The Big 4 Weekend!

Lots of action happening on The CraftStar!  The LIVE shows are growing into something we could only have dreamed of (more info on that in another newsletter!), and sales are flying with holiday shopping. Which leads us nicely to The Big 4 ... the annual four days of holiday shopping frenzy: Black Friday - Cyber Monday weekend! The CraftStar team is excited to announce the promo plans for these days ... and more events will be added. At 4am EST on Black Friday morning on TCS blog: http://thecraftstar.blogspot.com our “Guide for Shoppers” will go live!  We will also have an email blast set to send to remind buyers of the sales going on via our blog.  Our social media team will be blasting the deals all morning long, as well as hinting around to special discounts that will be taking place that weekend, without saying WHO will be participating or WHAT the discounts will be.  The reason for that is that we don’t want to prevent buyers from purchasing in the days leading up to that weekend just because they know you’ll be offering a major deal that day.   For Black Friday morning we are asking that sellers offer a door buster type deal just as you would see at major retailers.  For example 30 - 50% off, buy one get one, or free shipping.  You only need to do this for a set amount of hours, as we have decided to run the door buster sales starting at 4am EST - 10am EST in order to hit all the time zones within the US accordingly.  Sellers should think of the discount they provide that morning as a write off, a means for advertising, instead of how large the discount may be or that they might not make much of a profit.  Doing this big one day sale gets your name out there.  It encourages new business!  It’s great for promotion!  What if that buyer really likes what they purchased?  Will they come back?  Probably ! Will they tell their friends?  For sure! We're also going to have a giveaway valued at $20 or more every hour on Cyber Monday.  Listing these continual giveaways will encourage people to keep coming back to the blog to enter and will also remind them of the sales taking place.  The giveaways will be listed every hour on the hour from 6 am EST until 6 pm EST.  The best part about these is that it gives your shop that extra added individual attention!  More traffic for you!   To participate (and to keep things easier on our end!) you MUST please provide Rhonda, rhonda@thecraftstar.com with the following information in this order: 1) Your shop banner image. You MUST have a banner to participate.  2) The link to your TCS shop. 3) Your door buster discount deal and coupon code for Black Friday morning. 4) If you are running a sale after 10am EST Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, we’ll need to know the deal and code too! 5) A picture of an item that best represents your store. Make it the best photo you have!  Don’t have a super great photo?  Take a new one!  Remember:  YOU GET ONE SHOT, MAKE IT YOUR BEST!  That image needs to grab attention and get the buyers into your shop!  (You must have an image to participate.) 6) Your doorbuster discount deal and code for THE ENTIRE DAY, Cyber Monday. 7) Would you like to participate in our Cyber Monday giveaway for extra promotion?  Please link us to what you want to giveaway!  We have also added additional LIVE SALES blocks!  Here's the schedule (at the moment!): Friday 11/29: 7pm EST / 4pm PST x 1 hour and 8:30pm EST / 5:30pm PST x 1 hour Monday 1/2: 3pm EST / 12 noon PST x 1 hour.  4:30pm EST / 1:30pm PST x 1 hour.  6pm EST / 3pm PST x 1 hour. Each 1 hour block will feature 4 sellers.  If you're interested in participating in our special BIG 4 weekend LIVE SALES, please contact: heather@thecraftstar.com We will be adding to Small Business Saturday, and if you want to get yourself prepared to promote YOUR small business, here's a great link with handy tools:  https://www.americanexpress.com/us/small-business/Shop-Small/resources?linknav=us-open-shopsmall-homepage-resources While we will be promoting all the events taking place, we do ask that you also promote your own sales as well as the link to our blog.  The more traffic we create for TCS the better for everyone that participates!  As a community, we CAN make a loud noise about this exciting Big 4! All questions about this weekend should be directed to Rhonda .... you can reach her via email at rhonda@thecraftstar.com. Thank you and we look forward to rocking the holidays together!   We'll continue to keep you updated on The Big 4 Weekend ... and let you know what the PR team is doing for The CraftStar too.  Keep your eye on our Google + and Facebook pages and of course, our LIVE broadcasts.  (Don't have a Google + page yet?  Get one!  We'll be doing a special LIVE broadcast in the next week with a step by step guide on building your profile / brand page on Google +.  Believe us, Google + is GREAT for small business!) Kim, Heather and Rhonda As you know, The CraftStar is VERY active in social media promoting you and your shops, so please make sure you're following us: Google +:  https://plus.google.com/u/0/b/103642489195745052292/+Thecraftstar/posts (make sure you have The CraftStar in your Circles) Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/thecraftstar Twitter:  https://twitter.com/thecraftstar The CraftStar Blog:  http://thecraftstar.blogspot.com/ Pinterest:  http://www.pinterest.com/thecraftstar/small-business-community-board/ YouTube:  http://www.youtube.com/user/CraftStarTV/