your business in the best position over the holiday season, you want to start your ads as early as possible to give the Google Ads platform time to learn about you, your website and your audience.
4. Ensure you have an optimised Google Business Profile
One in two Australians who perform a search on Google for a local service or product provider will visit or contact a business that day. Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business) is one of the easiest, most affordable ways to get in front of these people.
It’s important to get on top of your Google Business Profile now to ensure it has time to assess your updates and adjust your rankings to suit. Updates include:
- Ensuring your NAP is consistent.
- Complete the information and feature section.
- Respond to any new reviews.
- Answer all FAQ.
- Set up messaging.
- Post regularly.
5. Build up your email database
Email marketing is great for sharing information or generating customer interest at scale over the holiday season, if you have the audience. Building an email marketing list takes time so we recommend you start at least three months before Christmas.
If you use a customer management system (CMS) like Salesforce, you should already have a database of your past and current clients. But if you don’t, you can create an email database in a program like Mailchimp or HubSpot and start building your database through subscription links on your website.
By building your online presence and beginning your holiday marketing strategy as early as possible, you can ensure that your small business is in the best position possible to have a very merry holiday season.
