Recently I received an interesting email from a flower shop named Rose Red & Lavender in Brooklyn, NY, that included a 20 percent off coupon which uses both a link and a QR code to whisk readers to the shop’s website. I love the simplicity of this email campaign, as well as the use of new technology that provides the reader multiple ways to take advantage of the coupon.

This retailer used their email service provider, Mail Chimp, to generate the QR code used in their email. Your email service provider may have a similar tool. However, there are also multiple, free QR code generators (like Kaywa).

Lately I’ve been blogging about various ways to promote your business during the holidays. Another great option to experiment with is targeted online advertising using search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing and Facebook. The benefit to this type of advertising is that you can easily target ads so that they are more apt to reach your target audience.

Google
Add coupons to your Google Places page and make sure any Google ads you place link to your Places page as well. Google has created a new advertising platform specifically for small, local businesses called AdWords Express that’s specifically for local businesses looking for local customers.

Yahoo and Bing
With Microsoft’s purchase of Yahoo, they have now combined their online advertising platform for small businesses. Make sure you have also claimed and populated your local business pages on both Bing and Yahoo individually.

Facebook
From your business page on Facebook you can create an advertising campaign that allows you to very specifically target other Facebook users with your ads. Because of the ability to target your ads based on specific demographic criteria, Facebook ads can be very effective and net some great exposure and new foot traffic for your business.

To keep you abreast of the latest trends in our industry, our publication GIFT SHOP Magazine has recently launched a new Facebook page. The page is centered around keeping independent retailers up-to-date on the latest trends in colors, products and business practices like staffing.

With this Facebook page we can provide up-to-the minute trends between magazine printings. We know how important it is for you to quickly, easily and constantly know what's going on in our industry, so our team of trend watchers will be reporting to you instantly. We call it “Trends with Benefits.”

So take a minute to visit and like our page, and right away you’ll be able to see the trends we’ve been following.

And of course we’d love to hear from you, so feel free to post, comment and share what you’re seeing in your corner of the world. See you online!

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!

How is your blog going? Do you need some inspiration on how to spruce it up, spice it up or create new excitement?

DO – Create a conversation rather than trying to sell, sell, sell. Your blog should be a place where customers can get to know you, your store and your products. Avoid being overly promotional and instead opt for the soft sell by making your blog a relationship-builder and a place where you can present your store’s ability to solve problems for customers.

DO – Present your unique perspective. Use stories of your customers, staff and yourself as fodder for your blog. Write using your unique perspective on your industry and highlight the attributes and abilities you and your staff possess. Readers that are invested in you emotionally are more likely to be loyal customers.

DO – Spruce up posts with photos and videos. Create more interactive and appealing posts by including photos and videos when you can. Using photos and videos will not only help you rank higher in search engines, but also will increase readership and is a great way to get a conversation going.

Looking to boost sales with your customers? Here are a few tips:

Be a retailer without borders.
If your customers are not coming to you, perhaps you can go to them. Consider setting up a table at a local farmer's market, street festival or swap meet. Consider hosting a sidewalk sale or your own mini-festival outdoors.

Give customers a new reason to come in.
Come up with a compelling promotion to bring customers back, such as a free gift with purchase or a shopping party that has free food and drinks to all shoppers. Don’t forget to market your promotion widely. Once customers are in your store, increase per transaction sales numbers by including great impulse buys at point of purchase and promoting items on the wall directly behind checkout.

Generate buzz.
Slower summer days are a great opportunity to step up marketing and promotion efforts. Consider using print advertising in your local newspapers and magazines. And step up your public relations by writing some press releases. Of course, remember to keep up with your online marketing efforts (blog, social media and email newsletter) too. Perhaps you can try some new tactics and see what works.

Lately it seems I’ve been seeing more and more businesses using cause marketing to widen their reach on Facebook. It’s a great way to not only give back to a cause close to your heart, but also raise awareness of your business in your community. One recent example is Snap Retail. They are offering to donate $1 to the Red Cross for everyone that “Likes” their Facebook page. To create greater urgency and put a cap on the total donation, SnapRetail included an expiration date.

