What’s one low-cost strategy small business owners can employ to (re)engage customers during the holiday/end-of-year season?
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1. Email Outreach
Reaching out with positive messages and stories within an email or email newsletter still works exceptionally well and doesn’t cost much money. People are still shopping and seeking information, plus they like to hear festive and engaging stories, and they are sure to be checking their email in those long lines in shops. They can connect with you while they do.- Drew Hendricks, Buttercup
2. Targeted Text Messages
As long as you get customers’ permission to send them texts, this is one of the best ways to reach them. Studies reveal that people are more likely to open texts than emails, especially during a busy time like the holiday season. The key is to send them offers and content that match their interests. For example, you can text them special promotion codes that they can use to buy gifts.- Kalin Kassabov, ProTexting
3. Direct Phone Calls
As the world and the world of business have become increasingly digitized, I have come to observe that fewer and fewer people in the workplace are comfortable speaking to people over the phone. Stand out from the crowd of email marketers and engage or re-engage your customers by picking up the phone and calling them. The connection will be more meaningful and impactful.gh- Adam Mendler, Beverly Hills Chairs
4. Making Customers Smile
Everyone appreciates a good laugh or a kind gesture. The holidays are the perfect time do that. Reach out to your customers in a different way than everyone else is. Don’t be boring and typical. Make them happy, make them laugh, make them remember you because you made them feel good.- Jeff Cayley, Worldwide Cyclery
5. Facebook Advertising
Create a Facebook ad, targeted against your customer list, and remind customers why they decided to use you in the first place. Talk about the changes/improvements that you’ve made, and how much you’d like to win their business back. It’s inexpensive to target your existing customers, especially on a channel like Facebook. Regardless if the clicks are low, you’ll get plenty of impressions.- Corey Eulas, Factorial Digital
6. Clever Remarketing
Facebook retargeting is a great way to re-engage customers without spending a lot of money. All you need to do is add a retargeting pixel to your website and Facebook will create the custom audience for you. You can even narrow your list of customers you would like to retarget with Facebook’s custom audience. Google also has Dynamic Remarketing, one of the best features in Google Adwords.- Syed Balkhi, OptinMonster
7. Retargeting Those Who Purchased Last Season
Create a database of customers who have purchased from you in previous holiday seasons — these are customers who showed interest in your products previously and are quick, low-hanging targets for this year’s campaign. A customer who has already sought out your products during a previous holiday season would most likely be interested in doing so again. Create this segment and reach out to them now.- Diego Orjuela, Cables & Sensors
8. Website Optimization
Optimizing your website is a good way to ensure a successful holiday sales season. Consumers don’t have the time or the desire to wait for a site that is difficult to navigate or slow. One of the main reasons people leave sites is due to slow site loading times. Many more shoppers are using smartphone and tablets to buy items, so this is also a great time to make your site mobile-friendly.- Blair Thomas, eMerchantBroker
9. Team Meeting
Depending on the size of your team, it’s really important to bring everyone back up to speed on what’s going on in the company and what the goals are. Be transparent, if things are not going so well, don’t hide it, invite people to rise to the occasion to pull through for the team.- Nicole Munoz, Start Ranking Now
10. A Relaxed Event for Target Customers
Host a relaxed event at your business and invite the customers you’d like to re-engage to a special holiday treat. It can be as inexpensive as soup and grilled cheese or hot chocolate and cookies. However, the thought will go a long way with your customers, who will feel valued. Make the most of this time to get to know them better and understand their wants and needs from your business.- Jared Atchison, WPForms
11. Postcards Signed by Your Team
Every holiday, we gather the list of customers from the last 12 months, including those who bought during the previous holidays, and write handwritten “thank you” notes. It costs about $1/customer but has multiple benefits. First, it’s a WOW experience for them to receive an actual “thank you” in the mail. Second, it’s fun for our team to connect with old customers! – Aaron Schwartz, Passport
12. Personalized Gifts
A lot of your customers are going to have a table covered in gifts from vendors, so you want yours to stand out. Think about each client and the culture of their company, and come up with something that’s unique to them instead of sending out mass amounts of the same gift. You can tier your clients and decide which ones you’d like to single out, to make the work easier on yourself.- Kevin Conner, BroadbandSearch
13. Coupons
Give them coupons to come back in the near future so they know there are still deals and bargains to be had, even after the holiday sales are over. Be sure to include some information that goes with the coupon as a double value.- Murray Newlands, Sighted
14. Client Meetings
We like to meet with our clients at the end of the year to have a casual and candid conversation centered around our customer service and product quality. In this conversation, we ask three questions: What should we start doing that we aren’t currently, what should we stop doing that we are currently, and what should we continue doing that is adding value to their business.- Jarred King, Swagger Media
