Why Should Anyone Shop with You on Small Business Saturday?

[00:00:00] Vivian, is it a 5th grade level? 6th grade level. That's what I was taught. Okay, that's what I was taught as well. It's just, it was so long ago for me that I can't remember. Shut up. Go punchy. Hey everyone, welcome to the S.O.B. Marketing Podcast where we celebrate the S.O.B. that you are and if you haven't figured it out yet, we mean small owned business. We don't mean S.O.B.

[00:00:23] Listen, we know that as a small business owner, you are working hard on the daily to keep your business fully operational while trying to promote it. And while some days it may feel like the business is owning you, if we're being honest with each other, I bet you would admit that you wouldn't give up the insanity for anything.

[00:00:42] Our commitment here at the S.O.B. Marketing Podcast is to give you the real talk, what works when it comes to advertising, marketing, promoting your business, and then what doesn't really work. And Chelsea and I promise to always keep the conversation real. Christmas time is here. We are going to get canceled because of you, just so you know. What? It's September. This isn't when you start celebrating Christmas?

[00:01:09] Do not protest our podcast just because my baby sister apparently is in Christmas season. No, I'm in Halloween season in September. That's right. So September, October is Halloween, and then November and December is Christmas. Okay. Well, and listen, great segue though, you guys. You probably can't see. And first of all, if you're watching this on video, sorry because we're using a webcam today because I need to replace the camera that I lost on my hiking trip.

[00:01:39] But I am wearing an S.O.B. shirt. I just want to remind you guys that we do have merch. If you ever want to say it loud and proud that you are a small owned business, we have mugs, t-shirts, tote bags, all that stuff. Go check out our merch so that it's just one other way you could support the podcast. Yeah, we have multiple designs. That's right. My favorite is Minding My Own S.O.B. Minding My Own Small Business. Is that what it is? No.

[00:02:10] Cut this out. Cut it out. She doesn't even remember what our designs are. I'm pretty sure that's the shirt I own too. Yeah. Minding My Own Small Business. And then the other one is Small Business Batty. That's a good one. That's right. Yeah. I'm embarrassed. Vivian, let's move on. What are we talking about today? All right. Last week, we shared with you. So this is a two-part series. If you did not go back and listen to last week's episode, please do. Because in this series, we are covering Small Business Saturday.

[00:02:39] Now, the last episode was a rerun that we did back in 2023. But do not fret because it is still applicable information in 2026. Imagine that. There are some marketing principles that just never change. Today, what we're talking about is how, as a small business, you need to explain to your customers why they should be shopping with you for Small Business Saturday. Because think about it. The holiday shopping season really kicks off that weekend.

[00:03:08] Black Friday, Small Business Saturday. We got Cyber Monday. Every business owner is competing for the consumer, for consumers' attention. So what you need to do as a small business, it's not enough to say, oh, it's Small Business Saturday. Come shop with me. You need to say, hey, it's Small Business Saturday. And here's all the reasons why you should be shopping with me. Absolutely. And I think that's the part where today's discussions could be a little different than

[00:03:36] maybe what you have heard from other marketing professionals out there is we want to specifically just remind you guys of how you could go about not convincing, but relaying to people your value and what makes you or sets you apart from competitors. Because that's the other thing is I think we're going to get into it, you know, here in a little bit. But it is very not cutthroat. No, I think it is cutthroat.

[00:04:06] It's a busy season. It's a busy season. And, you know, everyone has a, well, you should have a budget. So you're trying to be very cognizant of the amount of money you're spending. You got to stand out. It's not enough to just be a small business on Small Business Saturday. Real quick, if you want specifically Small Business Saturday ideas, that's what last episode was. It was more of the nitty gritty, like. Things you could do. Things you could do.

[00:04:36] Promotions, emails, stuff like that. So listen to part one and then come back here. Hello. Welcome back. Do you have a pew, pew, pew? I do have a pew, pew, pew. Vivian's talking about marketing hot tape in case you've, in case this is your first episode. You have no idea what's going on. If it is your first episode, welcome. We invite you with loving arms. Well, my loving arms.

