On a balmy November afternoon few years back, before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, if you happened to be strolling around the square of the charming, 30,000-person town of Crown Point, Indiana, you may have come across a block party celebrating Small Business Saturday. Within that party, the folks over at Moriarty’s Gem Art, a longstanding family jewelry shop, were offering attractive discounts, along with many neighboring businesses.
“It was one of those things we couldn’t do a lot of planning for because we only found out about a week prior that it was going to be a warm November day,” says Jeff Moriarty, the shop's marketing director. “But it ended up being really successful. Businesses had tents up and everyone was out and wanted to party. Our Main Street was lit up.”
It was back in 1990 when Jeff's father, owner Steve Moriarty, opened the brick-and-mortar spot in Crown Point. Jeff joined the business in the late '90s to help with sales and marketing, and the company established a virtual presence in the early 2000s. Today, Michael, Jeff’s brother, is also in the business, managing the tech side of things.
Jeff Moriarty first heard about Small Business Saturday from being an American Express Card Member. After receiving email notifications that he could save at local businesses by using his card, he happily did so, and then something dawned on him.
“After a few years, I figured it out that our company could benefit from celebrating Small Business Saturday, too,” he says. “That was about 10 years ago, and we’ve been promoting it every year since.”
In addition to the block party (a one-time occurrence, pre-COVID), Moriarty’s Gem Art also partnered with a brewery to host an in-shop sip-and-shop experience, which was well attended. Every year, Moriarty and the team puts up flyers, sends out postcards, and does a drip email campaign as part of the store's promotions.
“Small Business Saturday really starts the season for us,” Moriarty says. “It is a great kick-off.”
More than 1,700 miles southwest in Las Vegas, Matiah Fischer is celebrating his fifth Small Business Saturday, divided between two businesses. Five years ago, he was associate publisher of luxury real estate magazine, LA Dreams, and in his role, he helped coach advertisers on offering Small Business Saturday deals for subscribers.
“It was always a big attraction to our readers because people want to help small businesses,” he says. “It went really well. We’d recommend restaurants who advertised with us offer discounts on Small Businesses Saturday, or another special deal, and we always got a great response from our clients.”
Today, Fischer leads RetireBetterNow.com, an online lead generator for real estate agents. Even though the nature of the business is different than the magazine, he says Small Business Saturday is still a huge success among clients and real estate agents. The focus of the outreach with the new business is more about education—to let buyers know that the business is small and that they can book house showings.
Most of Fischer’s outreach comes in the form of email and he says the results have been excellent: “After sending out our Small Business Saturday email last year, we had a big uptick in showings, some of which lead to sales. We are sending out the same type of email this year and hope for the similar results.”
So what are some of the top pieces of advice from these Small Business Saturday pros?
1. Promote your business honestly.
Fischer says it has been a hurdle to get over letting people know that his business is, in fact, small. But once he tells people the truth, they are more likely to show interest.
“I’ve realized there is nothing wrong with being a small business; there is nothing to be embarrassed by,” he says. “Telling people that my company was small was a block for me, but I like to meditate and that helped me get over it and share. And I realized people want to help.”
2. Plan ahead and collect addresses.
Jeff Moriarty starts reaching out two weeks before Small Business Saturday. He will send an email two weeks out; then one week out he'll send an email, text, and a postcard; then another email and text the morning of the holiday.
“Make sure you are collecting emails and home addresses,” he recommends. “Sending notifications in different ways is important. We all get flooded with hundreds of emails per day, so sometimes direct mail postcards are great. And ask for phone numbers. I find it harder for people to give you their numbers, but the ones that do will likely respond well to SMS notifications, which can be really effective.”
3. Host an event and promote it on social media.
Even if you can't throw a big block party, hosting an event is a great way to promote Small Business Saturday. The event could be a time-limited online discount window, or you could feature drinks and live music at your physical shop. Get creative! According to Moriatry, the Saturday after Thanksgiving is a time when a lot of people aren’t working and are in the spirit to spend money.
If you’re planning an event, create an event page on Facebook and promote it through social media. “You can set your Facebook to only advertise to people on your area and once the event is ready, people will get notifications about it when they log into Facebook,” says Moriatry.
