revitalizing the economy. american express open is here to help. that s why we are proud to present your business on msnbc. hi, there, everyone. i m j.j. ramberg. welcome to a very special edition of your business. it comes in between black friday and cybermonday. this year, small business saturday is november 24th. it is a day people are urged to shop local and is support their communities. we are coming from maplewood, new jersey. a storm-battered state where small businesses need customers more than ever. across the country in burbank, california, the shop local movement has taken off in a big way. in the magnolia park section of that city, local retailers have banded together to revitalize not only sales but also their
we spoke to some store owners here to ask them what they are doing to bring in more customers on november 24th. we are going to have extended holiday hours so that people who are getting off the train later and stuff like that have time to do all their holiday shopping. on that day, we are going to have refreshments and a discount lottery. people will be able to come up to the register and pick out of a bowl and they either get 10% off or 20% off, up to 40% off. a special promotion, 10% off everything in the store. i do a blog for the store. i ll feature special items i have in for the holidays. then i offer cookies and you know, a special drink or something. some kind of treat. social media has been the biggest thing for us as far as getting the word out there and
educating people. it s been great for us. i m able to post pictures. i think people connect more if they see a picture of product and a caption saying oh, you can get this for 20% off on small business saturday. i send out e-mail blasts to my current customer base, facebook marketing and twitter. we have loyal customers who are, you know, our town supports small businesses in downtown maplewood. we, obviously, with all the publicity, around black friday, people tend to be distracted and go to the mall. it s great to redirect people back. in years prior, those couple days after thanksgiving were not busy days for small businesses because everybody was at the mall and shopping online. it s helped increase business. it s put the emphasis back on keeping it local.
of the concept. we in the city council are very united in this effort. because we realize we re one tulsa. we re one group of communities. and collectively we re a lot more strong in how we can approach economic development opportunity. so having more friends in that regard was a better opportunity for us. con grandchildlations on all the work you re doing to prefair for this. thank you very much. appreciate your help. if you want to take the most advantage of small business saturday, listen up, here now are five resources you can use to help your company grow on november 24th. one, signage. posted printouts are a great way to get the word out. you can get two pieces of signage professionally printed for free at a fed-ex office. two, official banners and logos.
use the material to promote your blog, website or anywhere else online. three social media and e-mail templates. take the guess work out of promoting your business using the blog examples, tweets and e-mail ls. four, geo targeted online advertising. go on shopsmall.com to register your business. and number five, success stories. get tips for other small businesses that you can use to grow your sales on small business saturday. when we come back, karen mill mils talks to us about what her agency is doing to get people to shop small. we ll also talk to some store owners to find out how they are working to get people to buy local.