Holiday promotions aren’t just limited to important dates, either.

You can go as broad as you like: the seasons, festivals and statutory days, to name a few. You only have to spend some time on social media platforms to see everything from International Coffee Day to World Teachers’ Day; get creative and find the ones that make sense for your business.

No matter what your product or service is, there are some great ways to appeal to your target audience.

5 Seasonal Marketing Ideas to Promote Your Business

Gift cards/certificates

From clothing stores to grocery stores, many businesses offer gift cards-and not just seasonally; you’ll often find them year-round. Even if you don’t have a product or service traditionally associated with a special occasion like Christmas, with a little creativity, you can make it work.

For example, you probably wouldn’t think of Subway sandwiches when you’re brainstorming Christmas presents, but if you saw this gift card you might get an idea to give it to a friend or family member.

Maybe you’re a life coach or a business coach who could design a festive-looking gift certificate for a certain number of sessions.

Or, perhaps you’re an interior designer or feng shui consultant who could sell an introductory session as a housewarming gift.

Birthdays

Have you ever received a freebie email or e-greeting card on your birthday?

While some customers may shy away from entering their birthdays on your website or eNewsletter signup form, you can make it easier by not asking for the year and telling them why you’re requesting it.

Then, send your birthday customer a seasonal discount or freebie with your best wishes.

Here’s a tasty one: The family restaurant chain Red Robin offers a free birthday burger as one of the perks to signing up for their Royalty program.

Free shipping

If you don’t offer free shipping throughout the year, making this a prominent holiday offer on your website during can encourage visitors to buy from you.

If you already offer free shipping over a certain amount, consider lowering it for a special occasion.

You can remind customers that it’s a special offer by having them enter a promo code at checkout or showing them the regular shipping cost crossed out.

A social media photo contest

Ask your followers on Facebook or Instagram to share festive photos with your product and tag you for a chance to win a prize. You could have followers submit summer vacation photos, Easter dinner pics, a favourite first-day-of-school memory… whatever!

Tie it in with your business and it’s a win-win situation: your followers get a chance to win a prize, and you get exposure and user-generated content.

A simple thank you

It’s always a thoughtful gesture to thank the people who make it possible for you to stay in business!

I appreciate our clients so much, and I always want to wish them a happy holiday and let them know if we are going to be closed for a stat or special event.

While this isn’t a tactic to gain more sales, the more gratitude you feel and show to your loyal clients the better. Take the time to send a short holiday newsletter when you feel it’s appropriate.

As a business owner, it’s your main purpose and what you focus the bulk of your energy on. However, it can be a challenge-especially when you’re so close to your brand-to see what’s missing and to make the necessary changes.

Now that you have some ideas around what to do for your customers, I’m going to share how you can pull off a successful holiday marketing campaign.

1. Do your keyword research

It’s important to do keyword research anytime you create content. You want to have a nice balance of targeted short- and long-tail keywords.

Don’t wait until the last minute to create your compelling content, especially for big holidays like Christmas. According to the National Retail Foundation, 40 percent of consumers begin shopping for the 25th before Halloween.

Rather than stuffing your content, you should be writing for your readers and sprinkling these well-researched keywords throughout your content. For special occasions, brainstorm the event + your product/service/timely offer + your location. Here are a few examples:

● Valentine’s Day + gift cards + Vancouver

● New Year’s + women’s dresses + Mississauga

● Father’s Day + spa packages + Edmonton

2. Provide valuable content

Think about what your visitors will find valuable when you’re creating website copy and articles as part of your seasonal marketing.

People are looking for solutions to their problems, whether it’s how to make spring cleaning easier, or how to shop for birthday gifts on a budget.

You could create a “Top 5″ list, gather the “Most popular” products or services around an occasion or post some “Easy ways” to do something to catch people’s attention.

Turn your keyword research into well-written and -researched articles and guides that your customers will want to share on social media.

3. Be data-driven and flexible.

It’s essential to capture as much data as possible during your seasonal marketing campaigns. Are people engaging with your social media posts? Is your website content converting visitors into leads and sales? Is a particular page getting more traffic than others?

As you collect data, you can review your campaign’s performance to develop your strategy for other important dates and holiday promotions.

You don’t want to miss out on a profitable Black Friday or New Year’s opportunity because you weren’t sure how your campaign was doing.

As you can see, seasonal campaigns are about more than just putting up store decorations or adding a greeting to your website’s home page. By creating meaningful campaigns that resonate with your target audience and following these three steps, your holidays can be happier⁠-and more successful⁠-than ever.

