From the Editors

Are you participating?

Powersports Business and its bloggers remind you each year that your dealership should be participating in holiday sales, Black Friday and other significant retail days and events. We’ll keep reminding you of that year after year – and provide you unique tips for capitalizing on these days – because showcasing your dealership’s goods while other retailers are promoting theirs is highly important. But one we haven’t yet touched on is Small Business Saturday.

In its second year, Small Business Saturday, sponsored by American Express, encourages consumers to devote one day to buying from their small, local businesses on the first big shopping weekend of the holiday season. This year’s event occurs this Saturday, Nov. 26.

The commercials and other promotions have been everywhere. It’s hard to turn on the TV for a short period of time without hearing about the event, and the Small Business Saturday Facebook page has nearly 2.4 million fans.

So what can Small Business Saturday do for you? As most dealerships are small businesses, you should be encouraging those participating in Small Business Saturday to stop by your store. American Express offers free tools to help with promotion on SmallBusinessSaturday.com and on the Small Business Saturday Facebook page, and it’s not too late to get into the game.

In-store signage and e-marketing materials, along with tips for rallying customers, are provided on the above Small Business Saturday sites. The sites recommend each merchant create a special offer, ranging from featuring holiday or seasonal merchandise, to discounts or gifts with purchase, to free gift-wrapping services, to guest appearances. American Express merchants can also share their special offers on Go Social.

If you haven’t gotten involved yet, today’s the day to start. Check out the Small Business Saturday websites, develop a concrete plan and start promoting the heck out of Small Business Saturday through your e-newsletter and Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn sites. Of course, if traffic is a little slow at the dealership, you can also have your employees call your loyal customers and invite them personally to your event.

Days like Small Business Saturday and Black Friday can really boost holiday traffic in your dealership and with the right experience, can encourage return visits. Are you participating in these events? If not, you should be!

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