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Category: Marketing
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Holiday-Ready Websites: How to Capture More Seasonal Sales (Without Rebuilding Your Site)
The holiday season moves fast, and online shoppers move even faster. They’re searching for the perfect gift, comparing options, and making snap decisions. The real question is: Will your holiday-ready website convert that urgency into sales or send buyers somewhere else?
During the holidays, attention spikes, but attention doesn’t pay the bills. Conversions do. This season isn’t just busy: it’s competitive. As shoppers search for the fastest, easiest way to buy or book before the end-of-the-year rush, small businesses that show up with clarity and confidence will win the sale. A website that makes customers wait and wonder? Those are easy to abandon. Here’s how to turn visitors into buyers, bookers, and subscribers before the busy season hits, without a full holiday-ready website redesign.
In this article, we will:
- Boost your holiday lead capture while customer intent is at its peak
- Guide shoppers directly to seasonal offers where they’re most likely to click
- Remove confusion from your buyers journey with clear CTAs and intuitive navigation
- Build instant trust with first-time customers through social proof and up-to-date business info
- Eliminate checkout and booking friction before it costs you sales
Cart abandonment spikes to 70–85% during the holidays. Customers sometimes need a gentle reminder or clear motivation to complete the purchase.
Turn Browsers Into Buyers with Seasonal Lead Capture
During the holidays, the intention to make a purchase is high, and your website needs to meet the moment. To capitalize on that momentum, the goal is to provide time-sensitive offers or items that drive customers to stay on your site and sign up for future correspondence. Because of this, using a variety of tools is key, and employing more than one at a time is the most effective way to make the most of each visitor’s time on your site.
Smart seasonal lead magnets for Retail:
- Gift guides or product quizzes
- Exclusive holiday coupons
- Early access sign-ups
- Downloadable buyer checklists
Smart seasonal lead magnets for Restaurants:
- Gift guides or product quizzes
- Exclusive holiday coupons
- Early access sign-ups
- Downloadable buyer checklists
Smart seasonal lead magnets for Service Providers:
- Gift guides or product quizzes
- Exclusive holiday coupons
- Early access sign-ups
- Downloadable buyer checklists
Quick Wins that you can do on your site right now!
- Add a short “Holiday Deals” email form to your homepage
- Embed newsletter signup in blog content and product pages
- Offer promo codes in exchange for sign-ups
Small touches, such as urgency language (e.g., “Limited Time!” or “Ends Sunday!”), dramatically boost conversions during peak shopping weeks. Placing little reminders and prompts throughout the site is a quick and easy way to capture leads, but remember to put the cues in common-sense places to avoid driving your potential customer away with annoying pop-ups or flashy pushes to capture their information. Building webpages and full websites does take finesse, and if you are feeling overwhelmed with the task, let us help!
Serve Seasonal Offers Where Customers Are Looking
If visitors have to hunt for holiday deals, they aren’t going to stay long. They are going to “bounce.” To help retain customers on your site, consider adding a “Holiday Hub.” This could be a temporary landing page or menu item that can be linked everywhere!
Where to add the link?
- Top navigation bar
- Home hero banner
- Pop-ups and slide-ins
- Social + email promotions
Then align each offer to clear audiences:
- Under $25 stocking stuffers
- Gifts for parents, teachers, coworkers
- Local booking specials
- Last-minute digital gift certificates
Putting the right offer in the right place creates more clicks that turn into carts. Need specific industry ideas? Let’s consult, and FDM can not only audit your site to find those perfect, underutilized spaces, but also design and build your new landing page!
Clear CTAs + Obvious Buying Paths = More Revenue
A common conversion killer: customers don’t know the next step. If you create vague CTAs (call-to-actions), then customers are going to have to connect more dots than they want to. Time is precious to potential customers, so if they have to crawl the page to find an actionable item, chances are they are probably going to leave. As easy as it is to create seasonal landing pages to make finding the deals easy, adding buttons and links throughout your content allows customers to easily connect to you or purchase your product or service.
Holiday CTA upgrades:
- Replace weak text like “Learn More” with “Buy Now,” “Reserve Pickup,” or “Add to Cart“
- Add sticky “Shop Holiday Specials” button, especially on mobile
- Use contrasting colors for checkout paths so the stand out
- Shorten the number of clicks to purchase (ALWAYS 3 steps or fewer)
Even service-based small businesses should push direct action:
- “Book by Dec 15th for guaranteed holiday installation!”