Susan Friesen, founder of the award-winning web development and digital marketing firm eVision Media, is a Web Specialist, Business & Marketing Consultant, and Social Media Advisor. She works with entrepreneurs who struggle with having the lack of knowledge, skill and support needed to create their online business presence.

Before thinking to get an app you must know why one should get an e-commerce app. How can you get benefits from the app?

Benefits of e-commerce app

1. Higher conversions – Mobile apps especially e-commerce app helps to drive an amazing conversion rate for a brand or business since the app can offer them a seamless experience. You can provide a great user experience by offering amazing features in your app like push notifications.

2. Brand Awareness – With an e-commerce app development you will notice an increase in brand awareness. People now spend most of their time using mobile phones therefore having an app for your store can be a great step.

3. Brand promotion – You can now advertise your brand more efficiently by the means of e-commerce mobile app and can stay closer to your customers. You can announce your deals, offers, or discounts on push notifications that will reach straight to your customers.

4. 24*7 connectivity – People who are connected to your brand by the means of a mobile app are more inclined to your business whereas site visitors have fewer odds of turning into customers. You can be available for your client all round the clock.

5. Competitive advantage – Another advantage of owning a mobile app is that you can beat your competitors with an e-commerce app. If a competitor is confused between your and your competitor’s website, your app availability will surely help him make the decision.

Grocery app development, food ordering app development, apparel app development, medicine ordering app development, jewelry buying app development are some of the leading e-commerce mobile apps in trend currently.

Whichever app development you pick, it is important to remember the following important features.

• You should provide an easy registration and login process to your customers else they will not feel comfortable while using your e-commerce mobile app.

• You should provide multiple payment methods so that your customer can pay either of the ways they feel comfortable with.

• Make sure you are going for a multi-lingual ecommerce app development. It will make it possible for you to get customers from different regions.

• Don’t forget to add loyalty programs or discounts in your app, it will be one of the reasons your customers will get attracted to your app.

• Allow your users to take advantage of advanced search with the filters and sort function. Users will love your app when they can specifically search for what they want.

• Real-time tracking of delivery emerges as an exclusive feature that you cannot ignore. So consider it essential while you go for e-commerce app development.

Even more startling: 10% of advice was found to leave investors in an even worse financial position.

Through a “vertically integrated business model”, Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank, Westpac, ANZ and AMP offer ‘in house’ financial advice, and collectively, control more than half of Australia’s financial planners.

It’s no surprise ASIC’s review found advisers at these banks favoured financial products that connected to their parent company, with 68% of client’s funds invested in ‘in house’ products as oppose to external products that may have been on the firms list.

Why the banks integrated financial advice model is flawed

It’s hard to believe the banks can keep a straight face and say they can abide by the duty for advisers to act absolutely in the best interests of a client.

Under the integrated financial advice model, there are layers of different fees including adviser fees, platform fees and investment management fees adding up to 2.5-3.5%

The typical breakdown of fees is usually as follows: an adviser charge of 0.8% to 1.1%, a platform fee of between 0.4% and 0.8%, and a managed fund fee of between 0.7% and 2.1%. These fees are not only opaque, but are sufficiently high to limit the ability of the client to quickly earn real rates of return.

Layers of fees placed into the business model used by the banks means there is not necessarily an incentive for the financial advice arm to make a profit, because the profits can be made in the upstream parts of the supply chain through the banks promoting their own products.

This business model, however, is flawed, and cannot survive in a world where people are demanding greater accountability for their investments, increased transparency in relation to fees and increased control over their investments.

It is noteworthy that the truly independent financial advisory firms in Australia that offer separately managed accounts have done everything in their power to avoid using managed funds and keep fee’s competitive.

The banks have refused to admit their integrated approach to advice is fatally flawed. When the Australian Financial Review approached the Financial Services Council (FSC), a peak body that represents the ‘for-profit’ wealth managers, for a defence if the layered fee arrangements, a spokesman said no generalisations could be made.

There are fundamental flaws in the advice model, and it will be interesting to see what the upcoming royal commission into banking will do to change some of the contentious issues surround integrated financial advice.

Many financial commentators are calling for a separation of financial advice attached to banks, with obvious bias and failure to meet the best interests of clients becoming more apparent.

Chris Brycki, CEO of Stockspot, says “investors should receive fair and unbiased financial advice from experts who will act in the best interests of their client. What Australians currently get is product pushing from salespeople who are paid by the banks.”