[00:05:05] Chelsea is, I don't know what kind of arms she has, but they're not loving. They could be. You don't know. So what is the pew, pew that we always do? So the pew, pew is marketing hot takes. So I'm going to say something controversial. I feel like everyone will actually agree with this, but the holiday season. And if you don't, she's going to dangle you by your toes. If you don't agree, I'm just going to ignore it. You're wrong. No. No.

[00:05:29] The holiday shopping season, Vivian, just starts earlier and earlier every year. I will agree with that. And I'm saying this as someone who has already started their holiday shopping. I'm not ashamed, okay? So she's saying she's the reason it starts earlier and earlier every year. I'm the problem is what it is.

[00:05:54] But I think this is a great conversation for Small Business Saturday and really just for the entire holiday marketing season in general. So no matter if you start now or if you wait until like Small Business Saturday to really crack down on holiday marketing, either way, like you could start going heavy right now is my point. Yeah.

[00:06:20] And what you're saying is it wouldn't ostracize people or people maybe wouldn't think twice about it. No. Yeah, exactly. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I will say I do feel really weird about people trying to rush through the year, but I get what you're saying, which is like promotionally right now the stores have all Halloween stuff. The second Halloween's gone, all the Christmas stuff is going to be put out.

[00:06:49] And so people are going to be kind of in Christmas mode. And I do think that we have seen statistics recently, Chelsea, that have proved that people actually are spending more money before the actual holiday season comes up. So it's not, you know, it's kind of like a chicken and egg thing. Are the stores pushing it? Absolutely. But it's also the consumer like Chelsea here who does all her shopping for Christmas by like October. Okay. Which is insane.

[00:07:17] So in my defense, what it is, is in September, I start thinking about what would everyone want? Right. Right. And then I have the Feminist Magic Market and I have Yalmart and I have all of these events that, you know, Feminist Magic is in September. Yalmart is in October. Then in November, we start seeing the Christmas markets. Like if I start early, one, I can spread it out among my budget. That's right.

[00:07:46] So it's less painful for me. And two, I have more time to look over everything that's offered. Right. And then the other part of it is there are increasing shipping times that people have to be aware of. And so I do know that some people get the shopping done early because they don't want to butt up against the chance of not having it here by the time you need.

[00:08:13] So certainly I will agree with you on that marketing hot take. Thank you. Because I'm right. Now, let's lead this discussion about Small Business Saturday by talking about a few things. For one, we don't need to point out the obvious, Chelsea. You know, there are a few reasons why it's a good idea as a small business owner for you to focus on Small Business Saturday, on marketing for that specific holiday. Okay.

[00:08:41] And you guys, it is a very popular holiday now. If you've never done Small Business Saturday, you're missing out on a good opportunity to be able to tap into people's sentiment to want to spend dollars locally and with small business owners specifically. You can't just wake up one day and say like, hey, next weekend is Small Business Saturday. I'm going to throw up a few social media posts. Done deal. That's not how any of this works. Okay. I mean, you could do that.

[00:09:11] It could go either way. Yeah. If you want it to be successful, there's a reason you need to focus on marketing this for Small Business Saturday. One reason is there are probably multiple businesses in your area geographically or, you know, online that are selling a very similar product or service. Okay.

[00:09:33] So you have to be able to convince someone, choose me, pick me, love me, instead of, okay. Chelsea's face says it all. I guess. What is that from? I don't know. I think it's like a movie maybe. Canceled. We're quoting things. We don't even know what they are. Or maybe it's just every Friday night in my household, me talking to my husband, love

[00:10:02] me, choose me. Oh, no. Anyways. That's what I imagine he's saying to you, but whatever. Go ahead. Move on. All right. The other one is that being a small business is a great story, but it's not necessarily your entire marketing strategy. No, absolutely. Okay. I mean, there's so many, I actually have this statistic, I have this statistic written down.

[00:10:29] There are 36.2 million small businesses in the U.S. as of 2025. So yeah, being a small business kind of isn't enough because everyone and their mama is a small business. You're a small business. We're a small business. Right. Every mom and pop out there is a small business. Exactly. Well, and that's very true. And I love that you brought that up because I do think that maybe as small business owners,

[00:10:57] we sometimes think like, wow, nobody really gets what it's like to be a small business owner because it's a unique thing. It is extremely unique experience. However, it's an experience that, as she said, 36.2 million other people are having right now. Yeah. And also, I mean, if you're in this bubble, if you're listening to this podcast, you are likely, you know, part of our SOB community. So we're all like-minded, like-minded people. That's right. Yeah.

