Skip to main content

Tag: small business

Create Your Holiday Marketing Plan

Posted on by
Holiday Marketing Plan with holiday decor

Summer’s come to an end and shorts and sandals are being replaced with jeans and boots. It may seem a little silly to already be thinking about a holiday marketing plan— didn’t summer JUST end? But believe it or not, now is the PERFECT time to get ahead when it comes to the holidays. 

Holiday season has a tendency to sneak up on you. Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years seem so far in the future. Before you know it, snowflakes will be falling and the busyness of the holidays will be in full swing. Want to avoid unnecessary stress and burnout this holiday season? Check out our helpful holiday marketing tips and get ahead of the game!

Prioritize Your Holiday Marketing Plan

Brainstorm: Start as soon as you can to brainstorm a holiday marketing plan and put it into place. Holiday sales tend to bring in about 20% of annual sales across most industries. It’s the time of year where a strong marketing plan can bring your business to the top of the competition. Plus, who doesn’t want to end 2023 with a bang?

Your brainstorming session should be where you bring efficiency and creativity together. 

Ask for help: Seek out innovative yet reliable marketing plans. Your employees as well as other experts in your industry may have some insight that you didn’t realize you need. Or perhaps you’re friends with an owner of a business very different from yours. You can still bounce ideas off of each other.

Reflect on Your Past Marketing Plans

One of the first steps of an effective marketing plan is to research your own company. Sounds weird? It’s not! 

Use historical data to determine if you overspent or underspent on anything last year (we’re talking money or time).

  • Did you host an event? If so, how effective was it? 
  • Did you create a coupon? If so, how many coupons were used?
  • Did you write a blog? If so, how many people read it?
  • Did you update your website? If so, how much more traffic is it seeing?
  • Did you use social media last year? If so, have your followers increased/do they engage with your material?

Take a closer look at how you’ve been conducting your previous holidays marketing strategies and see what really worked and what could use some extra TLC.

Create a Holiday Offer

Pick a campaign theme and run with it! Each year you should reflect on what you want this holiday season and what your organization or business can provide people. Each year may be drastically different or have subtle nuances. Either way, your holiday campaign should be designed with flavor! Have fun with it. Your campaign is designed around your holiday offer.

Establish a Goal for the Holiday Season

A clear and attainable goal is one of the cornerstones of a great marketing strategy. A goal is not a hope. It’s an objective that you’ve written down and will pursue. Writing down your goal keeps you accountable to it in the future.

Your goals should be SMART – Specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. 

Collect $75,000 in donations for ____ charity by December 25, 2023.

Generate 2,000 leads who are interested in our black friday sale by November 22, 2023.

Host 250 participants at the annual _____ event on December 31st, 2023. 

You goals could focus on one or multiple categories:

  • Revenue
  • Awareness
  • Leads
  • Shares
  • Conversion

Define Your Target Audience

Who are you trying to attract and who do you already attract? Gather as much information about your target audience as possible. 

Reflect on your target audience:

  • Do they like to shop in stores or online?
  • Do they consume social media on instagram or facebook?
  • What’s their age demographic?
  • Are you catering to a high-end consumer or more of the middle class?
  • Are they locals, tourists, or a mix of both?

When you truly understand your target audience, you understand the best ways to engage them.

Leverage the Right Marketing Channels

After looking at your target audience and writing down your goals this holiday season, you need to determine which marketing channels are best for you. 

Marketing is EVERYWHERE these days. Make sure that you’re emphasizing quality over quantity. (Quantity isn’t bad, just make sure that the quality is the priority!) Ask industry experts what they use, take a short class on the latest marketing channels, and be creative.

You may want to optimize these marketing channels:

  • Website
  • Email 
  • Instagram
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • TikTok
  • Newspaper Ads
  • Online Reviews
  • Word of mouth
  • Paid Advertising 
  • Radio
  • Chamber of Commerce listing
  • Sponsorships
  • Community calendars
  • Flyers/Posters

 Create Your Marketing Calendar

This is an exciting new step! All of your planning and preparation come together in your marketing calendar. 

This calendar reminds you of holidays and important nation-wide events such as Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Small Business Saturday. You can even include other celebrations or noteworthy days like Native American Heritage Month, World Mental Health Day, Daylight Savings, World Coffee Day, National Ugly Christmas Sweater Day, Winter Solstice, or a sporting event.  

