Especially when larger businesses are able to discount their products more heavily during major shopping holidays like Black Friday. 

That’s why Small Business Saturday exists. 

It’s a yearly holiday held on the Saturday between Black Friday and Cyber Monday (November 28th in 2020) to encourage customers to shop local and support small businesses.

Small Business Saturday is much younger than its older siblings, originally being started by American Express in 2010 who promoted the occasion across the US on television, radio, and social media. 

But for an event that’s only a decade old, it’s quickly become popular not only in the US but also in the UK. 

Why Small Business Saturday is important

Part of the reason Small Business Saturday has gained popularity so quickly likely comes down to how much shoppers want to support their local small businesses. 

Approximately 86% of shoppers are willing to pay more for products and services when they come from a small or local business and nearly half claim they regularly go out of their way to support locally owned businesses. 

And supporting small businesses is important for the wider economy as well. 

The vast majority of businesses in the US are small, local enterprises with them also directly employing nearly half of the total workforce. What’s more, for every $100 spent at a local business, $68 stays in the local economy on average compared to just $43 for large businesses. 

Why you should participate in Small Business Saturday

If you run a small or local business, there’s no reason not to get involved in the action. 

Over half of US shoppers know about Small Business Saturday and of those who are aware of it, 80% say they plan on supporting their local small businesses on the day. 

This is backed up by sales data which saw that online sales alone totaled over $3 billion on Small Business Saturday last year. 

And those figures are pre-COVID as well. 

Seeing as small businesses have largely borne the brunt of the devastating impacts of the Coronavirus pandemic, shoppers are more willing than ever to give small merchants a helping hand. 

How to get involved

For merchants – the good thing about Small Business Saturday over its Black Friday and Cyber Monday siblings is that shoppers aren’t going in with the mindset of grabbing a bargain and taking advantage of super low prices. 

Instead, shoppers go into Small Business Saturday with the intention of supporting your store. This means that you don’t need to even run a sale as there are many other ways to get involved, including:

Send a Small Business Saturday email

This is an obvious one, but the best way to get involved with Small Business Saturday is to email your customers and simply let them know about the day. 

In addition to letting them know about Small Business Saturday and why shopping small is important, this is an opportunity to talk about how you help support the local community and encourage them to visit your store. 

To help foster this sense of community further it’s also worth thanking your customers for their support and letting them know how much you appreciate that they shop with you.

The email campaign below from Graham’s Sporting Goods is a good example of this in action. 

Team up with other local merchants

Small Business Saturday is all about coming together to support our local communities. One great way you can do this is by teaming up with other local businesses to support each other. 

You could do this by including offers from other retailers in your email campaigns in exchange for them doing the same with your offers.

It doesn’t have to be a formal arrangement either. Simply retweeting and sharing their social media posts will show your support and likely get them doing the same for you. 

Not only does this signal to potential customers that you’re committed to helping their local community, but teaming up also expands your reach by leveraging other stores’ audiences for free. 

Run an offer

Again, running a sale or an offer isn’t necessary, but it can be a great way to get more people through your store. 

If you decide to run a promotion, don’t be afraid to get creative with it either. You could, for instance, offer a free gift with every purchase or provide free home delivery for people living in your local area. 

Of course, you could simply opt for the regular percentage-off discount like Forest Finds has done in their Small Business Saturday email below.

The great thing about this email is the clever use of copywriting with “Black Friday is so yesterday.” It’s the perfect line to use in your Small Business Saturday marketing on the Saturday itself. 

Support a local cause

As shoppers supporting Small Business Saturday tend to do so to support their local community more so than to pick up a bargain, you might want to consider supporting a local cause. 

This could mean simply pledging a percentage of your proceeds on the day to a local charity or even a sports club. 

By advertising this initiative to your customers through email and social media posts, you’re giving potential shoppers two reasons to shop with you: Support a local business and a local cause at the same time. 

This better aligns with shoppers’ motivations and will help your business stand out among all the others who are simply encouraging people to shop locally.

Thank customers for their support

Small Business Saturday is the first Saturday after Thanksgiving, so the simplest email you could send your customers is one that taps into the spirit of the holiday season and thanks them for their support. 

The email below from the Wooden Barrel is a good example of this.

While it likely won’t get their restaurant fully booked-out on Saturday, it’ll help build brand loyalty which will be much more valuable over the longer-term.

Conclusion

For such a young shopping event, Small Business Saturday has harnessed people’s eagerness to support small and local businesses. And with it now gaining popularity outside of the US there’s no reason for any small merchant not to jump onboard. 

All that is really required is to send a dedicated Small Business Saturday email on the day itself. 

Whether you want to hold a sale or run some other kind of promotion or community event is up to you.   

For more resources to help with your email campaigns, check out our list of Small Business Saturday subject lines you can use here.

The post Small Business Saturday Email Marketing Examples & Tips appeared first on SmartrMail Email Marketing Blog.

