#332: How to Participate in Pink Friday

Are you ready for the fourth quarter? I mean, today we are going to talk about one of the biggest events for boutique owners in the fourth quarter. Something you may have heard of from last year. A brand new event encouraging your customers to shop small first. Today, we're talking all about 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 the 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. It is just you and me this week, but I have some big things we have to talk about. So. So last year was our very first year ever doing an event called Pink Friday. Some of you may remember it, those of you that participated, I'm sure do. Because the feedback was that it was one of the biggest shopping days of the year for your entire year for your company. So this year, I can't wait to be the person to tell you all about what is happening for Pink Friday 2021, because we're back and we can't wait to include you in all the awesome things we have planned. So let me back up to the beginning and tell you a little bit about Pink Friday. In case you're not yet familiar. Our mission with Pink Friday is to remind consumers, your customers, your community, the importance of shopping small first. And when I say first, I mean before the big guys, right before Black Friday. Because as tradition would have it, the meaning of Black Friday is that so many times in history, retailers would run in the red all year long. Negative, right? Profit balance. Until they got to Black Friday and they had a huge shopping push, bringing consumers in to buy for the holiday season, turning their books from red to black, and being profitable toward the end of the season. So Black Friday traditionally has been the kickoff of the holiday shopping season. But with the world as it is today and the importance of shopping small being more important now than ever, of course, we've also seen the event Small Business Saturday. But the kicker for me in Small Business Saturday has always been that Small Business Saturday comes after Black Friday. And I just don't think it has to be that way. Why wouldn't we shop small first if really what we think is that shopping small is more important? So while we're going to support you in Black Friday and Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday and Giving Tuesday and all the shopping days of the year. I really want to encourage you to join the movement of shopping small first with Pink Friday, which is the Friday before Black Friday. This year it's actually November 19th. So today I want to give you a couple of tips on how to maximize Pink Friday and what's included. And if you're interested in participating, it's completely free. You are encouraged to participate and I'll tell you what's inside. And of course all of this, you guys is linked up in the show notes if you want to get on the list to participate in Pink Friday. So couple main things. When you participate in Pink Friday, you are signing up for a movement that is an opportunity to create communication and story with your customers to talk about why it is so important to shop small. What's it mean to shop small first and how many times does the dollar turn in your community after someone spends it with you? Whether you're a brick and mortar store or you're an online boutique. Regardless, small businesses are the backbone of our economy, right? So Pink Friday is first and foremost that opportunity for conversation with your customers. And how do we create that conversation? Well, through marketing, right? Through media. So one of the first things you'll get when you sign up for Pink Friday is an entire media kit filled with strategies for social media messaging. You can share with your customers fun facts about small business. Also, some graphics you can use for Pink Friday, including our Shop Small first pledge or opportunities for you to collaborate with other small businesses either in your area or maybe some of your favorite online boutiques to do those photo grids. Remember how popular photo grids were last year? But we've created photo grids that talk about shopping small first and what that means for our economy. So all of those media kits, the talking points, the opportunities for conversations with your customer, that's one of the first things you're going to get when it comes to Pink Friday. The second thing is we love signage. We love swag. So we have linked up tons of resources for you from our partners and from hub Swag that's going to give you store signage and opportunities for printed posters and materials. And even if you're going to do a really cool photo backdrop in your warehouse or in your brick and mortar store or in a pop up location, we've got those cool, what are they even called? Banners? Photo props? Signage. I don't even know if you've seen any photos of the hub at market. We have a whole bunch of them. That have a bunch of cool things about small business. We're going to link those up for you. So if you want one in your store, maybe it's a custom hashtag for your store and your brand, we'll show you how to get that so you can use it for Pink Friday. Now, another thing that's really cool about Pink Friday is we've always built an interactive map@shopthebestboutiques.com so if a consumer in general, one of your customers says, hey, I love shopping your boutique, but I also want to see where else can I shop on Pink Friday? We have this cool interactive map that breaks down all 50 states in the US and also some other countries. And when they click on the map, they can zoom in and see where all of the participating boutiques are located on the Pink Friday map. So. So a really cool tool to share with your customers if they're encouraged by shopping small with other small businesses on Pink Friday. And finally, I think another cool opportunity on Pink Friday, and this is something I've always taught a lot about in retail boot camp, I guess, is press strategies. And to me, press strategies aren't just about the press and the social media and the traffic, but it's also about lasting SEO and how powerful media links and press stories can be. So last year we sent out sample press releases and talking points