Plus, this calendar reminds you to release a new promotional video, run a new ad, print and hang a community flier, or post a story on instagram.

No matter what industry you’re in, you NEED a marketing calendar to keep everything straight.

Delegate, Delegate, Delegate

Delegate tasks to keep everything organized and running smoothly. Most of the time, you can’t do everything—and that’s okay!

If an employee is extremely detail oriented and good with numbers—have them order merchandise or supplies.

Do you have an employee is a social butterfly? Encourage them to meet with your advertisers or plan a social event.

Is there an employee who loves to read—have them research your target audience.

Optimize the strengths of others! 

Avoid the Biggest Holiday Marketing Plan Mistakes

Now that we’ve discussed what you SHOULD do, let’s quickly go over what you SHOULDN’T. 

  1. Only focus on one marketing strategy – this will drastically limit your reach. It’s okay to have one larger marketing strategy but just make sure that it’s not your only one.
  2. Last minute planning – start early! Last minute planning will stress you out and hurt your outcomes.
  3. Not optimizing your mobile site – You need to be accessible online. Like it or not, that’s how the world runs these days. Focus on your online presence and you will reap the rewards.
  4. Ineffective customer service – Be available and fully staffed during the busy holiday season. Customer service can make or break any business. Monitor social media engagement and consider implementing a live chat feature on your website.
  5. Not staying local – One way to stand out is to have a personalized touch to your organization—don’t underestimate the power of your local audience.

The Bottom Line

Design your holiday marketing plan to boost your brand awareness and meet your goals. It’s that simple. Position your brand above others, attract new customers, and keep your loyal ones. Make it great, make it you!

Do you need holiday marketing solutions and don’t know where to start? Schedule a time to grab a coffee and learn how Transcend Ideas can help take the load off this holiday season and provide marketing solutions for your company.

Dear Canva, I LOVE you!

Posted on by

A quick geek out over Canva!

This is a geek out blog post about Canva. If you haven’t guessed, I love the platform and what they provide businesses. Their platform continues to amaze me and what you can do with it. How may I count the ways.. I love you, Canva!

SVG Magic in Branding Your Business

DeLacy Tea Company – SVG rosehips

Let’s begin with SVGs, which stands for: Scalable Vector Graphics.
This handy-dandy format allows for your vector files to be colorized before your eyes. That’s right. Exactly how you can pull an element from Canva and change out a color to your liking? I recently designed something for Mariel’s DeLacy Tea Company. Delacy Tea Company wanted to utilize the rosehips element on different tea labels. Each label needing to be a different color, so making a couple of elements she can then colorize in Canva was huge! An important tip for Illustrator/vector designers: make sure the vector is completely closed so the element can be colorized effectively in Canva. For this sample of their rosehips (right), I had the lines in the leaves transparent and not white so that the rosy color or any color of their choosing can stand out on a contrasting background.

There are some smaller businesses that need to be able to “play” with their logo and with this versatility it allows for a business owner to take it upon themselves to make necessary changes on their own.

From now on, when I package my client’s graphics and hand them over, SVGs will be on that checklist of elements that are an absolute must. Exporting elements for your clients that can be the most useful allows them to move freely in their brand without constraints. All too often clients have shared stories where they are left hopeless with ownership over their own logo files, domain names, hosting for their website, access to their social media platforms, etc. All forthcoming topics I will happily share in our blog.

Some Canva templates provided for marketing campaigns:

Happy Holidays from JH Fire/EMS
People Spread Love Old Bill’s Fun Run (Insta Square)
TCWP Spray Days (Email Newsletter header)
People Spread Love Old Bill’s Fun Run (Insta Square)

Bravo goes back to Canva, an Australia-women owned business. Canva has revolutionized graphic design for so many ambitious dreamers. Now design is accessible to anyone that wants to build a business with the help of their design platform. I couldn’t be more excited to recommend them to anyone who works in design or wants to dabble in it.

Canva Custom Template Offerings

Google Analytics 4: Understanding the Customer Journey

Posted on by

Have you heard of the next big wave in consumer analytics tracking?

Google Analytics 4 (GA4) takes us into an exciting time for marketing and sales professionals. GA4 allows us to dive deeper into our understanding of consumer behavior. GA4 allows us to analyze key items in the life cycle of an event measuring value by, what content engages a user to come to the site initially, what leads to abandoned shopping carts, and more. Being able to understand the customer journey more intimately will allow marketers to discover what trends consumers are looking for in their digital experience and better serve them.

