Picking your Holiday 2015 marketing theme

We’re all going to use the same marketing theme this year. You, me, and every business in your town. We’re all going to use Shift Your Shopping.

Here are 5 reasons why.

1. There’s a tendency among small businesses in small towns to use the same marketing theme from year to year, the same ads with new dates, the same messages we used last year. Not this year!
2. When we all coordinate our message, we’ll multiply our efforts and reach more potential customers.
3. It works well with projects you may already have planned, like Shop Small Saturday.
4. It’s a great fit for small towns. Rather than just one day, you get a campaign that runs as long as you like.
5. You don’t have to create new graphics. You can borrow text, graphics and designs from the Shift Your Shopping community.
6. Shift Your Shopping puts the focus on your community as a whole.

You could just talk about the new items you just got in, or how you offer gift wrapping. Instead, Shift Your Shopping asks you to talk about how important your local business community is and how people can support it by shifting more of their holiday shopping to local stores. Then you can talk about your new items.

I am volunteering again this year with other small business supporters and organizations to help make Shift Your Shopping happen. And I’m using Shift Your Shopping as our holiday 2015 theme for my store. You’ll see it in our social media posts, our in-store displays and our traditional media ads.

It solves the “I don’t have anything to post!” dilemma for social media. You can post all day long about other local businesses, cool things they are doing, how much you love the very best things about your town. And when they do the same for you, you’ll both reach more potential customers.

What you’re trying to do is help people see that your business community really is a community and that it matters.

What to do first

1. Decide right now that you are doing it. You are using Shift Your Shopping as the tagline, and the importance of your local business community as your theme.

2. Pass it on. Reach out to your favorite friends who also have businesses. Share this article with them. Ask them to join you.

3. Explore ShiftYourShopping.org together. Look at the graphics, logos and social media templates on the Get Engaged tab. Then take the survey to share what new items will help you most.

Have more ideas to make Shift Your Shopping the best small town holiday campaign ever? I’d love to hear about it. Hit reply or add in the comments below.

Shift Your Shopping 2015 series:

1. Picking your Holiday 2015 marketing theme
2. Set your cover photos
3. Spotlight a local business
4. Spotlight on community
5. Share the causes you care about
6. Support your service providers
7. Small Business Saturday
8. Tell your founding story

• About the Author
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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 own a retail liquor store in Alva, Oklahoma, and a small cattle ranch nearby. Becky is an international speaker on small business.

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