Image credit via Flickr by David Blackwell
There are things that stick with us the whole year — we remember whatever holiday celebrations we conduct, we remember the end and beginning of school for as long as we have school-aged children or have to drive through school zones, and we remember seasons. These things come once a year but they make an impression on us.
Lots of other things come once a year and during the in-between times, we don’t give them much thought. If you’re hosting a holiday-focused shop local campaign, your shop local efforts could fall into the latter category. If shop local is important to you, you should consider making it a year round effort. Here’s the why and how behind doing it.
Make Your Shop Local Campaign Year Round
If you try to get shoppers to buy local for 4 weeks out of the year, they may tie those efforts in their minds to the holidays and not think about it during other key times during the year. Plus you are making things harder on yourself. You know how educators say the first few weeks back to school is largely review because of the knowledge students forget over the summer? The same can be said for your shop local efforts. You will have to reeducate buyers every year on its importance if you stop and start the campaign each year.
Why start your marketing from a standstill every year when you could keep the momentum going year round?
Contests
Contests keep people interested and vested in what’s going on around town. They reward them for performing your desired behavior — buying local — and they’re great word-of-mouth opportunities.
Blog
Blog about the importance of buying local year round not just during the holidays. Spotlight local businesses and shop keepers. The more people feel like they know these merchants, the more they’re apt to buy from them. You can also use your blog for gift giving suggestions from your local merchants, of course.
Gift Certificates
Local gift certificates make buying local and gift giving easy. Many smaller businesses don’t have the means to set up their own gift card program but chamber bucks can help them reap the rewards of one without the administrative hassle.
Use Social
You can use social media to highlight the treasures found locally. Images work really well and are very enticing.
Small Business Saturday is a great opportunity to get people to buy local but there are way too many gems to be found to relegate it to just one day.
How do you keep the shop local idea burning bright throughout the year?
