The holidays are the busiest stretch of the year for a lot of local businesses, and the most crowded. Every business in town is competing for the same attention, in the same inboxes, at the same time.
Most of the holiday marketing problems I see come down to timing and follow-through. Here are seven mistakes that cost local businesses the most, with a quick check under each one you can run this week.
1. Starting Too Late
If your first holiday post goes up the week of Thanksgiving, you are starting when everyone else is shouting. A lot of people have already decided where they are buying gifts or booking appointments by then.
Plan in October. Decide what you are offering, when it starts, and when it ends, then put the dates on a calendar with the emails, social posts, and Google Business Profile updates that go with each one. Starting early also gives you time to fix what breaks before it matters.
Quick check: Do you know today what your holiday offer is and the date it starts? If not, that is this week’s job.
2. Leaving Your Google Business Profile on Autopilot
Holiday hours are where this goes wrong most often. A customer checks your hours on Google, drives over, and finds the door locked. That customer remembers, and sometimes leaves a review about it.
Google Business Profile lets you set special hours for specific dates, separate from your regular hours. Set them for every day you open late, close early, or close entirely. Then add a holiday post and a few fresh photos so the profile looks current to anyone comparing you with the business down the street.
One small thing that trips people up: keep your phone number out of the text of your posts. One of our clients had a Google Business Profile post fail to publish, and the cause was the phone number typed into the caption. The call button on your profile already does that job.
Quick check: Search your business name on Google Maps and look at your hours for Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, and New Year’s Day. Are they right?
3. A Website That Does Not Mention the Season
Your holiday offer is running on Facebook and in your emails, and your homepage still looks the way it did in July. Someone who clicks through to learn more has to hunt for it, and many will not.
Put the offer on your homepage where it is seen without scrolling, with the dates and one clear way to claim it. If you sell gift cards or gift certificates, make them easy to find and easy to buy on a phone, since a lot of last-minute gift shopping happens there. Then take it all down in January so the site does not look abandoned.
Quick check: Open your homepage on your phone. Could a visitor find your holiday offer, and buy a gift card if you sell them, in under a minute?
4. One Discount for Everyone
A blanket discount is the easiest offer to run and often the most expensive. It gives money back to loyal customers who would have bought anyway and does little to stand out from the other businesses running the same sale.
Think about who the offer is for. Your regulars might get early access or a thank-you bonus. New customers might get a first-visit offer. A service business can sell gift certificates for a specific service, which brings in a new customer in January who was introduced by someone who already trusts you. Bundles work well too, as long as they add value instead of just cutting the price.
Quick check: Can you name the one group of customers your main holiday offer is for? If the answer is “everyone,” narrow it.
5. Forgetting the People Who Already Know You
Your email list is made up of people who already chose to hear from you, and it costs nothing to reach them. Plenty of businesses spend their holiday budget chasing strangers on social media and send their own list one email, or none.
Send a short series instead of a single blast: an early heads-up for subscribers, a reminder when the offer opens, and a last call before it ends. Keep each one short and focused on one thing. If your list is small or has gone quiet, the dos and don’ts of building an email list will help you grow it the right way.
Quick check: When did your list last hear from you? If it has been more than a couple of months, send a plain, friendly note before the holiday offer, so your first email back is not a sales pitch.
6. No Clear Next Step
A pretty holiday graphic with no instruction gets a like and nothing else. Every email, post, and page should tell people exactly what to do: call, book, buy a gift card, or stop by before a certain date.
Use one action per piece and say it in plain words. “Book your December appointment” works better than “Happy Holidays from all of us,” because one of them asks for something.
Quick check: Look at your last three holiday posts or emails. Does each one ask the reader to do one specific thing?
7. Disappearing After December
The holidays bring in customers who have never bought from you before, and many businesses never contact them again. January is when you turn a one-time holiday customer into a regular.
Thank them, invite them back with a reason to return, and ask the happy ones for a review while the experience is fresh. If you sold gift certificates, remind the people holding them to book. How to get more five-star reviews covers the asking part without making it awkward.
Quick check: Put a date in your calendar now, in the second week of January, to follow up with every new customer from the season.
Where to Start
If you only do two things, set your holiday hours on Google and put your offer on your homepage. Both take less than an hour, and they affect every customer who looks you up this season.
For holiday ideas that do not need an ad budget, read seven ways to win December without an ad budget. The local business owner’s guide to holiday promotions has more on choosing and running the offer itself. And most of these mistakes are not limited to the holidays; ten digital marketing mistakes small businesses make all year covers the rest, with a quick way to check for each one.
If you want to know whether your website is ready for the holiday rush, start with a free website audit. I will tell you what to fix first, in plain language, with no pitch attached.
This post was previously published and has been updated for content and relevancy.
Leave a Reply