#284: 6 Ways to Celebrate Pink Friday with Our Host Ashley Alderson, CEO of The Boutique Hub

It's episode number 284, and it's me.

Solo, and we are talking all about.

Pink Friday and how you guys can all celebrate in community over competition with the global boutique industry. So let's talk about it. Six ways to celebrate Pink Friday. Let's talk about your business strategy and the juicy details of what actually works, from mainstream fashion to fashion on Main street and the entire ecosystem behind it. How do we scale your company and do it with a balance and the happiness that we all seek? Let's hear from those insiders, experts and strategists that actually make it happen. I'm your host, Ashley Alderson from the Boutique Hub, and I can't wait to chat.

Hey, guys, you get a solo from me this week, and I'm so excited to be here because I'm going to keep it short and sweet, number one. But number two, you've heard me talk a lot about holiday marketing and tips and strategies. Maybe you've listened to that here on the podcast or in the big holiday marketing webinar that we did for free, which if you missed it, I'm going to link that up in the show notes for you today because it's gold, I promise you. But I want to let you in on something really special that's happening this year that we've never done before. You know, every single year, we watch the big box retail industry get a head start on the boutiques, right? We've got Amazon Prime Day and we've got Black Friday, which traditionally, traditionally leans to be very big box. And then we come in with Shop Small Saturday. Well, of all years, we find that 2020 is the year where our society really is valuing shopping small first because they know it makes a difference nationwide, globally, and in their local communities. And they know when they shop with a boutique, something is different. So this year we decided, why not celebrate it? Why not create one day where the global boutique industry can come together so to collaborate truly in community over competition, which is what we're built on, right? To share with our customers the importance of not just shopping small, but shopping small first before the big guys. So we did it. So I want to invite you this year to join us for something brand new called Pink Friday, which is November 20th, the Friday before Black Friday. This year, we are primed to have a head start and advantage because again, the world is ready to shop small first. So here's how to participate. If you want to work with other boutique owners around the world to raise the voice of our industry first of all, it's completely free. There's no hidden signups, no fees, no nothing. This is for you hub members, not hub members. This is for our industry to participate. And if you're a wholesaler and you're listening, there's room for you too. You can get started by going to the boutiquehub.com Pink Friday and all the details are there for you to sign up. You'll get an email immediately when you sign up with all the different ways to participate. But what I want to do for you today is I want to break this down in six different ways that you can celebrate Pink Friday number one, when you sign up at again the boutiquehub.com Pink Friday. It's all linked up in the show notes. You're going to have a file to download full of our graphics telling your customers how to gear up for the big day, how to use Pink Friday and the Shop Small pledge and all the graphics that we have coming to you all week long. How to educate your community on the importance of shopping small first. You can use these as Facebook cover photos or profile pictures or even as printed banners that you can have placed around your store. Or if you're an online boutique, don't worry, this is for you too to use inside your Facebook group and again, any graphic you make. So number two, also inside of that graphics file we have a sample grid giveaway for you to do. So if you're not familiar with a grid giveaway, it's kind of like the old school Brady Bunch pictures. This is where you team up with eight of your boutique besties to create a grid of nine photos where you can share a really important message. You can run it as a giveaway or just to raise the awareness of Pink Friday. We've done an example with our hub team and we've put it for you inside of this file. So it talks about shopping small first and making an impact and how to celebrate Pink Friday. We've got tons of threads for those of you that are Boutique Hub members inside of our Boutique Hub main members group for you to team up with other boutique besties to collaborate on one of these grid style giveaways. Then the week of Pink Friday, share it across your social media. And because hashtags aren't working right now on Instagram, post election, instead I want you to tag the Boutique Hub and shop the best boutiques on Instagram and we're going to be reposting and resharing all of the giveaways you guys are doing to help drive you Some more traffic. Number three, we have a super, super cool Pink Friday map built just for you on shopthebestboutiques.com this is an interactive live map where consumers can immediately, when they log into the site, see their location on the map and what boutiques to either shop locally, they can scroll all around the United States and Canada to find a boutique to shop locally locally, or they can click on the online boutiques list and immediately see all of the online boutiques from around the world that are participating in Pink Friday and see specifically what deals and specials they have planned. When they click on your profile, of course it's going to go right to you, right to your profile so they can get to know more about you and your business. Now, of course, if you're a hub member, you have a special profile on shopthebestboutiques.com already. Number four, if you want to participate in any of our hub gift guides, you guys, we've got four of them for you to pick from and the sign up sheet comes immediately in your email when you get interested in Pink Friday. So these topics are gifts for the homebody, Gifts for the Western Insider, Gifts for mom, Gifts for sister, Gifts as Stocking stuffers. So if you feel like you have any products in your store that fit one of those four main topics that happen to be some of the most searched on shop the best boutiques.com then we're going to get you inside of that gift guide so we can drive traffic and high quality SEO back to your website. Hey guys.