We live in the digital age and with that comes ever-changing regulations and security protocols. End users are making more demands for control of their privacy. Users demand privacy on how their data becomes used, tracked, and stored on websites. The amount of data generated and available across websites and apps is staggering and constantly increasing.

Google Analytics 4 logo on computer image

There needed to be a new solution to account for this. GA4 creates instant web and app property data. App and website data will now measure using event-based (any specific occurrence on a website) rather than session-based data. This allows us to isolate many events across a user’s experience on a website or app, rather than one session. This provides a more complete and accurate understanding of the customer’s journey on various devices, from a brand-new site visitor to a repeat customer. The data and insights we now can pull with GA4 properties allow your business to scale and work with cookie/cookieless sessions

GA4, designed to replace dated technology on Universal Analytics (UA) and Google Analytics 360 (GA360), will stop collecting data on July 1, 2023. Additionally, GA360 will stop collecting data on July 1, 2024.

A Few Key Insights on Google Analytics 4

  1. Better Tracking: With Google Analytics 4, you can track more types of user interactions on your website. Whether it be scrolling or engagement with videos. This gives you a more complete picture of how people are using your site, which can help you make improvements.
  2. Easier-to-Use Interface: The GA4 interface is designed to be more intuitive and user-friendly than previous versions. This makes it easier to find the information you need and understand what it means.
  3. Enhanced Insights: Google Analytics 4 uses machine learning to provide insights into user behavior and trends. This means you can get a better understanding of what’s working on your site and what’s not, and make changes accordingly.
  4. Cross-Device Tracking: GA4 allows you to track users across multiple devices, including desktops, tablets, and smartphones. This is becoming increasingly important as more people use multiple devices to access the internet.
  5. Future-Proofing: Google Analytics 4 is designed to be more flexible and adaptable to changes in technology and user behavior. This means you’ll be better equipped to keep up with changes in the digital landscape. By doing this, you can stay ahead of the competition.

Overall, Google Analytics 4 is a powerful tool that can help you make data-driven decisions to improve your website and grow your business.

Getting Started

Getting started with GA4 is easy for any small business owner. It requires only getting an account set up and adding the tracking code to your website. After this, it’s all about setting up conversions and determining what items are most important to you for measuring. What is a conversion? They are any measurable event or action the user takes on your website, including page views, filling out forms, buying products, and more. There are more reports than ever available with the launch of GA4 from general overview reports to more in-depth items on customer engagement, monetization, and acquisition. Read more from MonsterInsights on how to get started with GA4 on your WordPress site, conversions, and the reports available to you.

We can’t wait to see what the next few years have in store for analytics. All the insights are immediately at the fingertips of marketing and sales departments all over the globe. What are you going to track first? What strategic decisions are you hoping to make for your business? Email us at hello@transcendideas.com today to learn how we can help you make the transition to the latest technology available in analytics tracking with Google Analytics 4!

When You Shop Small You Support People

Posted on by
Transcend Ideas Giveaway, Shop Small Support People

Let’s Celebrate Small Business Saturday

Tomorrow is Small Business Saturday on Saturday, November 26th, and you’re encouraged to support the small businesses you know and admire. It could be your favorite Thai place, a gift shop, a magical massage therapist, a web designer, a dog groomer, a hairstylist, a favorite sandwich shop, or a coffeehouse. Wherever and whatever they sell or offer, they can not stand without your support. Shop small, support people.

The global pandemic was an indicator of how important the support of all of us has on the small business model, especially those that thrive as a brick-and-mortar establishments. So many small businesses had to pivot into a different model to survive the moment and the circumstance at our feet. Find more information about Small Business Saturday at the Small Business Administration site here.

Transcend Ideas small business starter pack
Transcend Ideas giveaway: post-it notes, sticker, business card & a special thank you from me!

Shop small business giveaway

Transcend Ideas is proud to offer a “Shop Small Business Giveaway” this Saturday.

Enter the giveaway by using Instagram or Facebook:

  • Take a photo/video of the item/service you purchased
  • Tag @transcendideas and the business you are supporting
  • Like our social media post and give @transcendideas a follow too

I will mail you stickers, post-it notes as a thank you by snail mail. You will be contacted by DM notifying you that you won.

