According to a new study that was just issued by American Express, independent American Express merchants who participated in Small Business Saturday saw an average boost in sales of 28% on Small Business Saturday.

Here are three ways that you can participate in Small Business Saturday (taking place on November 26th this year):

Contact your customers via email, telephone, social media and mail to invite them to store—utilize all of your marketing channels to promote this important initiative.

Plan fun and creative events for the day—Make the day special through a calendar of events for the day such as, holiday food sampling, festive music, free glasses of wine, tree trimming classes, or a local artist to the store to hand sign their work.

Hang signage throughout your store and use your windows to announce your participation in Small Business Saturday—remember that your windows serve as free “billboard advertising,” along with clever in-store messaging about the importance of why your customers should shop locally.

Are you looking for some additional tips on how to market Small Business Saturday to your customers? Please join us tonight for a free webinar titled, “A Retailers Guide to Small Business Saturday: How to Leverage the Power of this Initiative to Drive More Traffic and Profits for Your Store."

Register now for this free webinar.

Below are a few ways you can promote Small Business Saturday and drive customers to your store on November 26th.

Get a jump start on marketing Small Business Saturday through your online marketing campaign far in advance of the event. Start talking about the special events and promotions that you will offer on SBS on your website, blog (if you have one), social media pages, store newsletter and email marketing as soon as possible.

Create a special promotion to market on Small Business Saturday. Consumers will be hungry for good deals, particularly this season. Offer some sort of discount off the purchase of one item, an entire purchase or on a specific popular product line. The more deals you market, the more likely people will be to come in and check it out.

Drive even more traffic to your store through your social media push. Market SBS and your store promotions and events through Facebook, Twitter or even a YouTube video.

Issue a press release to the local media that you are a local merchant participating in Small Business Saturday. News reporters will be searching for local retailers to include in news articles around Small Business Saturday.

Send a printed or handwritten invititation to your VIP customers with a special offer redeemable on SBS. Your top customers often represent 30% or more of your holiday sales. Extend a special invitation and a special offer incentivizing them to visit the store on SBS.

Plan fun events throughout the day on SBS, then create a promotional postcard and/or email that you send to all of your customers in your database outlining the schedule of events (trunk show, local artisan signing books, wine and cheese, etc.).

Post store signage. Utilize your store windows as a billboard to market this important event.

Run a print ad in your local newspaper with a special coupon offer. Broaden your marketing reach by running a print ad on Black Friday when consumers are turning to the newspaper to plan a shopping strategy for the weekend.

Also, remember to visit the SBS Facebook page at www.facebook.com/ShopSmall for more ideas!

Recently I was named as an advisor and spokesperson for American Express OPEN’s Small Business Saturday (SBS). I’m hoping you’ve heard of SBS, a program introduced by American Express last year to promote local retailers and encourage shoppers to spend their holiday dollars in their local communities at small businesses on Saturday, November 26th, the day after Black Friday.

As we all know, local retailers are the backbone of the communities in which they do business and American Express just released a survey that further proves it. The American Express OPEN Independent Retail Index reported that 46 percent of retail sales come from small business retailers. On average 1800 jobs are created in a local community thanks to small business retail. And communities with thriving small business retail have home values that outperform citywide markets by 50 percent.

What can you do? For starters, learn more and begin promoting Small Business Saturday in your community.

Start by liking the Facebook page at www.facebook.com/ShopSmall (or using the Like button to the right). American Express has also just launched a toolkit of promotional materials, also available on the Facebook page, that you have access to, to promote Small Business Saturday in your community.

You should also register your store on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ShopSmall. American Express has partnered with Facebook to create a national database of retailers who are participating in SBS. When you register your store not only will you be encouraging all of the people in your community to stop by, but you'll also be marketing your store on a national level. Last year, the SBS Facebook had more than 1.5 million likes so when you post and comment on the page you'll be putting your store in front of 1.5 million Americans immediately. And that’s just for starters…

Stay tuned because I will be writing more on how we can make this holiday, and specifically Saturday, November 26th, your biggest sales day ever!