Tips to Prepare For the Holiday Season

Family, friends, food, and festivities – it’s the most wonderful time of the year for consumers, and local businesses are gearing up for the seasonal rush! Is your local business prepared for the holiday season? Here’s five tips to help your local business have a successful holiday season.

1. Clean Up Your Local Listings

Consumer research is on steroids over the holiday shopping season as people are on the lookout for deals and promotions for gift giving. Give your business every chance of being discovered online by making sure your local listingsare claimed. In today’s mobile-friendly world, it’s important to make sure your local listings are accurate and updated regularly because local searchers are using this information to find you both online and at your physical location. If your listings are showing up in search results with incorrect information, make corrections where necessary as soon as possible.

2. Keep Your Social Media Accounts Active

Keeping your social media accounts active may be the last thing on your mind, but social media is an effective and important way to communicate with your customers during at this time of year. Utilise the holiday season by adding seasonal greetings or offers and promotions that you plan on running. Making sure your platforms are active will help boost engagement, allowing you to build strong relationships and brand presence.

3. Thank Your Customers 

The holidays are a perfect time to thank your customers. Whether it is thanking them with a card or with offers and promotions, you want your customers to feel appreciated and keep your business top-of-mind when they’re making their holiday purchasing decisions. Offering your customers promotions, whether it’s through emails or social media, is a great way to encourage them to shop with you this holiday season. It is also a wonderful time to give thanks or participate in local community activities, so why not get your business involved by donating time, resources or money to the causes you support?

4. Rest Up

The holiday season can be super busy for most types of businesses but rest is crucial to your health – and the health of your business! Getting sleep during the busy and stressful times is important, so make sure you rest. There’s a range of services and technologies available to ease some stress. A live chat service, for example, can assist you in maintaining a 24-hour presence with potential customers by answering questions from people that visit your site so you never miss a potential sale.

5. Get Ahead

This is a great time of year for reflection. Take time to reflect on the successes and achievements of your business, but also think about what you would have done differently. Pull out your numbers and data – make sure you have visibility on what worked and could have been done better. With these points in mind start building out strategies and plans for 2016 so that you can set your business up for a successful year in 2016.

Don’t forget to enjoy the season and spend quality time with loved ones!

How is your local business preparing for the holidays? Tell us below in the comments section.