Small Business Saturday ideas: posts for local shops

The best Small Business Saturday ideas lean on what a big retailer cannot copy: your face, your street and the way you make things. Post the people behind the counter, explain an offer that feels generous rather than cheap, and team up with the shops next door so the whole street shows up in the feed together. Keep the look warm and plain. After Black Friday's noise, a calm post from someone real is the thing people stop for.

When is Small Business Saturday

The day started in the United States in 2010 and now runs in several countries. The two dates most shops plan around are below. Check your own country's organisers if you are elsewhere.

In the US you are posting in the busiest shopping weekend of the year, so start the week before. In the UK you have a quieter run up, which suits a slower series of posts introducing the shop.

Shop local posts that show who you are

People choose a small shop for the person who remembers their order. Put that person in the feed. These ideas need nothing more than a phone photo, a short line and a background that looks like yours.

• Meet the maker. One photo of hands at work and one line about what they are making.
• Where it comes from. The farm, the kiln, the workshop or the supplier down the road.
• A day in the shop. A carousel from opening the shutters to the last customer.
• Why we started. Two or three honest sentences, no mission statement.
• What your money does. Wages paid locally, a supplier supported, a street kept lively. Only say what is true for you.
• Our regulars' favourite. The product people come back for, in their words if they are happy to be quoted.

For more feed ideas the rest of the year, see small business Instagram ideas and behind the scenes content.

Small Business Saturday offers that are not just discounts

A small shop rarely wins a price war, and it does not need to. Offers that add something feel more like you and protect your margins. Pick one and make it the centre of your posts.

Whatever you choose, say it the same way in every post, on the window and at the till. If you want to grow your following on the day too, a simple entry such as "comment with your favourite shop on the street to win a hamper" works well; giveaway post design covers the rules that keep it fair and clear.

Team up with your street

Small Business Saturday works best as a shared effort. Five shops posting the same map, on the same morning, each tagging the others, reach five audiences at once. It also makes the day feel like a local event worth crossing town for.

1. 1

   Agree one look

   Pick one background, one typeface and one line, such as "Shop Mill Lane this Saturday". Each shop adds its own name and offer underneath.

2. 2

   Make a simple map

   A carousel page with a hand-drawn style street and numbered shops. Keep it to the shops taking part.

3. 3

   Give each shop a page

   One page per business in a shared carousel: name, what they sell, their offer for the day.

4. 4

   Post together

   Everyone posts the carousel on the same morning and tags the others, then shares each other's stories through the day.

5. 5

   Print the same design

   An A4 poster at 2480×3508 in every window ties the street together for people walking past.

A shared carousel is easier to keep consistent when each page is made from one template. Instagram carousel design covers page order, and poster ideas helps with the window version.

A warm look for Small Business Saturday

Where Black Friday goes dark and glossy, this day suits paper, warmth and daylight. A soft off-white or kraft ground with one colour from your shop front looks handmade in the best sense, and it gives your photos room.

If writing is the hard part, the Designer in Gradiently can draft the words in your shop's own voice from your brand kit, lay them out on your background and make the story and poster sizes from the same design. Local business marketing graphics has more year round ideas.