[00:11:27] The other thing is you can't just post, support your small business and expect people to actually automatically buy from you. Okay. That's just not enough. It's not sufficient anymore. And part of the reason is not just because of what we were talking about with there being a lot of small businesses, but also because I don't got to tell you guys twice, social media is kind of very crowded.

[00:11:57] Oh, yes. It's very crowded. Yeah. There's a lot going on. And so one or two posts just saying like, hey, pick my small business on Small Business Saturday is probably not going to convert. Honestly, if I saw that post, I don't think I'd even notice who posted it. Yeah. Well, probably because leading up to Small Business Saturday, everyone's going to be posting it. Exactly. So think about it.

[00:12:24] If a consumer is scrolling and all you post is support my business for Small Business Saturday, like are they even going to pay attention to who you are? Right. That's not enough to stand out. And then lastly, you kind of have to give people compelling reason for why they should choose you. You know, like people have a lot of options and you just kind of need to remind them who you are for, what your product and service, who, you know, the best fit is for your product

[00:12:54] and service. Yeah. So a legit campaign. Okay. Like when do we typically want to start? How far in advance for like Small Business Saturday? When do you think is a sweet spot to start talking about it? We are already talking about it because we think this is something you guys should already be thinking about. So now in September is the time to sit down and say, do I want to participate in Small Business Saturday?

[00:13:22] How far do like how focused do I want to be on this? What kind of strategies am I going to use? Am I going to do email marketing? Am I going to do social media marketing? Am I going to do text campaigns? Start to get your ideas going. This is the time where you need to sit down and think about what you want to do. And then I personally think September is for ideation.

[00:13:49] October and beginning of November is when you actually start doing everything and creating the campaigns and creating the text messages just so that you can one, have it all planned out to you can look at your sequences and say, you know what, let me tweak this. Let me tweak that so that it can happen flawlessly for Small Business Saturday. And you need to have this.

[00:14:19] You need to start the planning or the creating in October because in November, like if you're doing email sequences, you want to remind them three weeks in advance. That's right. Two weeks in advance. One week in advance. Three days before. Like you want to stay top of mind and for you to stay top of mind and get all of those touch points, you need to have this already figured out. Yeah. And also just a reminder because we did discuss that Small Business Saturday falls right after

[00:14:50] it's Black Friday, Small Business Saturday. And then what's the other heavy hitter? Cyber Monday. Cyber Monday. Okay. And so that sounds really busy. It sounds like you guys have your calendar booked for that time frame. The reason that I am suggesting that you start sharing this information early on is because think about your consumer. A lot of consumers, me included, we like to plan out who we're shopping with on Black Friday,

[00:15:19] who we're shopping with on Small Business Saturday. Like because it's such a busy day, you need to map out who you're spending time with, who you're going to spend money with. So if you don't give the consumer enough time to make a plan, then you're probably going to be left out of that plan. Well, that's a great way to kind of reframe it in your head. Like you're doing a disservice to potential customers if you're not giving them the information in advance.

[00:15:47] Because we do know that we just said it's such a busy season for people that they already in their hat in their head have that mapped out. And so you're not too. They have the map physically. Map in their hat. All right, Chelsea, let's actually get into then answering the question. Why you? Okay. So here's the thing.

[00:16:13] The way you need to think about it is if you only had 30 seconds, what would you tell someone to convince them to choose your business over another business? Right. Okay. And so what makes you different? Yes. So question, Vivian. Are we talking about your elevator pitch? Yeah, it's kind of like your elevator pitch. Yeah. And so there are some things we can and I have one, two, three, four, five questions specifically

[00:16:41] that you guys can think about in order to kind of get some of these responses and ideas going in your head of what you want to be incorporating in that messaging. Okay. So first, we want to remind you that you want to get specific. Okay. Okay. Because that is going to help people actually differentiate you, have you stand out from other people. Absolutely. Like there's a lot of lipstick brands, but there's only one brand that uses only snail

[00:17:09] mucus and berries. I don't know. You're so disgusting. I can't even. I was trying to think of a way to differentiate like lipsticks and that's the only thing I could come up with. I do like this though, because I have added this as an idea for Christmas shopping for you. So now, yes. Now I'm going to look for lipsticks that have snail mucus. That's my toner. Oh my gosh. It's so nasty. You guys. What are you, what are y'all 20 year olds doing? I know.

