The holiday season is an ideal time to reflect on what your small business has accomplished throughout the year, but it’s also an opportune time to leverage the holiday promotional season in order to drive new leads, increase sales and build brand awareness.

The latest article featured on PR Newswire’s Small Business PR Toolkit helps small business owners determine if a holiday sales strategy makes sense for their business by weighing the pros and cons of participating in Black Friday, Small Business Saturday or Cyber Monday.

Black Friday is the Friday after Thanksgiving holiday, and is a shopping tradition that can be traced back to the 60s and many large retail operations use this day to run their in-store sales promotions. The main advantage is that shoppers are out on the street and looking to take advantage of sales promotions. Small Businesses are also at an advantage because they have a smaller infrastructure that allows you to personalise your customer service and even follow-up post sale.As for cons, there is a lot of noise and small businesses may get lost in the shuffle.

Another holiday is Small Business Saturday, which is a holiday that was officially recognised by he US Congress in 2015, but its roots go back to American Express who wanted to draw attention to the mom-and-pop brick and mortar stores serving local communities.

Its pros are that it offers a good alternative to not get lost in the Black Friday commotion. Sending promotional materials to loyal customers ahead of time can be a relatively easy endeavor that has a high level of return.
In terms of cons: while this day bolsters local shops, you are asking customers to come back out again and there may be some hesitation on their side.

For the remaining discussion on weighing the pros and cons of participating in Cyber Monday as a small business, read the remainder of Wied’s article here: http://bit.ly/1Lqz2pc.