Holiday Marketing 5: Share the causes you care about

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

This week, the focus is on the causes you support.

Our ultimate goal is to build a stronger community for all your local businesses, and the charities you donate to and the causes you support are important to that. Let’s share that story with customers. You can do this on Facebook or Instagram, or in print ads you’re planning to run.

Look back through your bookkeeping. What causes have you given to this year? Pick the one that matters the most to you. Why does it matter to you? What’s so important about what they do for the community?

Write a three-sentence story about them. Be sure to tag them or mention them by name. End by saying, “Together, we’re making a better community. When you shift just a little more of your shopping to local stores, you help us all. #ShiftYourShopping.”

While you’re online, look up your fellow local stores. See if they have posted their mini-stories yet. When you find them, like and share them!

Here’s the bonus: You support and donate to a lot of causes. You’re not limited here. You can do as many of these cause mini-stories as you like!

Small Business Saturday

If you’ll be participating in Small Business Saturday in the US on November 28, stop by ShopSmall.com now to sign up to possibly get tote bags and other materials you can use to promote the day. The deadline is posted as November 16.

Shift Your Shopping 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 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.