[00:17:38] What are you 20 year olds doing? Okay. So for Christmas, I'm buying Vivian snail mucus toner and she's going to love it. And she's going to come back on this podcast and say, my bad y'all, I was wrong. Yeah. My bad. I look 20 years younger because I got this snail gunk on my face. Exactly. We'll be the same age. We'll be the same age. There we go. All right. So how great would it be if it made you older and me younger?

[00:18:06] This is not like a Dorian Gray situation, ma'am. I am not a painting on the wall. Okay. So Charles, let's do some of the questions that they can ask themselves. What's the first one you would throw out there? What do you do differently? Like what makes you stand out? You put snail mucus in your lipstick. Yeah. I mean, this is great because this can, it's not just with products. This is also with services, right?

[00:18:33] So like if you're a salon and maybe you do something differently with like a head massage in every one of your salon visits or something, or maybe it's the products that you use in your service. This is all really great. Maybe you stand on your hands and you cut hair with your feet. I don't know. You're fired. You're fired. You don't even get paid. You don't even get paid to do this podcast, but I'm firing you.

[00:19:03] Okay. She's so traumatic. The other question you can ask yourself is what experience do customers, you know, get with you? So like this kind of leans into that as well is there's something about your process, your experience in particular that is different. Something that comes to mind, restaurants. Okay. There are some restaurants now that do the, you know, eating in the dark experience.

[00:19:32] What are you talking about? We're like, you eat in the dark. So actually, actually. You know what I'm talking about. Well, maybe years ago, we went to Savannah for my birthday and the girls and I went to, I think it was called Better Than Sex. It was a dessert bar.

[00:19:59] And first off, probably somewhere I should have gone with Tim and not my girlfriends, but it's fine. All the lights are turned off. They have like very low lighting to the point where when we went there, the host had to use a flashlight to take us to our seat because there's like no lighting. But see, you chose it for a reason because the experience was different. Well, no.

[00:20:24] My other point with restaurants, I thought you were going to bring up how there are restaurants now where the wait staff is purposely mean to you. Oh, yeah. Yeah, like that's the whole thing. They bully you. Yeah. That sounds like a restaurant you would open. But so this is a good time. The reason we bring these questions up, this is a good time to give people this type of information. Okay. So remind them, what do you do differently? What experience do customers get with you?

[00:20:52] And then the other one could be, what can they get from you that they can't easily get elsewhere? Sure. If it's you serving a very particular type of food and you're the only restaurant in the area that serves Lebanese food. Okay. Puffer fish. Puffer fish. You better be making that right. Just saying. Or not. That could be the experience. The experience. The experience is to die?

[00:21:23] Okay. Okay. Sure. I mean, okay. The other one, this has gone off the rails. It has. Okay. The other question you can ask is, what problem do you solve particularly well? Okay. Yeah. That is an important question. It really is. And you letting people know like, hey, by the way, if this is an issue that you are having, my product helps with that. Right. Or my service will save you from having to clean out your trash can. Yeah.

[00:21:53] We come, we clean out your trash can. So it's not all smelly. So this is a great time to bring that up. The other part is, what makes your story, products, expertise, or approach unique? So ask yourself these questions if you're having a hard time kind of crafting what sets you apart. Sure.

[00:22:11] Vivian, another really important point that I want to make is that y'all need to stop making people figure out or work to figure out what it is that you sell. This is the tough love Chelsea coming out. You're not. She just bowed up, you guys. Did you see this in the video? She bowed up. Well, I'm trying to say that. Here's the thing. Is it fun to be mysterious?

[00:22:41] Yes. I love being mysterious. It's great. I don't personally think that it works for businesses. Yeah. Because if you're making someone work for something, if they don't already have skin in the game, why are they going to work for it? Yeah. Does that make sense?

[00:23:04] Like, I think when you're, if you're trying to tease something, teasing something only works if they're already invested in your brand. I see what you're saying. Yeah. So I think for Small Business Saturday, you need to be very transparent about who you are and what you sell. Yeah. There's none of this, like, focus on aesthetics. Yes. Yes. Yeah.

