As we step into the busiest time of the year for many small businesses here’s a look at a few easy to access marketing opportunities that you could get in place for your business in time for the yuletide season.

Black Friday

Black Friday is a day of discounts, surges at the checkout and online sales, is now part of the British retail calendar. This American import has grown dramatically over the past few years and this year that falls 25th of November.

Some retailers will start their week as of Monday November 21 and on the day many will open as early as 6am although the best deal can be found online when they go live at midnight.  Interestingly, 2015 saw a complete change with customers staying away from the high street and doing all their shopping online.

That just set the UK on course for the biggest online shopping day in its history, with some of the nation’s biggest retailers struggling to cope with the volume of online retail orders. The websites of John Lewis, Argos, Boots, Tesco and Game all crashed or suffered from slow loading pages.  Read: Small Business: How to offer a Black Friday deal

Small Business Saturday

Small Business Saturday UK is a grassroots, non-commercial campaign, which highlights small business success and encourages consumers to ‘shop local’ and support small businesses in their communities.  The day itself takes place on the first Saturday in December each year, but the campaign aims to have a lasting impact on small businesses.  This year Small Business Saturday will take place on Saturday, December 3rd.

Small businesses of all kinds are invited to get involved, so know that whether you are a family business, local shop, online business, wholesaler, business service or small manufacturer, Small Business Saturday is supporting you! There are a number of ways to participate, from registering on their small business finder, to downloading their marketing support pack to make the most of the opportunity.  More information here.

Small Business Sunday

Small Business Sunday, shortened to the hashtag #SBS on Twitter, was created by Theo Paphitis – best known for appearing on Dragons Den in October 2010.  He is Chairman of a number of high street businesses, including Ryman Stationery and Robert Dyas and is also a mentor and investor to many other business.

Each week, Theo rewards small businesses that tweet him @TheoPaphitis and describe their businesses in one tweet including the all-important hashtag #SBS. Only tweets made in the time slot between 5.00 PM and 7.30 PM each Sunday count.  Every Monday night at 8pm, Theo reviews and chooses his favourite lucky six who are then re-tweeted. As he has over 500,000 followers, this provides a massive boost to the chosen lucky businesses, resulting in increased Twitter followers, positive media publicity and crucially for many, increased sales.  Luck and perseverance are essential!  Find out how to get involved here.

Planning for 2017?  Book your free marketing audit with To Market here.