strategy

The holiday season is busy for all of us, but especially for those managing a retail business. We get it — you want to make sure you take full advantage of holiday spending, which grows every year. In 2020 holiday spending reached $789 billion. In 2021 that number reached $886.7 billion. This year the National Retail Foundation (NRF) is forecasting retail sales to reach another record high at $4.86 trillion. Whether you’re a seasoned online retailer, or this is your first holiday season selling online, we’ve got the holiday retail marketing advice you need. We created our Holiday Retail Marketing Checklist to show you the online marketing steps that actually make a difference when it comes to taking advantage of holiday spending. So click the button below to get our checklist to make the 2022 holiday season your most successful yet! Download the checklist What you’ll learn from our Retail Holiday

The holidays and the end of the year will be here before you know it. As a nonprofit, the next few months are a prime opportunity to set your organization up for success to hit your year-end fundraising goals by building and following a solid year-end fundraising marketing plan. This year, Giving Tuesday is November 29, 2022. However, it’s estimated that nearly one-third of annual giving occurs in December, and 12% of that happens in the last three days of the year. People like to show support at the end of the year because they: Feel happier when helping others in need around the holidaysWant to feel like they are making a differenceLike to take advantage of tax deductionsWant to be connected to something positive While there are many other charities and organizations vying for attention, you need to stay active and in constant communication with current and potential donors.

Have you put in hundreds of hours of work (or more) into your blog but still don’t get traffic?  Perhaps, you’re an expert in some area and have useful knowledge to share. And you create top-notch blog posts that you know will help people. But when you look at your traffic or scroll down to your comment section, you can almost hear the sound of crickets.  What’s going on?  People aren’t reading your blog, and you need to change that. In this post, we’re going to dive in deep and learn how to increase your blog traffic and engage readers.  Why it’s critical to increase traffic to your blog You might think that setting up a blog and creating quality blog posts should be all you need to do. But your work doesn’t stop there.  If you’re running ads on your blog or doing affiliate marketing, you need people to

If you run a nonprofit, you’re probably already familiar with Giving Tuesday. If not, it’s a national day of giving that’s celebrated each year on the first Tuesday after Thanksgiving. It’s similar to days like Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday, except rather than shopping at their favorite businesses, people have the chance to make donations to the organizations and causes that are important to them. Is Giving Tuesday really worth it for my nonprofit? As a former nonprofit communications director, I know it can feel like Giving Tuesday is really noisy and crowded and that it’s better to put your focus on planning your end-of-year (EOY) campaign. But I promise, Giving Tuesday is worth your time and effort. The truth is, Giving Tuesday gets bigger every year. In 2021, Giving Tuesday generated over $2.7 billion in donations from over 35 million participants. If you’re worried about managing

This year, Cyber Monday sales are expected to top $11 billion in sales. And small businesses stand to rake in some major Cyber Monday revenue if they can put together a compelling offer and effectively promote it with an email series. Not sure how to take advantage of all that spending? You’ve come to the right place! In this article, I’ll help you get prepared to send a sales-generating Cyber Monday email, and I’ll share some real Cyber Monday email examples to help inspire your campaign. When is Cyber Monday 2022? Cyber Monday falls each year on the Monday after Thanksgiving. This year, Cyber Monday is on November 28, 2022. How to create a great Cyber Monday email campaign Before we dive into how to create a great Cyber Monday email, I want to take a moment for you to consider doing an email series rather than a single email.  Why a

In the United States, holiday shopping is good for business. On average people spend $843.4 billion during the holiday season. And Cyber Monday (Nov. 28th) has become a popular holiday kickoff for ecommerce. This year it’s expected to top $11 billion in sales. Hosting giveaways throughout the weekend or even earlier in November is a successful strategy to capture these shoppers and draw them into your ecommerce store. The trick is to choose your resources carefully and to be specific about the giveaway parameters like location and timing. Use these Thanksgiving giveaway ideas to jump-start your promotion strategy and draw business to your site. Why you should host a Thanksgiving giveaway Interactive marketing is memorable. It helps generate leads and gets more engagement than traditional social media posts and other content. This type of marketing is aimed at building relationships with customers rather than simply trying to get them to

Black Friday is when the holiday insanity truly begins. But with that shopping frenzy comes an incredible opportunity for your small business to drum up a lot of holiday sales. In fact, in 2021, people spent a record $886.7 billion on Black Friday, up over 14 percent compared to 2020! To take advantage of one of the biggest shopping holidays of the year, you want to plan your Black Friday email campaign ahead of time, and rather than wait for the day to arrive, you should start sending emails early.  Once your customers know to expect your email on Black Friday, you can use your next email to present a unique offer, and then make sure the best deals go to your best customers. We’ll show you how. Read on for our tips to make this your most successful Black Friday email campaign yet, along with templates and real-life examples

To start your business off on the right foot, be SMART about your goals. My marketing agency was doomed from the start. At least that’s what I thought in 2010. I had no clear direction or confidence, and I nearly gave up on my dreams of owning a small business.  That was until my wife, Linda, taught me how to use SMART goals.  I remember sitting at my desk in the living room of our one-bedroom apartment, head in my hands, as I tried to figure out how I was going to make this work. I got a tap on the shoulder and turned to see Linda with what looked like an arts and crafts project. “Here!” she said as she thrust the items into my hands, “I want you to hang this chalkboard up on the wall and write down how many clients and how much you want to

The holiday season is a crucial time for fundraising because 31% of annual giving happens in December, but it’s also a time when your audience is most overwhelmed by sales and nonprofit messaging. And while everyone else is planning their holiday meals and gift-buying strategies, you’re looking at your accounts and wondering if you’re going to have enough money and resources to keep the doors open next year. To make sure you have enough, you need to find a way to connect with potential donors quickly and inspire them to make their donations now — instead of waiting until the end of the year. You can do that by leveraging Thanksgiving and Giving Tuesday. Thanksgiving is the perfect time for gratitude messaging — people are in a giving mind-frame, and you can incorporate the Giving Tuesday program into your campaign.  Elements of a great Thanksgiving appeals message To craft an

Back in the day, people would simply visit a local shopping mall to browse storefronts in person, looking for the best deals available while they last. But in today’s age of mobile technology, social media, and online shopping, digital marketing has rapidly become the primary mode of engagement to spread the word about seasonal offerings. This means that in order for emerging brands to remain competitive during the hectic holidays, it’s critical to develop a digital marketing strategy that stands apart from other brands. Using these digital marketing tips for the holidays can help you compete in the online market this year. Tips for keeping your small business marketing organized during the holiday season With so much going on over the holidays, creating an effective marketing campaign is sometimes easier said than done. Luckily, it’s fairly easy to put your digital marketing efforts into perspective by following a few simple