7 Ways to Increase Sales on Small Business Saturday
7 Ways to Increase Sales on Small Business Saturday
One of the best days of the year for small businesses is coming up, and your pet business can take advantage of it. Small Business Saturday —a day to celebrate and support small businesses and all they do for their communities — was founded by American Express in 2010.
Small Business Saturday encourages consumers to support local businesses by shopping small during the holiday season. This year, Small Business Saturday will take place on Saturday, Nov. 30, in between the frenzy of Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Small Business Saturday is the perfect opportunity for small businesses to boost revenue, increase brand awareness, and strengthen ties with your local community. To help you stand out among the other pet care businesses in your area, we’ve put together seven ways you can promote your business and increase sales on Small Business Saturday. Let’s dive in!
1. Offer Promotions
Before developing your marketing strategy, you’ll want to determine your promotions for Small Business Saturday. Consider deals that will increase revenue and drive awareness toward products or services your clients might not be familiar with.
DaySmart Pet’s reporting feature lets you easily view key business metrics to help you decide which promotions will most benefit you and your clients. Need a little inspiration? You can view a few of our suggestions below! Once you’ve determined your promotions, you can easily add the promotional discount during the checkout process within DaySmart Pet.
Promotion Ideas:
- Book by Small Business Saturday and receive X% off your next appointment
- Buy one product and get a second X% off, in-store only
- Book your next grooming appointment by Small Business Saturday and receive a free add-on service
- Sign up for one month of daycare and get one week free
- Make a boarding reservation for 5 nights and get a 6th night free
Pro Tip: Using promo codes can be a great way to ensure you track which clients receive which promotion!
2. Email Marketing
Once your promotions have been established, it’s time to get the word out. The first place you’ll want to start is email marketing. There’s a good chance your customers will see your message, with 99% of email users checking their inbox daily.
DaySmart Pet provides built-in email marketing functionality that will allow you to promote your Small Business Saturday deals to clients in your database. You can also designate who will receive your emails based on client activity. Do you only want to send your offer to clients who haven’t booked an appointment in the last eight weeks? Or do you want to target customers who have purchased a product you’re promoting during the holiday season? No problem. You can use the pre-made email templates included in DaySmart Pet or create your design!
Be sure to look at the Small Business Saturday email templates we’ve put together below to help you develop yours.
Email Marketing Ideas:
Email Option #1
Subject: Treat Your Pet to a Spa Day for Shopping Small
Preview: Get an exclusive deal when you shop small with us on Small Business Saturday.
Headline: Shop Small This Holiday Season
Hi there,
Join us as [business name] celebrates Small Business Saturday on Nov. 30. When you shop small, you’re helping to support the local businesses in our community. That’s why we’re offering [promotion details] so you can help support us while getting your pet a fresh holiday cut!
Click below to claim your offer!
CTA: Claim my offer
Email Option #2
Subject: Small Biz Saturday Deal: [promotion details]
Preview: ‘Tis the season to support local businesses (and spoil your pup!)
Headline: Shop Small & Brighten Up The Season
Hi there,
Small Business Saturday is on Nov. 30, and we want to celebrate with you! We invite you to #ShopSmall with [business name] and receive [promotion details]. You won’t want to miss this; claim your offer below today!
CTA: Claim my offer
3. Text Marketing
While email marketing is a great tool to communicate with your clients, text marketing offers a 4.5x higher response rate than emails and a 98% chance of being opened.
With DaySmart Pet’s text marketing tool, you can quickly let clients know about your Small Business Saturday promotions in real time to help you boost revenue and engagement. Like our email marketing feature, you can choose from premade templates or create your own. You can also allow clients to respond to your text messages directly if you’ve implemented two-way texting.
Here are two Small Business Saturday text marketing ideas to help you get started:
Text Marketing Ideas:
- Supporting a small business is the perfect reason to give your pet a makeover! Celebrate Small Business Saturday with [promotion details]. Respond to claim your offer.
- Thinking about enrolling your dog in daycare? Now’s your chance. Don’t forget to sign up for our Small Business Saturday sale with [promotion details]. Respond to claim your offer.