Customers shouldn’t need to think. They should just be able to click. It not only makes the experience easier for them but also increases conversions by supporting impulse decisions and time-sensitive motivation.
Build Trust Fast with Social Proof + Accurate Info
New customers don’t know you yet, so trust becomes a quick deciding factor. Leverage your proof-of-work, loyal customers, and expertise to build that bridge and close the sale.
Essential trust builders:
- Real customer reviews
- Photos of products and the people behind the business
- Video testimonials (short + genuine)
And the fastest way to boost confidence? Getting your Google Business Profile polished!
Update your Google Business Profile
- Holiday hours
- Seasonal photos
- Booking buttons
- Updated services/products
Staying accurate on Google = customers trust you before they click.
Remove the Friction Before the Rush Hits
Today’s fast-moving world finds people more impatient, and during the holiday stress, patience is even shorter. We don’t blame them! We are them. Packed schedules and holiday budgets make time even more precious, so your website needs to be at peak performance to avoid losing the customer. Use this guide to make sure your site is technically up to snuff. Below are the other journey hurdles you should be considering:
If your site is:
- Slow to load
- Hard to navigate on mobile
- Confusing at checkout
- Missing secure payment badges
- Lacking multiple payment options
…holiday shoppers will leave.
Instead of rebuilding from scratch, focus on fixing the chokepoints:
✅ Improve mobile usability
✅ Speed up load times
✅ Simplify forms and checkout
✅ Fix any broken or outdated pages
✅ Utilize trusted and diverse checkout methodsEven small upgrades can protect big holiday revenue.
Small Holiday Tweaks = Major Sales Wins
The viewers of your site are ready to buy. That’s how they made it to you! Your website just needs to help them finish the job.
By focusing on:
- Seasonal Visibility
- Frictionless Navigation
- Clear Calls to Action (CTA)
- Accurate Local Information
- and Trust-Building Elements
You turn holiday browsers into loyal, returning customers. Before the season hits, Forward Digital Marketing can fully optimize your site.
Want a Quick Win? Do a 15-Minute “Holiday Readiness Check”
Want us to handle the changes for you?
Let’s make sure this season is your most successful yet.
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Google Business Profiles: The Secret Weapon for Successful Small Businesses
What’s the first thing you do when you’re thinking about trying a new restaurant? Or when your toilet won’t stop running and you need a plumber, fast? You grab your phone and open Google. And in the top right corner – the Google Business Profile.
Imagine you search “nice restaurants near me,” and two options pop up. Both have a Google Business Profile. The first has a decent name, a few reviews, and one blurry photo of the dining room. Nothing special.
The second? Same kind of restaurant, similar menu, but this one immediately stands out. Why? Because before you’ve even clicked, you can see glowing reviews, crisp photos of the food and atmosphere, a phone number, and a “Reserve Now” button ready to go. You don’t even think twice! You pick the second one with confidence.
Was it your business that was chosen? Or where you overlooked because of an incredibly simple mistake a lot of small businesses overlook – The Google Business Profile (GBP).
If you’re not showing up where your customers are searching, you’re invisible, no matter how amazing your business is.
What a Google Business Profile Actually Does (and Why It Matters)
A Google Business Profile (GBP) is a business’s official Google listing. Before 2022, GBP was the Google My Business, but after a rebrand and refresh, the GBP gives small business owners more tool and control their brand and information.
A well optimized Google Business Profile allows you the business owner to:
- Manage Information about your business. This can be your website and physical address, to your services and products. It allows potential customers to quickly find the important details about you and your small business.
- Interact with new and old customers easily with your GBP. Not only can you read and respond to any online reviews left by customers, you can also add posts to keep your current base up-to-date with any new offerings or events. It’s like a small social media feed that can offer online viewers quick glances at your living business.
- Understand and maximize metrics by digging into important data that your Google Business Profile creates for you. With your custom GBP, you can see how customers find you through search keywords, see how they navigate to your profile, and track campaigns to determine how to best use your resources to expand your customer base.
Use these checklists to audit or build your Google Business Profile
5 Common GBP Mistakes That Cost You Local Traffic
It’s so easy to overlook your own Google Business Profile, but others looking for you (or your competitor) easily find it. Here are five common things you can correct to capture those eyes.
