holidays are over. So, now what?

Four things you can do to grow your small business in the slow season

The

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santa delivered a wonderful christmas gift to retailers this year:From December 1-24, consumer retail spending • rose 4.7% over the same time period in 2010, according to ShopperTrak research. December 26 sales were • $7.1 billion, a 25.5% increase over the day after Christmas 2010.

Any way you look at it Christmas 2011 was great for consumers and businesses. But as the holiday blush fades, consumers will feel the pinch, and so will you.

Here are four things your small business can do during the slower season to keep in touch with your best customers and find new ones – most with modest to no expense, other than time and effort.

happy new year?

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you asked them to like and follow you all over the socialmediaverse... Well, it’s time to reward your Facebook fans and Twitter followers. offer deals only available to fans and followers. Share GOOD deals, worth sharing, in limited quantities (not the dregs of your clearance shelf). You’ll find that your most loyal and best customers are more likely to spend in slow times, and will appreciate the exclusivity and access to deals.

or create a rewards/loyalty program. Examine transaction frequency per customer or average dollars spent per transaction to craft a rewards program that increases your average sales ticket or purchase frequency.

reward customer loyalty & build relationships

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if there was ever a time try flash marketing, it’s now. Cash-strapped consumers will be looking for deals. The Big Two are Groupon and Living Social (rumored to be launching very soon in Asheville). Let me also introduce the new bird on the block: DealChicken. (Warning: gratuitous promo ahead.) DealChicken roosts locally, backed by the enormous print and digital reach of the Asheville Citizen-Times and CITIZEN-TIMES.com.

pros of flash marketing: • It doesn’t cost you a dime, and you get great exposure to new customers. cons of flash marketing: • Not only do you discount your product or service 50 percent or more, the company will keep a share of the coupon sales...as much as half.

tip: You can negotiate how much the company keeps. In some instances you can keep 100%, if you agree to offer several coupons with the company.

try a little Flash marketing

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cause marketing, simply defined, is partnering with a cause (or non-profit) for mutual benefit. For example, last November, Divine Living, agreed to donate $1 to Habitat for Humanity for every new like on their Facebook page. Diving Living built fans, and Habitat got a nice donation.

choose a non-profit that ‘fits’ your business. • Sell children’s clothes? Partner with a children’s hospital.work together to ensure success• . Ask for access to their donor database to send emails, or their volunteers to help with a phone drive. Share your lists to grow their donor base. there is an art to achieving critical mass in buzz.• Use the whole arsenal of PR tools from press releases, phone calls to Facebook posts and tweets. tip: Is the charity supported by a well-known personality or influencer? Enlist their help to spread the word. One well-timed Tweet by an opinion leader can start a revolution, right?establish metrics, • such as $1 per Facebook fan or $5 donation per item sold. Manage expectations by setting the maximum (and minimum) donation you’ll willing make to the charity.

help others

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coupons are hotter than ever. How do Asheville consumers get their coupons? Newspapers primarily: 49.7% say they get them from newspapers, as compared internet (21.3%) or email (14.4%).

Unless you have a very large email list or massive website traffic, internet and email coupons aren’t always as successful as they can be. However, using including “forward to a friend” option in emails and leveraging social media tools like Twitter, Facebook, and even LinkedIn will increase viral reach. tip: To build an email list quickly, host a contest through your Facebook page. For as little as $5 per contest, application vendors like Woobox or WildFire offer turnkey contest solutions that collect email and other data.

Printed coupons (FSI or direct mail) can be cost-prohibitive for small businesses, at $10 to $40 per 1,000 coupons. There is one rather inexpensive option. (Warning, another gratuitous promotion ahead). With Carolina Coupons, it’s possible to distribute 387,500 coupons to the Asheville market (over a 4 week period) for $1.10 per 1,000. More info can be found here.

get extreme with coupons

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Most of these tactics involve discounting. Be strategic in your discounting. Choose “loss leaders” that bring bodies to your business and encourage

complimentary purchases. Use this discounting to refresh your inventory, test new offerings and

understand better what your best customers want.

caveats & Final words

The Asheville Citizen-Times Media Group can assist your small business in executing any of these tactics. If you’d like additional information about any of the products or services mentioned here, don’t hesitate to contact me:

tricia speziale edwardsMarketing Manager

Asheville Citizen-Times828-236-8991 | pspezial@gannett.com | @ashevilleb2b

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