4. Custom Designs with Canva
When running a marketing campaign, it’s essential to consider your brand’s image and how it relates to your audience. Creating designs for your pet care business can be intimidating, but there are many tools to make it a hassle-free experience.
One of the most popular options is Canva, a free-to-use online graphic design tool. With Canva, you can easily create flyers, social media posts, email images, and more to promote your Small Business Saturday deals.
To help you get started, we’ve put together an email header image for you to use in your client communications! Simply follow the instructions below to customize your design.
Canva Template and Instructions
- Click here to access the Canva template shown above.
- Select “edit design” and log into your Canva account or create one for free.
- To edit your background color, select the header image and then click the document color box in the top left-hand corner of your screen.
- To edit your text, click on the text box and type out your preferred text. Change the font, size, and color of your text by clicking on the option boxes on the top left-hand corner of your screen.
- If you want to add your logo, you can upload it by clicking the “upload” button and dragging it into your template.
- Once you are finished, click “share” on the upper right-hand corner of the screen, and then click “download.”
- If you have other questions about customizing and designing templates on Canva, please visit www.canva.com/help.
5. Facebook Ads
Facebook is the leading social media network and offers the ability to run ads that allow business owners to increase traffic and win new clients. Facebook allows boosting your existing posts or running targeted campaign ads using simple self-serve tools and tracking their performance with easy-to-read reports. You can use these to promote your pet care business or highlight special offers for Small Business Saturday.
By integrating your Facebook with DaySmart Pet, you can include a “Book Now” button on your page that redirects to your online booking website. We know that this information can seem overwhelming to busy business owners, so we’ve included simple steps to follow for Facebook Ads with key strategies to help you move forward.
Facebook Ads 101 – How to Set Up a Facebook Ads Campaign
Resource: Meta Business Help Center – Getting Started with Facebook Ads
Let’s run through everything your Facebook page will need to get your Small Business Saturday ad campaigns up and running. Paid advertising using social media can directly impact the reach of your pet care business. Facebook ads will give you a more calculated approach to hitting your targeted audience.
| Ad type | Your business goal is to … |
| Promote your page | Increase people’s awareness of your business or services and get page likes |
| Promote your business locally | Reach people near your business or a specific city |
| Boost post | Reach people more likely to be interested in your page and engage with your post. Boosting a post can help you get more messages, video views, new clients, or calls |
| Boost an event | Generate interest in an upcoming event and encourage attendance (like an event you might hold for Small Business Saturday) |
| Get more website visitors | Send people to a specific URL, such as your website’s homepage |
| Get more leads | Find people interested in your business and ask them to share their contact info |
Step 1: Create an Ad Account
Should you need a Facebook page for your business, follow these steps to create one. Any page you start will automatically have an ad account.
Once you’re all signed up for Facebook, a personal ad account ID will be assigned to you by default. To find this ID, go into the Ads Manager and look in the upper left-hand corner. To use Facebook Ads Manager, you must verify a payment method.
Step 2: Access Facebook Ads Manager
All Facebook’s ad campaigns operate through the Facebook Ads Manager tool. We suggest logging into this account through a desktop or laptop computer for easy use. The best way to find Facebook Ads Manager is to click and bookmark this direct link. This will save you time and get you directly into your personal ad account.
To navigate to Ads Manager from your business page, head to the left sidebar and click on any Facebook page’s “Ad Center” drop-down arrow, then choose “All Ads” from the drop-down. At the bottom of that page, there is an option to click “Ads Manager.”
You will then be brought to your Facebook Ad Accounts page, where there will be a quick overview of your ad account(s). If you can access multiple ad accounts, select the account where you wish to run ads.
Step 3: Choose Your Ad Goal
To get started with a new ad, click the green “Create Ad” button.
Facebook will take you to a page where you will be prompted to choose a campaign objective. These objectives give you numerous opportunities to refine the strategy of your campaign. Have an idea of what the goal of this campaign should be. If you’re trying to bring in customers for a specific event, you will likely choose “Awareness.” That way, you can increase the reach of your campaign and promote your business location.
Once you’ve selected your marketing objective, you’ll be asked to name your campaign. Make sure to make your campaign name recognizable, as this will help when you run audits of your campaigns for the year.