[00:23:28] And I love this because, you guys, we do live in a world now where I think a lot of, one of the things, this is a little off key, but when people are like branding, branding, branding, I'm like, I don't think people really understand what that means. Like, branding isn't just like selecting a font, a good logo, and like colors. There's a lot more to branding, right? Like, you have a brand voice. Yes.

[00:23:54] If you think about the tone in which your communication is, you want that tone to be consistent. Are you consistently aggressive with your tone? Are you a little more like, Chelsea rolled her eyes. She knows it's her. Okay. But these are all things that kind of play into developing a bigger brand, right? That's the part that people forget sometimes is they think, like, if I just keep the same consistent colors, then everything's fine as long as it all looks the same. But that's missing the point a little.

[00:24:24] Yeah. So questions to think about and to remember in terms of making it easy for people to know what it is that you sell. When you're creating content, where you're creating your marketing strategy, not strategies, when you're creating your marketing initiatives, like your emails and your texts and all that stuff, is it immediately clear what you sell? Okay. Is the offer easy to understand? That's right. That's a big one.

[00:24:53] Are you showing your products or services enough? Mm-hmm. Or are you just creating, like, cutesy stuff, you know? Like, no, let's focus on displaying your products or services. And are you assuming people already know what you do? Yeah. You definitely don't want to assume it makes me ass out of you and me. I like how you did say that cutesy, though. That makes it better. No. I agree with you.

[00:25:22] That's the hard part is because you guys are selling your product and service every single day, this can be a little harder for you to recognize if you're just naturally making assumptions that, oh, I don't need to explain that part of the service. Okay. Perfect example. I want to say maybe two years ago we had our first head spa show up here in Charleston, South Carolina. It would be easy for her as a small business owner to be like, well, yeah, a head spa. I know exactly what that is.

[00:25:52] I don't know what that is. Yeah. As a general customer, I have questions. How long are head spas? What exactly do you do for a head spa? What makes it different than a regular spa? You know, do you actually wash my hair? Do you style my hair afterwards? Okay. Do you? And so these are all questions that it might seem in your mind, oh, it's very clear from the descriptor that I put on the service.

[00:26:20] But sometimes laying that stuff out is what people need. Absolutely. We also have to remember that in our communication, Vivian, is it a fifth grade level? Sixth grade level. That's what I was taught. Okay. That's what I was taught as well. It's just it was so long ago for me that I can't remember. Shut up. I'm going to punch you. You guys, this is her baby sister way of nitpicking at me.

[00:26:44] My point was we were taught as marketers to write at a sixth grade level so that everyone can understand what we're trying to communicate. Yeah. I do think you have a little flexibility in that if your product is geared towards a very particular type of target audience. So that's not to say across the board, but general communication, they do say if if you write at a sixth grade level, everyone can understand.

[00:27:11] It's just kind of like you're getting to the straightaway to the point basics. Yes. All right. So what is more compelling, Charles? A social media post that says, hey, we can't wait to see you this small business Saturday or a social media post that shows potential customers what they can buy, what it costs, why they'd want it, who it's for and how to get it.

[00:27:41] I mean, I mean, those actually have specifics peppered in there. So exactly that type of social media content is going to be a lot more. What's the word I'm looking for? Effective. Yes. I wanted to say assertive for some reason. I'm like, that's not the right word. That's not the word I want. Effective. It's going to be much more effective than posting just like, oh, come see us small business Saturday. And let's remember, we're creating content not just to create the content.

[00:28:10] Quantity does not matter. It's the quality of what you're creating. Absolutely. This episode of the SOB Marketing Podcast is brought to you by the SOB community. If you're a small business owner that is neglecting your marketing and you feel like you've wasted money and time on marketing help that didn't deliver, or if you're just craving support from people who actually get what it's like to run and promote a small business, then our membership community is for you.

[00:28:39] Visit school.com slash SOB to sign up today to get instant access and weekly support. That's S-K-O-O-L dot com slash S-O-B. The other part is, are you giving them a reason to shop now? All right. So can we talk, Chelsea, about urgency? Do we always have to create urgency by, because I feel like small business owners naturally think,

[00:29:05] oh, the way I can move this product or, you know, have people book an appointment with me very quickly is to offer them a discount. Oh, girl, you don't have to do that. Okay. That's one way to do it, but you don't have to offer a discount. Off the top of my head, a great example of creating urgency is limited time products. Yes. Okay. Or limited amount. Like, hey, I only have 10 left of these, so if you want this, you need to buy it right now.

