• Survey of Rural Challenges
  • Small Town Speaker Becky McCray
  • Shop Local video
  • SaveYour.Town

Small Biz Survival

The small town and rural business resource

A row of small town shops
  • Front Page
  • Latest stories
  • About
  • Guided Tour
  • Subscribe
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
  • RSS

Holiday 2022 Marketing: Share your holiday traditions

By Becky McCray

We’re all using the same marketing theme this year: Shop Indie Local. When we work together to spread the word, we’ll multiply how many customers we reach.

Learn more from AMIBA, the Shop Indie Local lead sponsor.

It's the Most Wonderful Time to Shop Indie Local

Plan this one ahead: Share your holiday traditions

Customers are busy beyond belief during the holidays. Rather than talk about your business the days right before the big day, put the focus on you as a person.

Plan ahead for the busy week of Christmas: Tell about one of your family’s Christmas or holiday traditions.

It will help your customers see you as a whole person and to see you as like themselves. So even if your family traditions aren’t anything unusual, that’s ok. It will make it easier to empathize with you.

Having trouble thinking about your family’s holiday traditions? Here are some starter ideas to kick off your thinking:

  • Do you have special Christmas ornaments you always use at home?
  • Do you have decorations or items handed down to you from family members? Something you remember as a child?
  • What are your favorite foods at holiday dinners? Since I lived in south Texas as a kid, pecan pie would be a bonus!
  • Are there special holiday items you get from another local store? In my town, Whittet’s Meat Market always carries special candy around Christmas, a tradition Doug Whittet picked up from his father who also ran a meat market.
  • Do you have a favorite holiday movie or show you watch as a family?

Remember, even if these sound normal to you, that’s all the more reason to share them. You’re not just a faceless business owner; you’re a real person that customers can understand. No online store can ever be so human.

Share a photo, too. Maybe a photo of your family during a previous Christmas.

A 1970s Christmas card with a black and white photo of three kids

Make sure you mention the #ShopIndieLocal tag. You can do this as a post or story on Facebook or Instagram, or in print ads you’re planning to run. For bonus points, do this as a live video on Instagram, TikTok or any channel you like to use with customers.

Check your fellow local businesses online. Look for their holiday stories and cheer them on with likes, shares and comments.

See the whole series:

Read all our articles in our Shop Indie Local series.

Learn more from AMIBA, the Shop Indie Local lead sponsor.

Reprint or share this article:

Shop Indie Local is our group theme for holiday marketing this year. You have my permission to forward these articles to your local retailers, merchants association, chamber of commerce, downtown development group or any one else you think would benefit from them. All you need to do is list the author as Becky McCray of SmallBizSurvival.com and then let me know who you are sharing with.

  • About the Author
  • Latest by this Author
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.

www.beckymccray.com
  • Get started as an outdoor outfitter without breaking the bank
  • Revitalize Your Rural Community: Join Us for an Interactive Workshop at the 2023 IEDC Annual Conference
  • Empty Building idea: Make a Zen-like space for your people

November 28, 2022 Filed Under: entrepreneurship, marketing, rural, shop local Tagged With: shop indie local, shop local, shop small

Wondering what is and is not allowed in the comments?
Or how to get a nifty photo beside your name?
Check our commenting policy.
Use your real name, not a business name.


Don't see the comment form?
Comments are automatically closed on older posts, but you can send me your comment via this contact form and I'll add it manually for you. Thanks!

Howdy!

Glad you dropped in to the rural and small town business blog, established in 2006.

We want you to feel at home, so please take our guided tour.

Meet our authors on the About page.

Have something to say? You can give us a holler on the contact form.

If you would like permission to re-use an article you've read here, please make a Reprint Request.

Want to search our past articles? Catch up with the latest stories? Browse through the categories? All the good stuff is on the Front Page.

Partners

We partner with campaigns and organizations that we think best benefit rural small businesses. Logo with "Shop Indie Local"Move Your Money, bank local, invest localMulticolor logo with text that says "Global Entrepreneurship Week"Save Your Town logotype

Best of Small Biz Survival

A shopkeeper and a customer share a laugh in a small store packed full of interesting home wares.

How to get customers in the door of small town and rural retail stores

Rural Tourism Trend: electric vehicle chargers can drive visitors

Wide view of a prairie landscape with a walk-through gate in a fence

Tourism: Make the most of scant remains and “not much to see” sites with a look-through sign

Holyoke Hummus Company cart

How one food business keeps adapting, from table to cart to truck, to restaurant and back again

Make extra money from extra workspace: co-working and 3rd workplaces in small towns

Newspaper story headline says, "Made in Dorrigo Markets a bustling success"

Boost your maker economy with a “Made in” day

More of the best of Small Biz Survival

Copyright © 2023 Becky McCray
Front Page · Log in