Brycki is calling for structural reform to fix the problems caused by the dominant market power of the banks to ensure that consumers are protected, advisers are better educated and incentives are aligned.

1. Cost of Living: Some factors, determining, the Cost of Living, include: wages (and wage growth); prices, etc, and how wages, are, or, aren’t able, to keep – up, with the increase in costs, etc! Most realize, we have, in the past – few months, experienced, a huge, jump, in pricing, most – apparent, in the food stores, restaurants, and, nearly, everything, related – to, day – to – day, existence, etc!

2. Federal Reserve: In recent times, the near – historic – low, extended period, of interest rates, has, in addition, to the intended measures (helping businesses, and the economy, in trying – times), has caused a Real Estate, Sellers Market, and, a huge rise, in home prices, in most parts of this country! In addition, it created a surge, in consumer use of credit, because, borrowing, appeared, cheaper! However, most economists forecast, many of these supports, and maintaining, such low rates, will, gradually, be reduced (or minimized), probably, beginning, next year. What impact will that have, and will we see, the historic reaction, which has been, when rates rise, it helps reduce inflation, etc?

3. National economy/ conditions: Largely, because of a world – wide, supply – chain, set of obstacles/ challenged, many industries, have experienced, challenges, in terms of, getting sufficient amounts of needed materials, etc! Go into, nearly, any store, and you will see, more – sparse, shelves, than we have seen, in recent memory! In addition, building supplies, products, food, toys, cars and car parts, etc, are under – stress, because of this!

4. Worldwide economies/ economic conditions: Nearly, every nation, is experiencing, economic issues and challenges! The United Kingdom, because of worldwide, as well as specific national trends/ causes/ conditions, has been largely, impacted! Since, we live, largely, in a global economy, when there is any disruption, in the supply – chain, it affects, everyone!

5. Stock and Bond Markets: Because of several reasons/ factors, the United States Stock Market, has benefited, significantly, and experienced, significant increases, in the price of stocks. In addition to the obvious ones, because, interest rates, have been, so low, many investors, believed, stocks, were, nearly, the only game – in – town! When, if, interest rates, rise, bond rates, will rise, and existing, bond prices, will adjust, and drop!

6. Immediate, intermediate, longer – term ramifications/ impacts: The immediate impact of inflation, is, usually, rising prices, and, wages, which, usually, rise, at a far – lower rate! In the intermediate – period, we begin to see, weakening economic trends, and in the longer – term, depending on how long, it ensues, there are often, several, undesirable ramifications, and impacts!

Don’t take inflation, and its risks, for – granted! The more you know, and understand, the better prepared, you will be!

1. Bond prices and interest rates: The price of a bond, generally, is inversely – related to interest rates! When these rates go down, prices, rise, and when they go up, the inverse occurs! Bonds have, what is known, as, a par – value, which is the price, paid, at the end of the term. Markets usually set these at 100, which represents $1,000 per bond, at maturity. However, during the period, the pricing can rise or fall, which impacts, liquidity – related issues!

2. Mortgage rates: For the last few years, we have been witnessing and experiencing, record – low, mortgage interest rates, which have helped the overall, real estate/ housing market, especially, in terms of, pricing increases! In most areas of this country, we are seeing, home prices, at their highest levels, ever, by a significant, dramatic amount! When this rate, is low, a home buyer is able to buy, more – house – for – his – bucks, because, his monthly payments, are so low! Consider, however, what might be the potential ramifications, and impacts, when these rates, will, inevitably, rise?

3. Consumer credit: Low costs of borrowing, help the automobile industry, in terms of consumer financing, etc! Although, not as much as other vehicles, rates on credit card debt, are lower, and there are often, shorter – term, promotions, offering deals! However, since, most of these are variable, and based, on some index, etc, what happens, when there is an increase, in this?

4. Business borrowing: Another area affected, is business cost of borrowing! Presently, they have had access, to relatively, cheap – money, which helps in reducing the costs of borrowing, overall operations, purchasing inventory, etc. But, what happens, when this, ticks – up?

5. Impacts on stock market prices: For some time, because bonds have paid so little, in terms of dividends, etc, many have considered, the stock market, the only game, in – town! In addition, many corporations, have seemed, better – off, than they probably are, and we have witnessed, a higher, ratio of prices to profits, than in the past! How long will this last? How high can it go?

Many factors impact these issues, especially: actual and/ or, perceived inflation; consumer confidence; politics/ government actions/ the Federal Reserve, etc. The more you know, and understand, hopefully, the better – prepared, you will be!