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4 Ways to get more shoppers through your doors during the holidays

By Becky McCray

When I recently co-hosted an online chat with Jim Kukral for NFIB, one attendee asked about how to get more people to come through the doors during the holiday season. It’s a great question and I have some tips that can help.

Squaw Valley Village
Want more people to come through
the doors? Dress up your external space
and put up great window displays.
Photo by Rennett Stowe. 

1. Make sure you have what your customers want. All the promotion in the world won’t drive customers to a business that doesn’t offer what people want. This includes setting the hours that your customers want, even weekends. They can’t get through the doors if the doors are closed.

2. Connect with your potential customers where they are, whether that is online on offline. I don’t mean just connect, like a friend request. I mean really connect, like two people sharing stories. Share your business’s story with them. Connect to local traditions.

3. Make an actual plan for your marketing and have a theme. Too many of us (retailers) lurch through the season with no plan or reusing old ideas and old ads. That’s the easy way out, but it doesn’t bring any more people through your doors. Find a retail-minded friend, sit down and brainstorm some new ideas.

4. Clean up your external selling space. If you want more people to come through the door, don’t let a dirty outside space turn them off right outside! Create attractive window displays. More on that in Small Town Retail Ideas.

What are you doing to bring more people through your doors this year?

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About Becky McCray

Becky started Small Biz Survival in 2006 to share rural business and community building stories and ideas with other small town business people. She and her husband have a small cattle ranch and are lifelong entrepreneurs. Becky is an international speaker on small business and rural topics.
  • Downtown is your town’s core: How to make your case - February 22, 2021
  • Zoom Towns: attracting and supporting remote workers in rural small towns - December 10, 2020
  • In an economic crisis, spend your brainpower before your dollars - November 25, 2020
  • Video: How to fill empty car dealership buildings for the holidays - November 6, 2020
  • How has 2020 changed the challenges rural small towns face? Tell us here - October 20, 2020
  • The Idea Friendly Method to surviving a business crisis - October 6, 2020
  • Join me for the Rural Renewal Symposium online Oct 13 - September 26, 2020
  • Cheap placemaking idea: instant murals - September 11, 2020
  • Refilling the rural business pipeline - July 7, 2020
  • Huge vacant buildings: grants to renovate? - June 9, 2020

December 5, 2011 Filed Under: entrepreneurship, marketing Tagged With: retail

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Comments

  1. Dale says

    December 6, 2011 at 9:11 pm

    There is no royal, flower-strewn path to success. And if there is, I have not found it. For if I have accomplished anything in life, it is because I have been willing to work hard. – C.J. Walker

  2. Paul W. Swansen says

    December 6, 2011 at 10:05 pm

    Take a brief walk through any of the big box retailers and you’ll notice they have no concept of item #1. It appears that they’re throwing everything and anything out on the sales floor in hopes that something will sell.

Trackbacks

  1. Last Minute Ideas to Improve your Holiday Sales | Credibility Insights says:
    August 13, 2014 at 2:18 pm

    […] Four Ways to Get More Shoppers Through Your Doors During the Holidays: This post covers some of the best ways to get customers into your store during the holidays so you can gain their business. Chief among these tips is to, “Make sure you have what your customers want.” || by Becky McCray […]

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