Edited by Emilie Martin

Need some encouragement for the local businesses you’re marketing? I hear you! Retail analysts may be predicting a ho-hum holiday shopping season in 2023 in the US, due to economic instability, but take heart in the fact that these same experts state that customers are definitely still looking to shop in a “pared-back way.” While local brands may have to work harder to earn sales this quarter, they can also have distinct advantages over remote counterparts in leaner times like these.

Today, we’ll look at 5 local business advantages that really shine out in the holiday shopping season, and we’ll follow this with 5 types of local business content you can use to market your offerings.

Focus on these benefits:

1. No shipping fees

Shipping can be incredibly expensive these days and is a leading cause of online shopping cart abandonment. Remind customers that by shopping locally, they aren’t being charged extra to give a gift or create a nice meal.

2. Instant access

The only thing faster than 1-day shipping is being able to buy something immediately. With a slow job market, some customers may feel uncertain about their income and put off holiday shopping until the last minute. Rather than risk remote purchases not arriving on time, remind customers that choosing a local business ensures instant gratification.

3. Less risky delivery

Problems with the USPS are rife, and no matter which service is responsible for shipping fulfillment, package theft has become a huge problem in many communities. Meanwhile, vulnerable members of your community may need to avoid holiday crowds and the risk of contagion. If you can offer local same-day delivery, your drivers can communicate directly with your customers during delivery so that no purchase is stolen, and customers with health concerns will often gladly pay a reasonable delivery fee in exchange for being able to shop from home.

4. Local insight

If you operate a local business, you know exactly what kind of year your community has had, and you can tailor your offerings to match the reality of your customers in a way that remote brands rarely match. This may not be the year everyone is rushing out to buy the latest $1,200 phone for all their loved ones, but it could be the year when your neighbors are looking for many more modest offerings that say they care.

5. Shared local benefits

It’s always a positive message to share that shopping locally recirculates local wealth instead of letting it leak out of the community into distant wallets. If your local insight tells you that people in your town or city understand the need for better employment with better wages, funding for local emergency services and climate change resiliency, more donations to food banks and shelters, more budget for creating areas for outdoor recreation like parks and trails, or other matters of primary concern to your neighbors, the buy local movement makes a lot of sense.

Hopefully, some or all of these advantages apply to your business and the community it serves, and you may think of many more appealing features of shopping locally, but in order to get this message out to holiday shoppers, you’ve got to be able to communicate it. Let’s look at some good options for doing just that.

Promote this content:

1. Absolutely correct contact information

It’s a preventable loss when a customer misses the chance to shop with you because they encountered incorrect basic business details on or off the web. Make sure that the name of your business, its single or multiple addresses, its phone number, and its holiday hours are updated and accurate:

• On your local business listings across the local search ecosystem

• On all pages of your local business website, including any mention of basic business details in title tags, meta descriptions, footers, contact pages, location landing pages, thank you pages, shopping cart pages, and key content assets.

• On your most popular social profiles. It’s so easy when something about your business changes, like hours of operation, to forget to update that info on your Instagram profile, or Nextdoor account. Now is the time to run through your list of social platforms and be sure your messaging is accurate. Be sure to post holiday hours wherever social posting allows.

• On your storefront and in-store. Update signage to reflect holiday hours, website addresses, and other basic data so that passers-by and visitors are properly informed.

• In your training materials. Particularly if you are bringing on temporary, seasonal help, don’t forget to take a few minutes to train new staff to be able to answer questions about your holiday hours.

2. Your complete fulfillment menu

Again, on your listings, website, social profiles, store signage, and training materials, abundantly communicate all of the following that you have to offer customers:

• In-store shopping

• Online shopping

• Buy online, pick up in-store

• Buy online, pick up curbside

• Buy online, pick up at a fulfillment center

• Local delivery

• Shipping

If you do offer remote shipping, be sure to communicate when customers should purchase to better ensure holiday delivery.

3. Deals

One recent survey found that 71% of retailers fear inflation will result in customers cutting back holiday spending and that 67% of retailers are expecting shoppers to be in search of discounts. Those are big numbers. Analysts across the board are also noting a shift in consumer behavior in that people are shopping earlier for the holidays, with some surveys finding that as much as 44% of people now start shopping before Halloween.