This week's podcast was brought to you by Heartland Retail, formerly known as Springboard Retail. New name, same great product. And you guys know how important it is to me, whether it's here on the podcast or inside of the boutique hub, that when we bring you a recommendation for a product or a service provider, that it's one that we have fully vetted ourselves and we have seen the product in action with several of our members and gotten their own personalized feedback so we know we're sharing something that's great. So when it comes to a point of sale solution, we fully believe in the power that Heartland Retail has to offer when it comes to reporting physical accounts, inventory management, purchase orders and receiving tools, plus their great customer dashboard. And I know that it integrates with Shopify and many of the solutions that you're using right now. The cool part that I really do like about Heartland is that the platform was built by retailers for, for retailers. So it's intuitive to some of the struggles that you may be facing right now and solutions that you're hoping for. So to learn more about Heartland or To schedule a one on one demo of their system, visit Heartland Retail US BoutiqueHub or find them anytime in our service provider directory inside of the boutique hub.

The fifth way to participate is to get in on our live sale marathon. And I know tons of you guys do live sales, right? So you can sign up or for a time slot which we have pre scheduled for you inside of our Shop the Best Boutiques Facebook group. Right now, that group has just about 40,000 members in it and we look for that to continue to grow. The more eyeballs we can get on you and all of the boutiques that are participating in this entire promotion, the better. It's about collaborating, it's about building community, and it's about raising the voice of boutique owners around the world. You guys. All right, number six, I'm really excited about this because this is something that we've done for probably the past six years over Black Friday and it's something called the Shop Small Pledge. Every year that we've run, the Shop Small Pledge, it's absolutely gone viral and I know that it will for you too. It's a simple graphic that we created that states the importance of shopping with boutiques. And it goes like this. It says, when I shop with a boutique, I support my community. I employ local families, I help build local parks and charities, I donate to local charities. I support the dreams of a business owner. I'm served, I'm supported. And I pledge to Shop Small this year. Join me. That Shop Small pledge is available for you to share, but also it's on the website where anyone who is shopping, any of your consumers, your community shoppers on Pink Friday can also access and share that Shop Small pledge. So that was six really quick ways to participate inside of Pink Friday. But really, it comes down to this. So many of the boutiques that are participating are coming up with some kind of fun special or promotion or offer or a unique way to celebrate the day. Now, I want to give you this quick tip because this goes back to all holiday marketing strategy, right? And that is don't give away the farm, don't run a blanket sale. Don't feel like you have to run some massive 20, 30, 40% off site wide just to get noticed. Because honestly, that's not what matters. It's about raising your voice and talking to your community about why shopping Small first is important, what Shopping Small first means to your community, right? If you have an economic Development office. This is what I did before I started the boutique hub. And a stat that was always really important to me was, how many times does an average dollar turn in your community? Or for every person that shops in your store, what type of economic impact does that leave on your local community? Your local economic development corporation should have those numbers, and that's a great number for you to use in your marketing when it comes back to sharing with your community, where why shopping small is important. Whether that's you with a brick and mortar and they're shopping in your community, or you're an online boutique and you're still supporting the community even though you don't particularly have a storefront, right? So when you're thinking about the offers and bonuses and things you're going to run, make sure you remember that the message is most important first, because it's how you make people feel. It's the value that you add to people's lives that really matter. People remember not what they bought from you, but they remember how you made them feel. So start with your message and then work in things like free gift with purchase bonus, bonus cash, right, boutique bucks, whatever you want to call them, which could be $10 for every $100 spent. And it could be good for some time in January to try to get people back after the first of the year. It could be bundle specials or highlighting your own gift guides. It could be free shipping that's discounted over, say $50 versus $100, if that's normal, right? Or everyone who purchases on Big Friday is entered into a big giveaway. So choose how you want to celebrate the day and then take part in any of the six things that I just mentioned. Again, you can sign up@theboutiquehub.com pinkfriday but when it comes time to share the week of in any of the graphics that you're sharing, you're going to want to drive your customers to shopthebestboutiques.com pinkfriday remember shopthebestboutiques dot com pinkfriday and that's where that Shop Small map is and the list of all the deals from all the boutiques who are participating on that day. So, guys, I want to bring you these really quick tips. Super short episode this week because Pink Friday is coming up November 20th, and I want to personally invite you to join us again. It's free. And this is a way for our entire community to come together and collaborate. Because it's not just about shopping small, but it's about shopping small first this season, you guys. I hope this was helpful to you and if you'd love more Pink Friday, Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, any of the holiday marketing tips, make sure you let me know because this is one of my favorite topics to help share strategy on. You can find more Strategy anytime@holidaymarketingmasterclass.com or reach out to me on the Gram and let me know how you're going to be celebrating Pink Friday in the holiday season. It's AJ Alderson on the Gram and I'm here for you guys every day inside of the Hub. So have a great week. Can't wait to celebrate Pink Friday with you. And as always, thanks again for listening. Foreign.

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