[00:29:33] Goes without saying, I think we brought this up in the rerun all those years ago in 2023, but don't be a little liar, liar, pants on fire. Oh, my God. Yeah. No, that's really important. If you really only have, don't say, I only have 20 of these, and then, like, the next week be like, oh, okay, I ordered more. I only have 50 of these now. You know, you want to be sure that you're very careful not to create a reason for someone to distrust you in the future. Yeah, you know who does an awful job at this?

[00:30:03] Who? And it annoys me, but I still shop with them. Bath and Body Works. Oh, really? Oh, my, all the time, they're, like, limited for a short amount of time, and then it comes back, or, oh, we're only doing this discount now, and then two weeks later, it's the same discount again. That's right. And I'm like, girl, what are you doing? Like, can you not be a liar? Exactly. All right, so, limited edition product, like you said, or service, I guess. Bundles. Oh, I love them.

[00:30:32] Bundles are perfect Christmas presents. Yes. People love a bundle for a Christmas gift. Well, and I think, also, it's a great way to think about introducing, so, let's say that if you're a makeup company, you've noticed that your eyeshadows sell quite a bit, your mascara sells quite a bit, but maybe your eyeliner doesn't, okay? No, maybe the lipstick. Like, people aren't getting behind the snail mucus. They're like, this snail mucus sounds disgusting.

[00:31:01] And so, maybe then you throw in a snail mucus thing into the bundle that you have. But this is a great opportunity to introduce a newer product that maybe people aren't buying or just are kind of, like, weary of purchasing. Testers. Testers. That's right. Freebies. Or things that specifically are adjacent. Okay. So, maybe if your makeup companies do this now with brushes. Okay.

[00:31:30] It's not the actual product, but they have brushes that they'll throw in, right? Or little tools like that. The other one is a free gift. Love a free gift. So, buy this. We'll give you this for free. What? I was going to give an example, but our mother listens to this, so don't even worry about it. Okay. Yeah. Let's keep it PG. Well, exactly. I don't want to be rated as a rated X podcast. Okay. Keep going.

[00:32:00] Might be a niche, though. I mean. All right. The other thing is a special experience. Oh, I love that. The girls and I, we went to a new nail salon in Nexton, you know, in South Carolina where we live. And they have like a full bar. A full bar? So, not just like a bottle, a little champagne glass? No. Like, they had one. Okay. Not like a full bar, but they had like multiple mixed drinks you could pick from. Oh, really?

[00:32:28] Multiple mixed drinks. They had wine. They had champagne. They had coffee. Yeah. Like different coffee, like specialty coffee drinks. And it was all free. Yeah. And so, remember what we're talking about here is you don't necessarily have to discount stuff in order to get people to create urgency and people to buy from you now. So, one of the ways, like you're saying, is that special experience could be the way

[00:32:54] that you're like, oh, they never offer that, but they're offering it right now. I want to get in on it. Exactly. The other thing is extended hours. If during Small Business Saturday, you're like, hey, typically we close at six, but we're going to stay open till eight so that you guys can get your shopping needs done. Other great examples, Vivian, you can collaborate with another business. Maybe you guys have like a Small Business Saturday party. Oh, there you go. Wouldn't that be fun? Giveaways.

[00:33:25] You can do like a mini giveaway for Small Business Saturday. Or, I love this one, have an exclusive item you can only get on Small Business Saturday. Like a, oh, okay. Uh-huh. Yes. Like today is the only day that we are offering this. Yeah. Maybe it's like a specific type of service. Maybe everyone who comes into your nail salon on Small Business Saturday can get like a specific

[00:33:53] nail art, you know, something like that. Mm-hmm. Make it exclusive. You could do an opportunity to meet the owner. There you go. Make yourself the event, right? Make yourself the event. Well, I think that would be a great way to build that relationship a little quicker too. Yeah. Like jumpstart the creating brand evangelist process, you know? That's right. Well, and also it gives people an opportunity to come in.