If you can come up with an appealing deal for local customers this quarter, be sure you are publicizing it on your listings, site, social profiles, and offline to coincide with these events:

• Black Friday

• Small Business Saturday

• Cyber Monday, or, if it fits your model better, Cider Monday

4. Experiences as well as things

Cornell University’s Thomas Gilovich was an early researcher into whether possessions or experiences create more lasting human happiness. He found that people bond over shared experiences, and concluded:

“You can really like your material stuff. You can even think that part of your identity is connected to those things, but nonetheless, they remain separate from you. In contrast, your experiences really are part of you. We are the sum total of our experiences.”

Of course, most local businesses will be selling goods this holiday shopping season, but if you can also promote a memorable experience of some kind this year, it could help you build strong relationships within your community that will make your business a cherished part of local life. It can also dovetail with the growing desire for more sustainable gift-giving options.

Maybe your shop can host a caroling program or walk, a tree lighting or community stroll to see decorated homes, a toy or food drive, an inclusive event that celebrates the holidays of multiple cultures and faiths, a raffle or fundraiser, a Santa Claus booth, a Salvation Army bell ringer, an outdoor holiday movie night, a walk for a cause, a community clean-up of a natural feature or any of a host of other intangible but memorable choices.

When it comes to selling goods, maybe your window display is so full of hope and inspiration that it becomes a hallmark of the season, or maybe your signage this year shows how you are greening your business by offering gifts with the least packaging, or that are locally-produced, or that include a 10% donation to an important local charity such as a shelter for neighbors who have become homeless. Or perhaps, if your inventory is entirely made up of physical goods, you can partner with a fellow business owner to cross-sell their experience-based services, like the gift of a meal, health and beauty appointment, or an annual pass to access state parks.

All such events and offers can be publicized on your site, listings, and social profiles, and if your idea is big enough, you should seek press about it from your local newspaper and local bloggers, as well, to really get the word out.

5. E-E-A-T for the holidays

If Q4 seems to have snuck up on you and you never found the time this past year to develop an online presence that role models Google’s concept of experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (E-E-A-T), please read the Google E-E-A-T guide in the Moz Learning Center to help you build something great over the course of 2024. In the meantime, here are 4 quick kinds of content you can promote right now to add a little local E-E-A-T for the holidays.

• Experience — Take the five best local reviews your business has received that prove genuine customers have had a great first-hand experience with your brand and promote those reviews on your website homepage, on your Google Updates (formerly known as Google posts, and on your social profiles.

• Expertise — Film a short video in which the member of your staff with the most experience in your field explains what they do and why local people trust your brand during the holidays, on the basis of its history of serving the community and the expertise of its employees. Upload this video to your social profiles, site, and the Google Business Profile image/video section.

• Authoritativeness — Write a blog post on community holiday happenings or deals that relate in some way to what your business does and ask your fellow business owners to share the link to it. For example, a local restaurant might blog about places to find great treats around town. A local yoga teacher might blog about a community walk for wellness.

• Trustworthiness — Be sure the shipping, refunds, and returns policy on your site is absolutely accurate and easy to find. Google’s Quality Rater Guidelines instruct their evaluators to seek signals like these that a business can be trusted to treat its customers fairly. For the holiday season, consider highlighting your policy link on your homepage. It matters a lot to customers at this time of year.

In a perfect world, local business owners would have all the time they need to prepare for the holiday shopping season throughout the whole year, given the impacts it can have on small business's bottom line. But, considering the extraordinary times companies like yours are operating in, please be generous with yourself in acknowledging all you’ve accomplished in serving your neighbors with grace and goodwill throughout 2023. You and your local business matter!

And, if I may suggest a New Year’s resolution to keep next year, please access as much free education as you can to help your business become as successful and useful in your community as possible. To that end, gift yourself the time to study The Local Business Content Marketing Guide early in 2024 so that you can plant and grow an outstanding process for developing and publicizing core local business content. You won’t find another guide like it anywhere on the web, written especially for local businesses, and it’s totally free. In the meantime, please allow me to celebrate all your wins with you as we close out 2023. I’m wishing your business and town health, peace, and shared prosperity!