When half of shoppers regularly go out of their way to support small businesses and 7 in 8 are willing to pay more for products from small businesses, it’s unsurprising that most people have leapt on the holiday. 

Over half of shoppers in the US know about Small Business Saturday and the vast majority of them plan on supporting local businesses on the day. And with over $3 billion being spent on Small Business Saturday last year, merchants are jumping on board as well. 

This means that plenty of merchants are sending Small Business Saturday emails. Which also means they’re coming up with subject lines to go along with them.

The importance of subject lines

While the content of your email might seem infinitely more important than the subject line, it’s the subject line that’s one of the greatest factors deciding whether the email gets opened and read or is ignored. 

In fact, a third of your subscribers base their decision on whether to open an email or not based solely on its subject line. Additionally, two-thirds of people mark emails as spam based on subject lines alone.

So with so much riding on your email subject line, it’s important to come up with some good ones for your Small Business Saturday campaigns. 

To that end, below are 50 examples of Small Business Saturday subject lines that you can either use for inspiration or simply copy and paste to use yourself. 

Small Business Saturday subject lines

General, all-purpose examples

• Shop Local This Small Business Saturday
• Supporting Our Local Community 
• Black Friday is so yesterday. It’s time for Small Business Saturday! 
• Thank you for supporting small businesses like yours
• Cure Your Black Friday Hangover By Shopping Small 
• Supporting Main St. Not Wall St. This Saturday
• Stay Local This Saturday
• Think Big, Shop Small! 
• Shopping Small Is A Big Deal To Us
• It’s #SmallBizSat!
• A Message To Our Local Community This Small Business Saturday
• Have you supported a small business today?
• From Our Community To Yours
• Your Local Community Is Counting On You
• It’s a Big Thing to Small Shop
• How You Can Support Small Businesses

Subject lines with emojis

Adding an emoji is a great way to make your subject lines stand out in people’s inboxes. 

While you could add an emoji of what you sell or services you provide, such as game pieces (? ? ) if you sell toys, below are some more general examples. 

• More Reasons to Shop Locally ?
• The Best Deals this Small Biz Sat ?
• Rallying around our local community ?
• Shop Small, Eat Local ?
• Celebrating Small Business Saturday ?
• Check out these local gems ?
• Coming together as a community this Saturday ?
• Buy Local Produce This Small Business Saturday ? ? ?
• In Celebration of All Small Businesses ?
• Supporting each other this Small Business Saturday ?

For more emoji usage tips, check out our guide on using emojis in subject lines here.

Personalized subject lines

Email personalization results in over a 50% increase in customer satisfaction and a 30% higher open rate on average. And when it comes to your subject lines, the easiest and most obvious way to personalize them is to include the name of your customer. 

Commerce-focused email apps like SmartrMail let you include names in your subject lines easily like in the examples below.

• Thanks for your support, {{NAME}}
• Here’s how we support our local community, {{NAME}}
• Will you shop local this Small Busines Saturday, {{NAME}}?
• {{NAME}}, now’s the time to support local small businesses
• {{NAME}, millions of American’s are shopping local this #SmallBizSat, will you?
• We’re glad you’re part of our community, {{NAME}}

Examples mentioning offers

While your Small Business Saturday marketing strategy does not need to necessarily involve running a sale (shoppers are looking to support small business owners more so than looking for a bargain), if you decide to run a sale, you’ll want to mention it in your subject line. 

• A Free Gift When You Shop Locally With Us This #SmallBizSat
• 20% Off Store-Wide: Our Small Business Saturday Offer to You
• Win Big For Shopping Small With 20% Off This Saturday
• A Thank You For Shopping Locally: 15% Off Just For You
• Missed Out on Black Friday? Don’t Worry, Our Sale Continues with Small Biz Sat!
• Buy One, Get One Free! Small Business Saturday Only
• Order Ship Free Today Only
• The Deals Keep on Coming with our Small Business Saturday Sale
• Get 10% Off This Saturday Only
• Take a further 5% off on top of our Black Friday offers!
• Up to 50% off in celebration of Small Business Saturday
• Our Black Friday sale continues with 20% off for #SmallBizSat
• Free Shipping for Small Business Saturday

Last-minute and reminder email subject lines

Whether you’re running a sale or not, if you want to send a reminder email towards the end of Small Business Saturday, then consider using one of the examples below.

• Last Call on our Small Business Saturday Sale!
• Just 5 Hours Left On Our Small Biz Sat Sale
• Small Business Saturday Is Almost Over!
• Your Last Chance to Support Local Businesses on #SmallBizSat
• Don’t Miss Out on Small Business Saturday

Conclusion

Having gone through 50 email subject lines you’ll hopefully have found some you can use yourself or at least have inspiration for your own. 

If you’re looking for more inspiration for the remainder of your email, check out our examples of Small Business Saturday emails which also contains plenty of tips for your marketing strategy.

The post 50 Small Business Saturday Subject Lines You Can Copy appeared first on SmartrMail Email Marketing Blog.