Preparing Your Business for The Holidays
I'm not going to tell you how to come up with new products or services--you're smart, and only you know what is best for your business. This is intended to help you prepare those launches, products, and services, to make sure you're #1 thinking about it early, #2 making the most of it. I'm here to ask you tough questions and make sure you're PLANNING and not just wishing. So let's do this!
1. Set Holiday Goals
Come up with a goal. This could be a dollar amount you want to make, a number of sales, getting featured, whatever feels right. When you're setting goals, I highly recommend that they are something that you can fully get behind--I think stretch goals are fun and can be motivating, but most importantly, they have to MAKE YOU FEEL GOOD, not stress you out.
You will be way more likely to hit your goal when you genuinely believe in your ability to achieve it. That being said, don't think too small. If your goal is to break even, all you will do is break even. Ensure your goal is actually what you want and will be beneficial for you and your business.
As you start thinking about this goal, some questions you can ask yourself or journal on them:
Do I really want it?
How does it make me feel?
Does it motivate me?
Do I believe I can reach this goal?
If, for example, on the last one you don't think you can reach it, you can follow up that question with another question like, What would it take for me to believe I can achieve this goal?
Make sure your goals are SMART! Smart stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Timely.
Let's focus on the measurable and timely part. If you want to make $5000, that's great, but BY WHEN. Get specific. How can you track this? What needs to happen to help you reach this?
I have a free goal setting download that you can use here!
2. Start Planning
It is currently August. If you have not started thinking about your small business's holiday plans, now is the time, especially if you're doing products.
Here are some things to think about:
Are you going to add new products?
If so, what?
How much time do you need?
What worked well last year?
What didn’t work last year?
You're going to be way more successful by planning this out and doing a little when you can over the coming months than if you were to rush and put something things together before thanksgiving.
If you're reading this later in the year, don't worry, there is still plenty you can do, keep reading! Most holiday shopping is happening in Q4, but people definitely shop for holiday and seasonal items year-round.
I recommend leaving your seasonal stuff up all year round!
You never know when someone is going to have the urge to buy a Christmas ornament. Erin from ECletters shared earlier this year that she keeps her Etsy shop listings up all year for seasonal items, and I have since seen and read that MANY people recommend the same! I found an Etsy forum thread with tons of people talking about how they get seasonal purchases every month.
START EARLY, KEEP THEM UP ALL YEAR.
3. Plan Holiday Deadlines
As you start planing your products, also plan your deadlines and sales.
Things to consider for deadlines:
How long does it take for you to get products and get them to them before Christmas or specific holiday deadlines?
How long will the shipping take?
Are you offering rush options?
This is probably the most important; WHAT IS THE LAST DAY YOU WANT TO BE WORKING? Even if you have everything stocked and ready to do, do you want to be shipping out products three days before Christmas? If so, great! Make that money. If not, Factor that in so you can take some much deserved time off.
4. Plan Your Holiday Sales
If you're on Etsy, they often do sales events, and people also have the option to shop for things only on sale. Over on the left side of a search, there is an option for sale items. I don't think you need to discount your items regularly, but if you're going to participate in Black Friday sales, plan for it.
What do you want your sale to consist of?
Is it a percent off?
What percent can you AFFORD to discount?
Have you even really done the math to make sure that after all the Etsy fees and shipping that you're ACTUALLY PROFITING?
In case you need some ideas...
A FREE ADD-ON
We do this occasionally for return addressing. It really doesn't cost me much, so we will offer "free return addressing with the purchase of a deposit" during a given time period. This is a fun upgrade that might be the incentive someone needs to pull the trigger! Since this isn't something you can make a discount for on Etsy, having those conversations is where you'll want to drop this gem. You can apply it to all orders during a given time, or require that the add a note in the "notes to seller" section for something like this.
BOGO
People love buy-one-get-one deals! There are a lot of ways you can utilize this on Etsy!
FREE UPGRADED SHIPPING
This is an affordable option for us as sellers. If you normally send something as First Class, you could offer a free upgrade to priority shipping, which should only be a few bucks more (of course, depending on the item).
DIFFERENT DEALS EACH DAY
I love/hate this idea :) It's fun to offer different things each day, but you don't want them to miss the deal! I like to run my sales even a day or so longer than the holiday--that way, they can still get the deal if they need a day to think about it. In fact, for big-ticket items (in my case, a deposit for a custom order), I tend to sell later in the sale! I like to allow people time to think about it, and if it's custom, they might need to make some decisions and weigh some options rather than if it is a set design. Of course, different deals each day is a fun way to offer more custom sales AND it creates a sense of urgency. Things to consider!
FIXED-PRICE
An example of a fixed price would be $5 off an order of $30+. What's fun about this is it can encourage them to spend more! You can even do tiers, such as:
$5 off an order of $30+
$10 off an order of $100+
$15 off an order of $150+
You'll see that this is actually just about 10% off, but it's just another option! if you want to do tiers, use codes rather than discounting the item directly
If you want to discount items at a fixed price, you can do that too!
INSTAGRAM SALES
You can run special promotions for your followers, friends, and family, etc. The great part about coupon codes is you can have a ton of them! This allows you to promote your items in different ways on different platforms.
I'm sure you can come up with other creative ideas as well!
What else can you do to get ready for these sales? Update your copy-and-paste responses for questions you might get!
The Etsy Toolkit includes 18 of my copy and paste messages ready for you to steal for just $19!
