What are you doing to bring your fans closer to your creative business during the holidays?
In the United States, We are just day’s away from the
biggest $hopping days of the year.
If you are a creative business owner, the
last couple months of the year can mean a sales jackpot if you have taken the time to prepare and market to your target audience.
In Part 1 of my
3 part series “promoting your music during the holidays"
We talked about using the themes of the holiday to have fun,
while create a unique “selling opportunity” for your fans, and prospective
business partners.
Our next holiday Thanksgiving, gives us 3 big target days to
help you promote your music or creative business- Black Friday, Small Business
Saturday, and Cyber Monday.
Holiday Marketing Background:
During tough economic times, especially during the
holiday’s businesses spend millions in ads to encourage spending. Marketing
firms have created “holiday events “ specifically to encourage consumers to
CONSUME.
Here are 3 new holiday’s that were created specifically to
encourage people to spend money- That YOU can take advantage of to help
increase your sales.
Black Friday -
Refers to a old accounting terms,
Being in the
red denotes a negative profit margin, where as “in the black” denotes a
positive profit margin. Most retailers make or break their sales goals between
Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.
According to
ShopperTrak, who uses in-store monitering devices to examine sales in 2010
black Friday sales in 2010 increased to 10.7 billion!! a .3% increase over
2009 earns it the top spot as the heaviest shopping day of the year!
Small Business Saturday- Our friends at American Express are responsible for starting
this event which happens the 1st Saturday after Thanksgiving- now in it’s 2nd
year.
Aimed at promoting small business owners. Amex is
reimbursing $25 in cash to the 1st of 200,000 shoppers using their American Express card to support a local small business, local businesses signing up get $100 facebook ads or free! I encourage supporting this holiday however, recommend you spend cash, Don’t
run up your credit card bills! Save using your credit cards for the emergency
fix, or broken tour van that will certainly pop up when you least expect
it.
Cyber Monday is a
marketing term created in 2005, referring to the Monday following Thanksgiving,
many are back to work and can’t physically go to the store, No problem,
just shop online!
In 2010
consumers spent $1.028 billion, a
16% increase from the previous year on product purchases on Cyber Monday!
How do old accounting terms and marketing gimmicks help you
grow your business? First lets
look at a example of a local business targeting the tired shoppers with a fun diversion from the madness.
One famous example of
musical artists utilizing the Thanksgiving holiday to help future album
sales- Arlo Guthries “Alices Resturant” a 1967 release that comically exaggerated Thanksgiving day adventure turned
Vietnam protest. This album that has sold over a million copies, and is still
selling 40 years after it’s release.
5 Things can you do to sell more!
1)
Send a newsletter to your fans- Remind them that your
music makes the perfect gift, offer to ship “personalized” signed copies, for a
extra special gift. Remember You need to get “heard” above everyone else trying
to sell something.
3) Video your holiday song-
How do you catch some of the
shoppers searching on line? Create a shopping wave!
Drive traffic to your website with your new holiday
single, create a YouTube video of
your holiday song, have fun with
it… include a link to where your fan’s can “buy” this exclusive MP3 of your
holiday song.
4)
Partner with a local business- We all want to
help the local small business owners during the holidays! *the 1% big
corporations seem to be doing fine without any additional funding. Do you own a retail space? Suggest a special “holiday show” Invite a musical artist to perform a simple acoustic holiday sing
along, or host a fun "fashion" show to sell products you sell in your retail space! Heat up some cider and you
have a super fun “shopping “ event, it doesn't have to be fancy to be fun for your customers!
This is a wonderful opportunity to create cross- cultural
events, sharing traditions, the
different ways we each celebrate the fall solstice all around the world. Are you a local business owner or
artists interested in connecting? Let me know (add email link).
5)
Local Children’s Hospitals or Sr. Centers- Think about
those less fortunate. Call your local children’s hospital,place
of worship, or Sr. Center ask if you can come sing holiday music to the guests there.
You don’t play a instrument ?
You can offer to read books, share
photo presentations, or host a
free activity or workshop!
Share pictures of the outing on your social media or
next newsletter, the smiles in the pictures will inspire, and remind others how
easy it is to help another who is unable to get around during this special time
of year.
Now, that you have completed your 5 tips you can relax:
Set a extra plate at your table for
Thanksgiving- There IS someone in your immediate circle who has no one to
share the holiday with. Invite
them to share a meal with you, it's one of the bests "gifts" you can give to a friend!
I invite you to share the link to your Holiday song and video in the comment section below!
Posts
During the Thanksgiving holiday celebrations, I noticed between the huge meals, the entertainment revolved around playing with a 9 week old puppy, and during the puppies naps having several generations of family, poking away at their smart phones sharing their favorite apps with one another.