Step 4: Set Your Budget
Here are a couple of budget baselines to consider before setting up the budget for your Facebook Ads campaign. The average cost per click, impressions, and action across all industries is $0.51, and the average cost per thousand impressions is $8.77 as of August 2023, meaning you shouldn’t need a budget above $15.00.
When you set a budget, it’s important to remember that this figure represents the maximum amount of money you want to spend. You can set your budget per day or as a total amount for the campaign.
- Daily: A daily budget limits what you spend each day on your ads. Facebook will use your set criteria to find the right place and time to show your ad to your target audience. Once your budget is reached, the ads stop running for the day. The cycle starts again on the next day.
- Lifetime: A lifetime budget is the maximum you’ll spend the entire time you run your ad campaign. You give Facebook a number and an end date, and it will spend the money based on ad performance. Once your budget is reached, the campaign ends.
Step 5: Choose Your Target Audience
The most critical part of setting up your campaign is ensuring it hits your target audience. The success of your campaigns will be determined by who you show your ad to. The audience of your campaigns is based on the following demographics:
- Location
- Age
- Gender
- Behaviors
- Interest
Step 6. Select Your Ad Placements
Additionally, a “Connections” setting grants you more advanced targeting, allowing you to include or exclude people connected to certain pages, apps, or events.
Your ad placement will direct Facebook to position your ads to how you would like your ad to appear for your audience. This positioning is worth A/B testing to discover which placement will garner the most engagement.
If you can’t decide, Facebook recommends using automatic placements for the object you previously chose as your intended ad goal. By selecting automatic placements, Facebook optimizes the post for you to get the best possible results at the lowest overall average cost.
Step 7: Create Your Ad
When creating a new ad, start from a blank canvas and select your preferred format type. By now, you’ve likely seen numerous ad types through your feed, but your choice will be pre-chosen by the objective you’ve selected for your ad.
Facebook has eight ad formats and will recommend a couple based on the campaign objective you chose in Step 3. There are a lot of rules on the specs for each ad type, so it would be wise to become familiar with these specifications, as uploading your content outside of their requirements is a sure way to get stuck. To become more familiar with these requirements, review Facebook’s technical guidelines for certain formats.
Step 8: Submit Your Ad
To submit your ad, click the “Publish” button at the bottom right-hand corner of the page. Your ad will not post immediately, as Facebook holds your post to properly review the ad to confirm it fits their specs and doesn’t violate community guidelines. Should your ad get rejected, Facebook doesn’t exactly give clear guidance as to why, so it’s typically more time-effective to try another ad rather than expecting Facebook to provide you with guidance.
6. Google Business Profile
With 98% of consumers using online searches to find local businesses, you’ll want to ensure your online presence is optimized for search results. Google Business Profile is a free service that allows you to provide more information about your business when it appears in a search.
Beyond your website and description, you can add your business hours, phone number, photos, and more to help you rank higher in results. Google Business Profile also lets your clients review your business and leave feedback for others to see. Check out our Google Business Profile 101 guide below for additional tips and tricks!
Google Business Profile 101
Resource: Guidelines for representing your business on Google
Have you ever Googled a business to find their hours, website, address, or phone number and found nothing? You want to digitally make the best first impression for all potential clients and have your local SEO properly linked to your Google Business Profile listing. Did you know that 88% of people who conduct a local search visit or call the store that day?
Here are two primary steps for setting up your Google Business Profile account to be sure you’re showing up when people search for pet care businesses in your area:
Step 1: Create an Account and Claim Your Business
- Log into the Google Account you want to be associated with your business (or create a Google Account if you don’t already have one).
- Go to google.com/business and select “start now” in the top right-hand corner.
- Enter your business name and address.
- Choose your business category. Try to choose the most accurate category possible, as you’re telling Google which category of customers should see your business listing.
- Add your business phone number or website URL.
- Choose a verification option. If you’re not ready to verify just yet, click “try a different method” and choose “later” as your verification option.
Step 2: Verify Your Business
Google Resources: Video | Support article
Google gives you multiple options when it comes time to verify your business. This verification process helps google control unwanted bots and fake businesses from being created. While awaiting verification of your business, be sure not to change your business name, address, or category or request a new code while waiting for this to delay your verification process.