COPY-AND-PASTE MESSAGE TEMPLATES
for one click responses and better outcomes
Outsource your messages to me! (well kinda 😜) I used my 10 years on Etsy and got feedback from clients to put together answers to some of the top questions and problems, so you don't have to think of it yourself! These will help you respond more quickly so you can spend less time stressing about the next step and what to say and more time in your zone of genius, aka making beautiful products and fulfilling orders!
These templates are how I answer questions in as little as
SEVEN SECONDS (yes I timed it)
5. Schedule Your Sales
On Etsy and Squarespace, I assume other platforms as well you can schedule a sale for a specified period. That way, you don't have to go in and start and stop the sale and worry about it in the moment. If you've listened to this podcast before or follow me on Instagram, you know that Holiday Weekends are my biggest traffic weekends. It is not just Black Friday and those kinds of sale holidays, but Labor Day, Memorial Day, Thanksgiving, NYE, and all the holidays. I like to run sales on holiday weekends for that reason. I want to point out I do wedding invitations, nothing related to holidays. People just have more downtime to shop!
Make sure you add your restrictions or clarifications to your sale! Don't skip that part when setting up the sale.
6. Marketing Your Products
Now that you have goals, dates, and sales planned out, next is the launching and marketing of the whole thing. You totally don't have to do a launch if you don't want to; maybe you just want to share some things on Instagram. Great! Things to consider...
When do you want to shart sharing based on the timelines and sales you outlined above?
How many times are you going to share?
Where? On what platforms?
Do you need to order new products? How long will it take for them to arrive + to get pictures taken?
Get all this mapped out and on the calendar now.
I'm not going to dive real deep into launch strategy, but I will say this: Do whatever feels right. YES, some people do month-long launches and plan way in advance, and they make a ton of money. Some people have an idea and share it with little planning, and they also make a ton of money. Don't believe the lies about launching and just do whatever you want to do. I have done both; I've planned way ahead, and I have also been like, "hey does anyone want to buy this?" Both have made for a successful month and sales.
In what way do you want to launch or promote your holiday products?
What feels easy and fun?
How can you make this launch or this holiday season FUN?!
Don't worry, I'm going to give you tips for actual marketing, but I want to start with this: People cannot buy from you if they don't know you have something to sell.
Your job is to tell people about what you're selling. Many people don't like "selling" on Instagram or social media, but if you don't sell, you don't make money. It's not a greedy bad thing; it's part of running a business. People want what you're selling; I promise they do. So tell them.
You can "tell them" a lot of ways without straight up saying, "here buy this."
Here are some ideas to sell things without feeling salesy:
Show behind the scenes of the process
Show different colors and styles
Show how it's used
Show them where to buy it or how to buy it.
Share your favorite and why.
Show a college or pictures.
Try different platforms; you can share it on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, TikTok, email, or in person.
There are a million ways to sell things. Pick what feels good to you.
7. Use Pinterest to Make Holiday Sales
SO all that in mind, if Pinterest is one of the places you want to share, obviously i have tips for you!!
How did you come across this blog post? Most likely, Pinterest or Instagram. Even if this post randomly does well on google it something, it's essential to note that 50% of my Etsy orders and over 50% of my blog views on this website come from Pinterest. Pinterest is a powerhouse for driving traffics, and it's often overlooked.
According to Pinterest, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Holiday searches start in JUNE. If you listen to the podcast linked at the top of this page, I'm sharing some crazy stats, too! Like the fact that there are 3 BILLION (3,000,000,000), holiday pins saved each year. Is yours going to be one of them?
I always have people tell me, "I wish I had used Pinterest sooner," or "I knew it would be good for my business, but I had no idea HOW GOOD it would be." Pinterest Tips You Can Implement NOW:
#1: Pin ahead of time
Don't start pinning your holiday pins in December. Give them time to circulate. As I just read, people are already searching. As soon as you have your items ready, start pinning. Sometimes pins can go viral from the first day, other times it can take a month or more. Give yourself that time to let the pins work for you.
#2: Pin every day!
I use Tailwind to help schedule out my pins months in advance. If you want to try it out for free, click here. But even if you're not using tailwind, you need to pin a lot. One way to do that is to...
#3: Make multiple pins
Make more than one pin for your product or blog post. Make a few variations to appeal to different people. Try out different titles, keywords, and photos to reach more people. Pinterest likes what they call "fresh pins."
#4: Have a board for your holiday items
Make a board so people can easily find all your holiday products in one place!
#5 Tailwind (Automation + Creation making 1-4 a BREEZE)
I freaking LOVE Tailwind, which allows me to create listings MONTHS in advance. I can truly set up my Tailwind to schedule pins for a year, which means it’s working and I don’t have to. Tailwind is free to use (which of course we love!), but there’s a paid version that I used and reccomend. I never link to products and serviced I don’t genuinely love, so know that while this is an affiliate link and I may get a small commission at no cost to you, I hope you use Tailwind even without my link! It’s that good and makes Pinterest and marketing a f*ckin breeze.
Tailwind Create will let you make pins at the click of a button, and the AI Ghostwriter lets you drop in pin descriptions in a fraction of the time.
Tailwind Communities lets you share your products with others and encourages engagement so your listings take off quicker and reach a border but still niche audience!
If you want to try Tailwind, i’d love if you used my affiliate link here ⬇️
PRO TIP: Pin more around the holidays.
As I said before, holiday weekends are huge traffic weekend! Schedule a few more pins for those weekends!
I hope you found these tips helpful as you start to prepare for this holiday season! This year will be HUGE for online shopping, so if you haven't already, it's time to start prepping
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