[00:34:21] And if you're something that's very much service-based and it does maybe deal a lot with someone selecting you as an individual over someone else. Maybe for a salon owner, it could be on that particular day, you only have 10 free consultations that you're doing, right? Yeah. And if you're pretty popular in the area and you're not accepting new clients, then for some people it's like, oh yeah, let me go see if we're a good fit.

[00:34:49] The other thing, if you're a service-based business and you're like, okay, but that's a lot of product-based stuff. Don't fear. Okay. There's lots of stuff that you can do to participate in Small Business Saturday. And I think that's where a lot of people do kind of focus on the product-based stuff. So things you can do if you're service-based. Sell gift cards. Love. All right. Offer a special package. Okay. Promote holiday bookings.

[00:35:19] Ooh, that's a good one. Yeah. Especially to kind of help, you know, get your schedule set for that holiday season. Create a limited time bonus. Okay. You could partner with a retail business if it makes sense, okay? We were just talking about salon. Maybe you partner with the person that is supplying you with the shampoos, with the products. And you have some type of event that would draw people out. You can also offer a future service, you know, promotion for Small Business Saturday.

[00:35:49] If you buy or book your consult on this day, then we're going to offer you maybe like 10% off, but you schedule it later, right? Okay. Yeah. And there's a little coordination you got to do there. Or you could do a book now, use later type offer, which is kind of like what I was just talking about. Okay. I love all of those examples. Yeah. Quick. Y'all don't sleep on gift cards. Yes. I know that was the first one, but like gift cards are huge because you're getting the money

[00:36:16] up front and then sometimes people don't use them. Yeah. I mean, that is a little asterisk pro right there. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Well, and the other part, Chelsea, is you had mentioned earlier in this discussion, making it easy for people to support you. So what does that look like? Practical advice for a small business owner? What can they be doing in October to be sure that they're making it as easy as possible for

[00:36:45] somebody to actually buy from them when Small Business Saturday rolls up? This is why it's so important to keep all your information up to date all the time, right? So make sure they can find your location. They can see your hours. They can find your website easily. They can understand how to make a purchase, how to book an appointment, how to contact

[00:37:13] you and how to see what you are offering. I want to bring up a point here that, you know, please don't spend weeks convincing someone to buy from you. Okay. And then have that information be wrong or not up to date, right? Like that would be, you're going to, if you're going to actually sell or promote something for Small Business Saturday and you want to drive a lot of sales on that particular day

[00:37:40] or during that season, the least you could do is go in and after you have planned out your marketing stuff, go out there and be sure, actually, this is part of planning your marketing stuff. Be sure that your website, your Google business profile, your Apple Maps and all that has the correct hours for that day. And don't forget, you guys, that Google now does this thing where you can actually upload holiday hours.

[00:38:06] That's going to be super useful for you and extremely important coming up on this holiday season. If you're going to adjust your schedule any for extended hours or if you plan to close early on any particular days, go take full advantage of being able to set those specific hours for those holidays so that your customers know. Yeah. Yeah. And make sure that you're doing this. This is kind of just a side thing. Do this across platforms. Yeah.

[00:38:35] So like update your Google, your hours, your holiday hours on Google and Apple Maps. Probably post it on social media too and pin it to your page. Like make sure you're making it as easy as possible to find the information no matter where they're looking. And the last, well, two things that to close this part of the discussion out is I do want to remind people that websites are fabulous.

[00:39:03] Just remember then today's day and age, people are not necessarily going to go to your website first. Okay. Yes. They might go to Google first. They might go to Apple Maps first. They might go. And so don't just be updating your website and think that, oh, well, my website's updated. Okay. But you still have to do the other things because as Chelsea always says, it's not about you. It's not about us as the small business owner. It's about the way the customer finds information.

[00:39:30] And so if they go somewhere else first, you want to be sure that at first blush, all of that is correct. And then hopefully you can encourage them to go to your website. But in the off chance that they don't, you still want them to have the right info. Yeah, absolutely. This comes back to omni-channel, having an omni-channel strategy. Some people are only going to look for information. I'm going to be so real when I'm looking up information about businesses.