Here are the standard verification methods:
- Phone or text: Go to your Business Profile and click Get Verified > Phone or SMS. Once received, enter the code into your profile.
- Email: Go to your Business Profile and click get verified > Email. Be sure you have access to that email because you will need the code sent to that email address.
- Video recording: In one continuous recording, include these details:
- Your current location — To show your Google Maps location, capture outside signs, like your street’s name, nearby businesses, or the area around your business.
- Business or equipment — To show that your business is at this Google Maps location, capture your operations. This can include stock for sale, branded equipment, marketing materials, and tools you use to serve your customers.
- Proof of management — To show that you’re authorized to represent your business, capture your access to employee-only items or areas. This includes a cash register, kitchen, storage room, or non-sensitive business documents. You can also use your keys to open your facility.
- Live video call: Ensure you’re within support hours for your region and language and that your mobile device can join a live video call.
- Postcard: Receive a verification code via a postcard (most postcards will arrive within 14 days).
7. Social Media Hashtags
We’ve all heard of hashtags, but why are they so important? Hashtags turn any word or group of words after the hashtag symbol (#) into a searchable link that users can follow to find specific types of content and trending topics. Adding relevant hashtags to your social media captions can help categorize posts, increase engagement, attract new followers, and strengthen your brand’s image. Take a look at the hashtag list we’ve created below to help drive awareness of your Small Business Saturday event.
7. Social Media Hashtags
We have all seen it! A keyword or phrase that follows a hash (#) symbol. They are all over social media, and you have likely used them too. When targeting consumers for specific campaigns, such as Small Business Saturday, selecting keywords for hashtags may take work. It is essential to choose the right words that complement your marketing campaigns. How do you choose the right ones? Check out the designated list that we have created to help drive awareness of your Small Business Saturday event!
As a small business owner, it’s essential to recognize your opportunity to capture the attention of a niche audience that’s drawn to supporting local businesses or start-ups. As you might know, customers buying from small or local businesses can be some of the most fiercely brand-loyal repeat spenders. The key to running a brand awareness marketing campaign is letting all those niche customers know their search is over.
The number in parentheses = total number of posts linked to that hashtag on Instagram
Small Business Saturday List:
- #smallbusinesssaturday (3.1m)
- #smallbusinesssaturdays (32.8k)
- #smallbusiness (127m)
- #smallbusinessowner (26.4m)
- #smallbusinesssupport (7m)
- #supportlocalbusiness (11m)
- #supportlocal (48.6m)
- #shoplocal (84.9m)
- #smallbizlife (666k)
Industry List:
- #localdoggroomer (5k)
- #supportpetcareprofessionals (100)
- #petgroomer (910k)
- #petgroomers (131k)
- #petgroomersofinstagram (75.3k)
- #petgroomerslife (26.2k)
- #doggroomers (495k)
- #doggroomersofinstagram (803k)
- #doggroomerslife (80.5k)
- #doggroomersofig (47.9k)
- #catgroomer (152k)
- #catgroomersofinstagram (22k)
- #catgroomers (15.4k)
- #catgroomerslife (1k)
- #catgrooming (593k)
- #groomingdogs (65.4k)
- #groomingdogsofinstagram (12.9k)
- #petstylist (1.2m)
- #petstylists (21.6k)
- #petstylistsofinstagram (5k)
- #petgrooming (2.1m)
- #petgroomingsalon (111k)
Local Hashtags and Geotags
When promoting any event at your salon, you must increase brand awareness in your local area by geotagging your posts. Remember that customers will travel for great haircare services, so be sure to extend your reach beyond your local town or city. Use your city, county, surrounding counties, and state hashtags to target your region.
Create Your Own Hashtags
Social media communication is constantly evolving and changing, as are hashtags. You could find yourself in an optimal position of creating a new hashtag that goes viral (yes, it happens). Having your own branded hashtag helps expand your reach. Make your hashtag a central business tag and use it everywhere online (including every post). If your brand is unique, consider making your tagline or slogan your first hashtag.
You’re Ready to Take on Small Business Saturday
We hope you leverage these tips and have a successful Small Business Saturday! For more information on how DaySmart Pet can help you grow and streamline your pet care business, visit daysmartpet.com.