When you do business with small businesses and shop small and support people.

Traditional Marketing Ideas (Clubhouse/Spaces)

Posted on by

I was in a Clubhouse room called: “Old School Marketing” and it blew me away how important going back to basics in your marketing truly is. Check out the next set of audio rooms I will be hosting on this very topic in the coming weeks. In the meantime here are some ideas to stew on..

Traditional Marketing Ideas:

In no particular order of course, but consider these ideas to implement:

  • Word-of-mouth
  • Schedule a cup of coffee or lunch with a work colleague, even your competition to discuss business
  • Mailers
  • Handouts (flyers, rack cards, business cards)
    • Pin up in bulletin boards! – Make a list of these locales that accept those physical marketing tools
  • Stickers (clever approach – catchphrase, coolness)
  • Showing support for a charity/nonprofit organization
    • A certain % of sales goes to charity in a certain time frame
    • Sponsor an event or a sport in your town/city
  • Join the Chamber of Commerce – make connections, take advantage of ALL they offer you!
  • Contests for all ages (art, name mascot, etc.)
  • Handwritten thank you notes
  • Thank you gifts for your bigger clients
  • Exclusive sales to your most loyal customers
  • Holiday cards
  • Networking
  • In-person events – Hold in-person workshops (educate, inform, engage – build trust)
  • Community calendars for events you are hosting
  • Print ads in local newspapers
  • In-store signs (sandwich boards)
  • Takeaways: Bumper stickers, stickers, branded water bottles
  • Name tags – custom name tags, wear your logo and name (perhaps pronouns too) to remind people what you are about!
  • Movie theatre ads – Slides or videos of local businesses
  • Post-it notes – custom couple with your business card (good leave behinds)
traditional marketing ideas

Photo by Marissa Grootes on Unsplash

“Create social proof through that localize medium!”

Heather Cox
traditional marketing ideas

“Tried and True” Marketing Ideas

Going back to the “tried and true” methods of marketing can be just what you needed to revitalize your connection with your audience. I am all for digital marketing, it’s predominately what I do but there is something to be said for that personal touch to make a connection. When we build relationships we are developing trust and communicating and we can’t always lean into digital technology to do that.

These marketing ideas are meant to be approached “in tandem” with digital marketing! Don’t discount the basics and ask yourself what you can you use in Q4 and what could you utilize in your marketing strategy for 2023.

Join the Traditional Marketing Ideas Conversation

Join Heather for a Clubhouse Room AND Twitter Spaces on “Old School Marketing Ideas.” All conversations will be recorded so you can listen in at a later time to learn a bit here and there. We will not be focusing on digitally marketing.

Clubhouse
“Old Skool Marketing for Biz and Nonprofits”
Wed, Oct 19th at 11:15 am MDT

Listen to the Replay

Twitter Spaces
“Old Skool Marketing”
Wed, Nov 2 at 11:30 am MDT

Join Twitter Spaces

The Advantages of Shopping Local

Posted on by

It’s Halloween now, how did that happen? You probably already notice Christmas ads sneaking in. The capital frenzy of holiday shopping is an all too familiar behavior in American culture. You have probably noticed that camp stove you bought online was backed up for months and just came in. That is 100% because of the chain supply shortage. So many of us consumers have leaned on these online sales especially during the pandemic for things that have provided comfort and convenience during the most inconvenient time. Local shops do rely on the chain supply for material and inventory, too however those handmade items they are less dependent. Especially those local artisans. Convenience stores can’t replace the advantages of shopping local. The experience, personality, value, and soul of local shops are unmatched.

Here are the Advantages of Shopping Local:

1. Talk to a human being, not a hotline number speaking to an automation. Have a problem? Take it back to your local store.

2. Quality over quantity. More is not necessarily better here.

3. Word-of-mouth is golden, your friends and family are your most influential voices in your purchase choice.

4. Align with your values with where you shop. Spending your money locally helps funnel that money to charities that are doing good locally in your community. You have seen campaigns that kick 5-10% of sales to a local cause. Keep your eye out to those opportunities to give back when you purchase items this season.

5. You are supporting local people in your community.

We hope you have the chance to get out there for Small Business Saturday and enjoy the advantages of shopping local! Fill out our client questionnaire at this link if you’re interested in working with Transcend Ideas as a small business this year!