Top 5 Holiday Marketing Tips for Small Businesses (That Actually Work!)
It is officially the holiday season! The time when coffee turns pumpkin or peppermint-flavored, inboxes overflow with deals, and shoppers start searching for that perfect local business to support.
For small businesses, the holidays are a golden opportunity to advertise and grow, but only if you’re ready for it. Whether you’re selling handmade gifts, offering local services, or running a family-owned shop, the right preparation now can set you up for your best November and December yet.
Let’s look at the Top 5 things that you can do right now to get your small business holiday-ready.
1. Freshen Up Your Website
Your website is your digital front window, and during the holidays, people are peeking in! Make sure what they see feels festive, looks trustworthy, and is easy to navigate.
Quick upgrades that you can make:
Add a holiday banner or a seasonal pop-up featuring your best offers.
Create a Holiday Gift Guide or product bundles like “Gifts Under $25” or “Perfect for Mom.”
Test your checkout process. Try to remove any extra steps and make sure your cart works perfectly.
Add urgency phrases like “Limited Stock,” “Holiday Exclusive,” or “Order by Dec. 15 for guaranteed delivery.”
Give your site a local SEO boost: Update your homepage and meta tags with seasonal search terms like “holiday gifts in Luxemburg, WI” or “Christmas specials near Kewaunee County.” These small touches help you show up when locals are shopping online!
If you would like to get some help with your website, check out our services page, or email us at [email protected] and we can discuss your business ideas!
2. Create a Festive Social Media Plan
The holiday season is prime time for engagement. People are scrolling between shopping, baking, and watching Hallmark movies, and you can be the brand they stop for. Here are some ideas that you can use to light up your holiday social media feed:
Countdown posts: Try a “12 Days of Christmas Deals” campaign or “Countdown to the Holidays” series.
Behind-the-scenes stories: Show your team decorating, packing orders, or sharing their favorite holiday traditions.
User-generated content: Create a contest or a giveaway, and encourage customers to tag your business in their photos! Then you can reshare their posts and get easy, free content for your own pages.
Holiday hashtags: Combine branded and local ones like #ShopLocalWI, #SupportSmallBusiness, or #LangeDigitalSolutionsHolidays
Make this easier by batch-creating your posts in Canva, writing your captions, and scheduling them ahead of time. There are tons of paid software programs that allow this, but Meta Business Suite can do this for Facebook and Instagram for free, and you can schedule almost a full month out. This ensures that your content runs on autopilot while you can focus on sales.
If you would like to discuss our social media and content management packages, check out our services page, or email us at [email protected] and we can discuss your ideas!
3. Launch a Holiday Email Campaign
If social media builds excitement, email closes the sale. Email marketing lets you reach people who already know and trust you. This means higher conversions and more loyal customers for your business. Not sure what to send? Create a mix of a regular newsletter and these four emails:
Holiday Sneak Peek: tease your upcoming promotions or holiday-themed products.
VIP Early Access: offer exclusive deals for subscribers through a special discount code.
Gift-Giving Guide: highlight products by category, price, or recipient, and send it as a newsletter add-on.
Thank-You Message: I like to show appreciation for my clients/customers in the form of a late-season digital holiday card, and then (maybe the next day) include a January coupon to get the new year started on the right foot!
Make your emails mobile-friendly, include clear call-to-action buttons, and use subject lines like “Your Exclusive Holiday Offer Awaits 🎁” to boost open rates.
4. Embrace Local and Community Marketing
Your biggest holiday advantage as a small business? You’re local.
When customers buy from you, they’re not just shopping. They’re supporting a neighbor that they know. Don’t let this opportunity go to waste! Local marketing is our favorite kind of marketing! So, how do you make it count:
Update your Google Business Profile with current hours, holiday photos, and special offers.
Team up with other local businesses for shared giveaways or gift bundles.
Participate in community events like parades or charity drives, and be sure to go live on your page, or take photos and post them online.
Donate or sponsor a cause (like a local toy drive). It builds goodwill and creates powerful stories to share.
Another local SEO tip: Use your town and county names naturally throughout your posts, website, and Google updates. Using phrases like “Serving Manitowoc and Kewaunee County” helps search engines and people know where you are.
Check out our blog on How Local Businesses can Double their Online Visibility with Local SEO
5. Optimize for Mobile and Quick Shopping
Over 70% of holiday shoppers browse or buy using their cell phones. If your website loads slowly or your checkout is clunky, people will bounce faster than Santa up a chimney. Here are some simple things that you can do to improve their shopping experience:
Run a mobile speed test with Google PageSpeed Insights and fix slow elements.
Simplify navigation with large, easy-to-tap buttons.
Add one-tap payment options like PayPal.
Ensure your phone number, address, and hours are clickable and consistent across all platforms.
Also, be sure to add a “Click to Call” button for local businesses. During the busy season, customers want fast answers, not long forms. Give them the option to speak to a real person and have their questions answered right away.
And Just a Word of Advice, Don’t Forget About January
After the wrapping paper settles, don’t go dark. Once you have built all of this holiday season momentum, the urge can be to relax, sit back and try to catch your breath. But, the new year is your chance to keep the conversation going and turn holiday buyers into repeat customers.
Some simple ways to do this is to ask for reviews while the purchase is still fresh in their mind. Put your Google review link on a card or a slip of paper and place it in with every purchase order. Collect emails from customers and follow up with loyalty discounts or refer-a-friend offers. And be sure to analyze your holiday marketing metrics. What was your website traffic like? What social media posts, products, or emails performed best? If you saw a spike, try to identify why it happened so that you can recreate it!
The goal is to ride the wave of holiday goodwill into long-term customer relationships.
Wrapping It All Up (See What We Did There?)
The holidays don’t just reward the busiest businesses. They reward the best-prepared ones. A solid plan now can make a huge difference as people are shopping for holiday gifts or even just a good deal! Start to build momentum now.
Refresh your website,
Plan your social media content,
Send your email campaigns,
Connect with your community, and
Optimize your website for mobile.
Do these five things and you’ll set yourself apart from most of your local competitors who either don’t have a plan at all, or are still “waiting until Black Friday” to start marketing.
So, if you love the holiday season like we do, grab your peppermint mocha, throw on some Bing Crosby (it’s officially November, so it’s Christmas music season in our house!), and start making those holiday marketing moves.
Best wishes,
Dr. Travis Lange
