2 Quick and Easy Local and Mobile Holiday Marketing Ideas

If you want to attract more shoppers to your store this holiday season, then I’ve got 2 holiday marketing ideas for you.

That’s right, my friends at Pitney Bowes asked me to create two videos to help small businesses implement local marketing strategies this holiday season and I’m going to share them with you below.

Both ideas focus on mobile marketing which is handy because the use of mobile devices while shopping continues to be a strongly growing trend.

And, if you’re worried that it’s too late to implement new marketing strategies for this holiday season, the good news is that both of these holiday marketing ideas can be put into action quickly and easily, making them viable tactics for this year’s holiday season.

So grab the eggnog and watch the two videos below. Both reveal step-by-step actions for you to take to increase both your traffic and sales this holiday season.

Build and Market a Stand-Alone Mobile Website

This year, there’s a great holiday marketing tool to add to your arsenal and it’s called a mobile website.

Why build a mobile website? Here are some great reasons:

• Two out of three Americans have the ability to browse the Internet while away from their home which means that they can make buying decisions and look for places to shop while on the go;
• 39% of mobile users use their device to send messages to a business to get more information and you do not want to miss the opportunity to receive those messages; and
• A whopping 84% of surveyed small businesses with a stand-alone mobile website have seen an increase in new business as a result.

The step-by-step video below will help you get your mobile site up-and-running for this holiday season.

Note: for best results, view the video full-screen by clicking the two outward-facing arrows below the video and to the right after clicking the play button.

Tool used: pbSmart™ Mobile

The 12 Days of Christmas – A QR Code Marketing Plan

What can you do to get customers to pay attention to you this holiday season and visit your store to buy presents? Here’s a useful idea that uses QR codes.

Using an app on a smart phone, a QR code is scanned by the camera and can take you to a mobile site with a coupon for your store. Using QR codes, I’m going to show you how to run a very specific type of marketing campaign called, “The 12 Days of Christmas – A QR Code Marketing Plan”.

Note: for best results, view the video full-screen by clicking the two outward-facing arrows below the video and to the right after clicking the play button.

Tool used: pbSmart™ Codes

Weekly Link Roundup

Each week, I collect the 10 best posts that I’ve read and share them with you here.

These posts focus on web-based solutions, online resources and up-to-date news for small businesses.

Enjoy!

7 Effortless Ways to Find New Ideas for Your Blog: Some new and exciting ideas for brainstorming blog topics!

2013: The Year of Social Merchandising: A look at the future evolution of social media for business use.

How to make a testimonial video that will catch fire on social: A nicely detailed post on crafting effective video testimonials.

5 Things Your Website Should Do: A handy review of the core goals of a business website.

Facebook proposes, Google+ disposes: This objective look at how Google+’s functionality is roaring past Facebook’s might just make you take a harder look at spending more effort on Google+.

How 8 Brands Became Masters Of Social Media Content Publishing: Learn how the big guys do content marketing.

24 Must-Have Social Media Marketing Tools: Another great list of tools to check out.

38 Small Business Software Tools: Excellent slideshow with a bunch of very useful tools for small business owners to check out.

10 Things That Can Destroy an Email Marketing Program: Handy tips on what to avoid when sending e-mails as part of your marketing strategy.

Build A Sitemap In Minutes: The How And Why: An easy-to-follow guide to increasing your search-engine visibility by getting your website’s sitemap up and running.