[00:39:59] The first place I go is Instagram. I'm not looking up your website. Yeah. The first place I'm looking is your social media. And then from there, if I like what I see, then I'll go to your website. I'm glad you brought up omni-channel marketing too, because the other thing I wanted to say is not to add more work to you guys. But it is September. And so you have time to do this. If this year you haven't gone through the actual customer journey, maybe it's a good

[00:40:29] time to audit and do that yourself. Okay. And what we mean by that is simply act like you have never heard of your business before. Either, you know, think of where you would start as someone that's new to the area or someone that's just looking for your product and service. And then see all the ways in which you actually go through the process down to what the booking form says on your website, right?

[00:40:56] The information you're collecting and asking them to do. Just because that's a good refresher for you if you haven't done it in 2026 yet. Before you get all these eyeballs for Small Business Saturday, it's prime time to do it now so that you can actually resolve any issues you might have. We have an episode on customer journey. So I'll, you know, on YouTube, I'll tag it right here and I'll add it to the show. Well, Vivian will add it to the show notes. She's like, I ain't doing show notes no more.

[00:41:28] But we'll add that information. So definitely go watch that episode too. Customer journey, really important. The other part is we said this is a great opportunity beyond just Small Business Saturday, you guys. So I do want you to just kind of think about the fact that this can actually extend after Small Business Saturday. And some of the considerations we want you to think about is great.

[00:41:55] You're getting new people into your business because you're running this like badass sale. Okay. For Small Business Saturday. We love that for you. How are you going to then communicate with them after? So some of the things that you could think about is am I collecting email addresses so that I can send people promotional emails in the future? Am I encouraging them to follow me on social media? Am I giving the first time customers a reason to come back, right?

[00:42:22] Like maybe I'm sending something specifically to those first timers to be like, hey, by the way, it's been, you know, 60 days since you bought our product. You might need more, right? You might need more toothpaste. You might need whatever. More snail mucus. More snail mucus lipstick. Yeah. Because you went through it in 60 days. That's very impressive. Yes. Remembering, real quick, remembering your returning customers are the ones that bring in the most money. Absolutely.

[00:42:52] So let's convert those new people into brand evangelists. Yes. Don't downgrade how much revenue returning customers can bring in. Yeah. The other thing is retargeting or reconnecting with new customers after. Okay. So like Chelsea said, and then also you could be asking for reviews. Those reviews could help amp up your Google business profile.

[00:43:20] If you're on Yelp or whatever else, any of the reviews that are going to help your business, be sure you're collecting them on Small Business Saturday as well. And then also creating a reason for them to come back in like December or January. So I think the key here is we don't just want you to think of this as like a one-time spike in sales. We want you to think, perfect, one-time spike in sales. And I brought in a lot of revenue.

[00:43:45] But how can I also get them to come back so that I can keep getting consistent sales from them? Like we said earlier, Small Business Saturday is not the marketing strategy. It's the marketing opportunity. So make it work with the rest of your strategy. Yes. Create a strategy for it. Vivian, let's wrap up this conversation with some questions to ask yourself as you begin to plan your Small Business Saturday campaign. Okay. We got, why should someone choose my business?

[00:44:16] Is it clear what I sell? Am I marketing before the actual Saturday? That's a big one, y'all. Am I giving people a reason to buy now? Is it easy for someone to buy, book, or visit? What content am I going to post? How can I make this feel different from any ordinary Saturday?

[00:44:41] And what am I doing to turn first-time customers into repeat customers? All of those are so important. If you use those questions to guide you as you build this out, we know that you're probably going to be able to amp up your sales during this time. And so excited for you guys. If you've never decided to actually participate in Small Business Saturday, this could be a wonderful

[00:45:08] time to introduce your business to people that have never heard of you, right? It just takes a little planning ahead like anything else does. And then if you are participating in Small Business Saturday again, and you're using these questions, and it does create a spike in revenue, or you get more people through the door, we want to hear from you guys, okay? Oh, absolutely.

[00:45:35] So we want to hear that the practical information we gave you today is actually working for you. Or if you guys want some more one-on-one help, you can join the SOB community. We have Zoom calls every single week where we sit down and either answer whatever questions you bring to us or Vivian and I like to make sure we all stay on top of marketing issues so we bring some topics to talk about. Absolutely.

[00:46:05] You could go to skool.com for more information on that. Great. And you know what? I want you guys to start planning your Small Business Saturday and go be the best SOB you can be.