I read about another example of cause marketing on Facebook done by a company called Clarisonic. They hosted a campaign to donate $1 to Look Good…Feel Better, an organization that works with people battling cancer. During the six week campaign, the company’s average daily Facebook “Likes” jumped over 1,414 percent! Clarisonic spread the word about its campaign using email blasts, Twitter, YouTube and its own blog. Word-of-mouth played an important role as well.

If you consider doing a cause marketing campaign with your Facebook page, keep these tips in mind: use an expiration date or dollar amount to create urgency; partner with your cause organization to market the campaign to their databasel; and when marketing your campaign, encourage your Fans to suggest that all of their Facebook friends “Like” your page.

Your Facebook posts may only be seen by half of your fans that have “Liked” your page. Why? Facebook is constantly changing the way posts are presented to users. You can see evidence of this just by going to the News Feed on your personal page and looking at the top right column—you’ll see two choices: “Top News” and “Most Recent,” with “Top News” as the default. So how do you keep you posts running in the “Top News” of your fans? Here are a few tips:

Post regularly but not too much
Those that post consistently are more likely to appear in the Top News feed. The trick is to find the right balance between posting often (but not too much) and creating interesting posts so as to not bore or annoy your fans.

Know your audience
Launch your posts at days and times when your audience is most likely to be reading them. Go back and examine the days and times when your fans comment or post on your page. See if you can glean any trends and post during those ideal dates and times.

Shy away from social media dashboards
According to what I’ve been reading, Facebook has begun frowning upon content coming from dashboards like Hootsuite and Tweetdeck. I’ve used and suggested these tools in the past, but now the latest information is that content from these tools is less likely to appear in Top News—and is dumped to Most Recent.

Use photos and keep it short & sweet
Posts that include photos are more likely to appear on fans’ Top News feed, so include pictures when you can. Also, remember that shorter posts get more readership and interaction. The optimal post length is 80 characters or less.

Speaking of interaction
Do what you can to encourage fans to “Like” and comment on your posts. Post and posters that garner lots of interaction will appear in Top News more often.

Macy’s recently reported that sales for its online properties Macys.com and Bloomingdales.com grew by 50.3 percent compared to the same period last year. Much of the stellar sales jump is credited to Macy’s social media push on Facebook over the last year. Yes, we know Macy’s has much more marketing muscle and money than most of us—however, there’s much we can learn (and imitate) from Macy’s successful social media campaigns.

Lesson #1 – Run campaigns to gain new “Likes.”
Macy’s attracted 800,000 Likes this year for a total fan base of 1.8 million. The larger the number of fans you have, the greater the impact of your campaigns. So consider regularly running contests and drawings to continually grow your fan base. For example, Macy’s launched a contest to giveaway free style makeovers by a celebrity fashion expert where the winners were flown to New York for their makeover. The campaign garnered thousands of Likes per day.

Lesson #2 – Create goodwill marketing campaigns.
Macy’s created campaigns that drew traffic to their Facebook Page and website, but were what I’d call a soft sell. For example, one campaign was called “Thank a Mom.” The campaign raised over $400,000 for charity and created website traffic by offering Mother’s Day e-cards. Of course, while sending out their e-card, visitors to the website could also browse a listing of Mother’s Day gift ideas.

Lesson #3 – Link between Facebook Page and website.
Get the most from your marketing campaigns by promoting them across all of your available platforms. For example, Macy’s placed a Mother’s Day Gift Guide button on its Facebook page to drive traffic (and sales) to its website. In another successful campaign, Macy’s combined use of Foursquare, Twitter and outdoor advertising (on buses, etc.) to promote its Annual Flower Show. In kind, you can make sure the look and feel of your marketing is consistent between your website, Facebook page, e-newsletters, blog, etc.