Small Business Saturday Email Marketing Ideas, Examples, and Best Practices

What is Small Business Saturday?

Small Business Saturday is a one-day event to honor and support small businesses of all shapes and colors. This holiday was introduced in 2010 by American Express. It encourages people to ditch big corporations and shop locally instead and to promote their favorite mom-and-pop shops — your own businesses included — using the good ol’ word of mouth!

It falls on the first Saturday after Thanksgiving, which will be November 30 in 2024.

There is also a #SmallBusinessSaturday hashtag on X (Twitter) and other social media that allows small business owners to tell about their products and services all year long. So, if it’s too late for you to add another holiday to your email marketing calendar, consider taking part in the social media flash mob!

The benefits of Small Business Saturday emails

If you want more sales, why not just send a Black Friday email? Isn’t Small Business Saturday too *small* to observe? If you’re asking yourself some of these questions, here’s what may convince you:

• This holiday is not just for discounts. Unlike Black Friday or Cyber Monday, Small Business Saturday is about supporting small businesses and their contribution to the community (and deals, yes, but that’s another story). On this day, you can effectively humanize your brand by telling its backstory, sharing the rises and pitfalls of your business journey, or even celebrating your colleagues. Such campaigns might not affect your sales directly but they improve your public image and relationships with current and potential customers.
• Participating in the event expresses your brand’s values. If your brand’s values include community and solidarity, sustainability, and inclusivity, observing the holiday will show that you stay true to said values. In the end, your subscribers will consider you more trustworthy.
• You’ll get noticed. As we mentioned in the intro, everyone participates in Black Friday and Cyber Monday, including giant retailers. So, if you send Black Friday emails, you’ll end up in a huge competition in the inbox of every single subscriber. Meanwhile, Small Business Saturday is (ironically) a smaller holiday, so fewer marketers will send emails. With less competition, your emails will be more likely to get well-deserving opens and clicks.
• Do it for the sales. According to the survey by American Express, Americans spent a total of $17 billion during Small Business Saturday in 2023. So, aside from the ephemeral marketing things like customer relationships and brand awareness, a campaign celebrating the holiday can bring you actual money!

Thinking of sending a Small Business Saturday email campaign this year but have never done it before? Let’s move on to the best practices and email examples that may inspire you for something just as good — or even better!

Tips and best practices to ensure a successful email campaign

We always emphasize that there’s no such thing as a foolproof email campaign recipe that will lead you to success, and you need to test things to see what works for your audience. However, some strategies have been proven to work in your favor. 

So, let’s explore what you can do to ace your Small Business Saturday emails this season!

Create a strategic timing plan

There are two things to consider when running a Small Business Saturday email campaign:

• One email sent on the day X is not enough — it’s fair for any holiday. Start sending emails in advance, a week or two before the cause. Sending a “last chance” email after the holiday is also a decent choice.
• Small Business Saturday is crammed between larger shopping events and anticipatory marketing for holidays like Christmas.

While timing won’t save you from the latter, you can use it for your own good — for example, encourage people to buy Christmas gifts from small businesses, yours included, of course. You can even design the Small Business Saturday email like it’s Christmas already — Trias did it, so can you:

Perfect your subject line and preheader

As we mentioned way too many times on our blog, an email subject line, along with a preheader, is the face of your email. It makes or breaks your subscribers’ first impressions, which will obviously affect open rates. 

The rules for a perfect subject are simple: keep it short to avoid awkward cut-offs on mobile devices, describe a good deal if you have one, and run tests to see what works for your audience.

Here are some good Small Business Saturday subject lines taken from real email campaigns we found on Milled:

• Shop Local on Small Business Saturday and Save 10% (Trias)
• Embrace The Charm of a Small Business (Winnie’s Picks)
• A note of gratitude (Q for Quinn)
• Support independent artists with every purchase ❤️ (Spoonflower)
• Happy Small Business Saturday! ✨💜 (Freedom)

Design exclusive, time-limited offers

While Small Business Saturday is not as consumerist as other shopping events, using FOMO marketing and creating limited offers in your email campaign is not frowned upon. Even better, people will be more likely to shop locally and be heroes just for one day — so, that’s a win for all sides.

A holiday-themed discount code is a simple but elegant solution — here’s a great campaign example from Kinn:

Express gratitude

Many Small Business Saturday newsletters are simple thank-you notes that express appreciation for subscribers supporting small businesses in general or the company that sent the email. You can take many directions from there. For example, write a wordy and heartwarming thank-you email with just one humble CTA button leading your subscribers to the store — like Todd’s Power Oats:

Or add a short thank-you note to an otherwise run-of-the-mill promotional email, like Bebonia:

Or even thank your customers with not just words but an actual gift, like Freedom:

See? There are so many ways to express appreciation — and, by the way, we have a whole guide on how to write a thank-you email, if you’re interested.

Add a personal touch

Small Business Saturday is not the time for cold and impersonal “Here’s your discount” type campaigns. A much better alternative is writing a note from the founder. You can express gratitude, tell an interesting story about your business, or just say that you’re small and proud!

Here’s a great example from Seek & Swoon that is essentially the founder’s bio sprinkled with just a little bit of promotion. Also, take notes: if your brand positions itself as sustainable, Small Business Saturday is a great time to remind your customers about that!

Tired of grindset content? Small Business Saturday is also the day to talk about your struggles as a small entrepreneur. Many founders share their pitfalls and raise awareness about how challenging it is to run an enterprise in the current economy. However, if you’re following this route, don’t turn your newsletter into a pityfest and guilt-trip people into purchasing from you. 

A great example of a balanced founder’s note that mentions hardships is this one from Olive & Piper. Note how the founder also mentions other small businesses, which adds to the sense of community this newsletter brings!

Don’t feel like talking about yourself too much? Here’s an example of how to stay personal without oversharing. Take notes from Kris Nations: a handwritten sign-off, childhood photos, a short thank-you copy, and voila! No need to spill all the beans — well, maybe just a couple.

Here’s another great example — what about introducing the team instead of the founder? Accompanied by the pictures of team members and an impossibly cute design, this email from Woobles should be in textbooks!

Tell your local story

Small Business Saturday is a community-focused observance, which includes supporting location-based communities. So, if you don’t feel like whining about struggles or revealing too much about your personal life in the email campaign, focus on the place instead. Tell your subscribers what’s important about the neighborhood where your business operates, for example. Or what else your neighborhood has to offer — like Tattly giving a spotlight to a local bookstore in a beautiful campaign we found on Really Good Emails.