and how to checklists on how to reach out to your local media and talk about what it means to be a small business surviving this post pandemic crazy world we're living in. And when I think about what that means for 2021, I also think about the shipping and inventory issues that not just our industry, but every industry is facing. And right now, media is reaching out left and right to do stories, what those issues are and how they're impacting businesses. So for your local community or your state or your region, why not be featured? Why not collaborate and tell your story about what that means and what is your projection for holiday 2021? What does that look like for your business? So we're going to give you the tools to reach out to press, how to reach out to press so that you can be featured and tell your story. Because either you can let the media tell your story for you, you can take matters into your own hands. And I would much rather do the latter because to me, there are far more positive stories happening out there today than our media wants to give our world credit for. So wave your flag, tell your story. It is definitely worth being told. The other thing I would mention is from the Hub's point of view when it comes to press. We've been fortunate enough in the last couple of years to build some great relationships with Inc. Magazine and Entrepreneur and Forbes and Business Insider recently. And so we've been in contact with them as well about what does the Pink Friday movement mean? And for example, last year we had this great story ran across, you know, a nationwide press company talking about 28 businesses in New Orleans alone that teamed up and collaborated on Pink Friday to make this huge shopping experience. So we're going to continue to wave the flag and tell the story and share with national media what Pink Friday means, and we would love for you to be included in that. All right, finally, those are all the things that are included when you participate in Pink Friday. Again, it's completely free. It's linked up in the show notes of this episode. But I just want to continue to encourage you to collaborate and here's some cool ideas you can use to maximize Pink Friday. So first of all, I would encourage across social media to be a blackout pink day and talk about what it means to shop smile first, whether that's telling your story and really digging into your why, or highlighting your customers and letting them tell their story and their why about why they shop small first with you on days like Pink Friday and then again all year long. So create a social media plan around this talking point of shopping small first with your business and blackout everything on that day just for Pink Friday. The second tip I would give you for maximizing Pink Friday is to think about running a promotion, not a sale. If you know me, you know I hate the word sale. I hate blanket sales, and I think they are one of the most detrimental things we can do to our business. Now there's a huge difference between a sale and a discount. Don't get me wrong, I love discount Debbie, right? She is necessary for us to clean out our sale racks in our business. But the biggest mistake we can make is running a sale that runs the diamonds with the dirt. So we want to make sure we're promoting the right things. Things that we either got a great IMU on so we're maintaining our margin across the sale, or we've got stuff that we have overstock in so we could run bogos or different types of promotions or some kind of door buster or loss leader or something that's going to draw attention to your website and to your storefront. And when people are buying those pieces, all of a sudden they're drawn to oh my gosh, I also need a gift for this and a bundle for that. And I need a teacher gift. And I need that chunky cardigan that you just posted. And I need those boots and I need those Judy Blues. Right? So draw them in with a promotion that creates an emotional reaction with your customer. It leaves them feeling excited, right? Like they either checked off three things on their to do list without even having to think about it, or they got a great deal and now they're excited to splurge on something for themselves. So create a promotion, not a sale. And my final tip for maximizing Pink Friday is collaborate, collaborate, collaborate. The entire mission at the boutique hub was built off of community over competition. And that doesn't mean that you aren't competing in the grand scheme of things, but it can mean. It does mean a rising tide lifts all ships. And we are better in this when we are with other people. So who can you collaborate with for Pink Friday? Maybe it's a salon down the street, or maybe it's a coffee shop, Maybe it's a floral shop. Or maybe it's your boutique bestie from Indiana that sells children's clothes. Whatever it is, make sure you reach out. Set your plans ahead of time. If you're going to do a grid photo or a giveaway or Instagram takeovers or TikTok takeovers or those TikToks where you're passing a gift or something to one another in split screenshots, find people to collaborate with. And I guarantee your customers are going to love that, too. That's the beauty of Pink Friday. And this whole idea about shopping small is customers expect small businesses to band together. And that's exactly what you're doing. So, guys, I hope you got some tips and some takeaways and some ideas. I highly encourage you to tell your friends and invite them to join you in celebrating Pink Friday. A day to shop small first, the Friday before Black Friday this year, taking place on November 19th. And all the details, all the graphics, the tools, the ideas, the collaboration strategies, all of them will come to you via email when you sign up in the link in the show notes to learn more about Pink Friday. And as always, if you have questions, you know where to find me here on the podcast, in the show Notes on Instagram, Heboutique Hub, or on AJ Alderson on Instagram. Our team and myself are so excited to make this year bigger than ever and to continue the tradition of sharing the importance of shopping small first.

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