Are you ready for the holiday season?
Being a #boutiqueboss you would have heard a million times by now that most money is made in the 4th Quarter. But if THIS is your first season being in business, you might be stressed & confused as to what to do & how to prepare yourself. It doesn’t have to be this way!
With the right planning, you can not only be READY but also have a work-life balance so you spending time with your family & friends enjoying the festivities!
Here are 3 steps to prepare for the Holiday Season -
Step 1 - Inventory Check
Whether you are a wholesaler or a dropshipping, it’s essential to do an inventory check before we move forward. You’ve got to know what you have & what you need to order so you can plan your promotions accordingly.
If you are wholesaling, take inventory of your packaging material as well so you not running to the dollar at the last moment to buy stuff or running out of marketing material to add with your order. These are as important as the products you are selling.
If you are a dropshipper, take a log of all the products you have in store & cross check with the supplier’s list. Be sure to do this every.day for the next 2 months because this is the time when suppliers tend to run out of the stock leaving you hanging in case you get a sale. If you can, pre-order & stock your highly sold products for emergency purposes.
Step 2 - Planning Promotions!
One of the best ways to leverage the Holiday Hype is by creating promotions & offers around the holidays. Start by making a list of holidays you want to target + their dates. There are so many events to take advantage of from Halloween to Thanks Giving, Christmas, Black Friday, Cyber Monday & more.
If you are not sure about your content & need help planning your promotions, you can grab the Content & Promo Guide here! It not only has 150 Content Ideas but also a list of Fun Holiday List to help grow your engagement rate & Video Training for Repurposing Content, Content Creation - 3Cs & Done For You Sample Content Calendar.
Example - If you have nothing in your store that goes with Halloween, you can skip it & focus on Black Friday or Cyber Monday.
Butttt if you are dropshipping & selling makeup, you can create promotions around Halloween Costume Ideas & link them to your existing products i.e. Make Up to help your tribe nail the look. Bonus points if the Costume ideas you’ve added are Amazon affiliate links. #workingsmarterNOTharder
The idea is to incorporate your products into the promotions.
If you selling products that are no-where close to anything festive, don't worry.. . you can still leverage by doing a Holiday Sale or creating a Stocking Stuffers Gift Guide for Your Tribe. Think outside the box when planning your promotions!
Here’s an example from MONQ - this is their end of summer promo.
Now it’s your turn. On a piece of paper or journal, brainstorm these Qs -
+ What will you be promoting?
+ What days will that promotions be on??!
+ Where will you market? Graphics? Ads? What do you need for marketing??!
+ Photo shoots? Do you need to do any new ones??!
Promotions don’t necessarily mean giving discounts. It can be a small gesture to make your customer feel special like a free add-on, doing giveaways, or double points (if you have that option in store). Your aim is to increase sales & have them pick YOU over Amazon & other boutiques.
Step 3 - Content & Social Media
You’ve checked your inventory, ordered new products & decided on what you are going to promo & how! Now it’s time to plan the content around the promotion!
I know planning months of content can seem like a daunting task.. buttttt I’m here to tell you that it doesn’t have to be that way! A successful #boutiqueboss knows how to work smarter NOT harder and here’s a plan to help you do so —
Step 1 — Mapping out your content — for social media themes, emails, blogs & Ad copy (if you planning to run Ads). We not writing posts yet! Just content outline! Start by deciding on a weekly theme. Keep it consistent across all platforms.
Example - If you planning a promo around Halloween, you can talk about Halloween decorations with affiliate links, Halloween Costume round up/ideas or ask your tribe their favorite Halloween memory or costume etc. and as you planning this you can add & show off your products too.
When you mapping out, start with what you want to post for that day!
Example — Mon — XYZ product + Asking your tribe about their favorite Halloween
Tues — Customer Review + Engagement Post
Wed — Your go-to place to shop make up to create the perfect Halloween look (+ affiliate link if you have one)
.
.
.
And so on.... This will give you a base outline for a week that you can DUPLICATE. Stick to it & Fill our the details weekly or monthly!
PS - Need help planning your content? Grab the Content & Promotion Guide For Busy #BoutiqueBabes
Step 2 — Plan your posts — We don’t want to just talk about our products buttt also give our customers content that will help them make their decision.
Here are some key pieces of content you can spread across your weekly posts —
✔️ Product post/ new arrivals
✔️ Behind the scene posts
✔️ Customer reviews
✔️ Videos (try out videos, gif, live etc.)
✔️ Engagement posts (Quotes, Polls, contests, conversation starters etc.)
Step 3 — Schedule — Now that you have the content, schedule them in.
You can use Tailwind for Pinterest, Buffer for Facebook & Plann for IG so you can focus on building connections, shipping out orders & enjoying the holidays with your family instead of having to worry about making that IG post!
PPS - You’ve got to be a part of the group to watch the training!
Have you started your holiday planning? Is this your first holiday season or you’ve done a few before? How has your experience been like so far? Talk to us in the comments below!