- Incomplete profiles – no hours, no description, no HIGH QUALITY photos
- It’s an easy fix! Fill every field out. Google rewards complete profiles by ranking them higher in searches.
- Inconsistent NAP info – that’s Name, Address, Phone
- Match your NAP information on all websites, GBP, and directories. If it’s hard or confusing to find, customers will stop looking.
- Neglecting Reviews – don’t just ask, respond
- If someone took their time to leave a review, you can take the time to respond (yes, even the bad ones).
- Poor Photos – outdated, dim, or irrelevant images scare people away
- Add bright, current photos of your location, staff, and work.
- No Updates or Posts – Google is social media too
- Add life to your profile by adding current promos, new products, or events weekly.
How to Optimize Your GBP for Local SEO
Google Business Profiles are free and an amazing resource, but you need to use it as another smart tool. Optimize it for top performance, allowing your small business to shine in the busy digital space.
- Add primary & secondary categories strategically.
- Use keywords naturally in your business description.
- Upload videos and FAQs.
- Enable messaging and booking links.
- Encourage regular check-ins and photo uploads.
By building your listing for the local SEO (search engine optimization), you are generating organic leads. Creating a well rounded and clear Google Business Profile encourages the search engine to prioritize your listing, setting yourself up for more views. Don’t let those viewers (and potential customers) be discouraged to find an old, outdated profile.
Have You Googled You Recently?
Google gives you the platform and access to a local audience looking for small businesses just like you – you just have to fill it in!
Check your Google Business Profile today! Look it over for potential improvements. No neglected profile is perfect! It should be checked weekly.
It might feel like just another thing on your small business to-do list, but your Google Business Profile is one of the most valuable tools you have. Forward Digital Marketing can help lighten your load and build a fully optimized profile that helps customers find, and choose, you.
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Weekly Canva Design Challenge 06.17.2022: Watch Our Designers get Creative!
Weekly our graphic designers get to flex their creative muscles with the Weekly Canva Design Challenge! This fun community challenge sets a weekly theme that artists, designers, and regular people around the world get to create a graphic inspired by! This week’s design theme is travel! Here is what our team has come up with!
To vote for your favorite, head over to Instagram to vote for your favorite design! Share the design to your story to get your friends on your side! 😉
Canva Design One!
Something romantic in traveling is the art collected along the way! Canva Design Two!
Traveling is a goal that keeps on giving! What do our designers win? Right now, just bragging rights… But you should leave comments with some ideas for future competitions! 😏
Honorable Mention: The Big Boss Had Some Fun Too!
Who do you think takes bragging rights away this round?! Follow for weekly design challenges! Hire us for your own website and social media designs!
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Free Canva Templates to Save Your Small Business Time!
Canva is a great resource for small businesses to create visually appealing graphics, and though it is an easy and user-friendly system, it can be very time-consuming and take a ton of creativity to come up with unique visuals. We’ve created some free Canva templates for your brand to use!
All templates below are free to use and completely customizable with a free Canva account. Share with others if you enjoy these free templates☺
To use free templates, follow link below template of your choice. Then choose to “use this template” and a copy will be made for you to edit freely!
Golden Sage Eucalyptus! Free Canva Template from FDM
Sage and gold are not only trending but super fresh for any brand! Check out how one of our brands used this exact template for their very own content! Video at the bottom of the page.
Get the graphics free to customize for your brand here! The original template size is 1080×1350.
Starry Good Vibes! Free Canva Template from FDM
Sometimes, a filler post with a great message is all you need! Download this template and exchange the colors for your brand’s to spread the good vibes.
Get the graphics free to customize for your brand here! The original template size is 1080×1350.
Overexposed Outdoor Photographs! Free Canva Template from FDM
Any outdoor enthusiasts would love to use these eye-catching graphics! Are you selling hiking gear? Are you a nature photographer? No matter how you use it, you can fully edit the graphic to display your brand’s vision!
Get the graphics free to customize for your brand here! The original template size is 1080×1350.
Want more Free Canva Graphics? Be sure to follow the blog and follow us on social media to get all of the updated templates! Need a custom template built for your brand? Click here!
Check out how @ajacqofall (A Jacq of All Trades) used our Golden Sage Eucalyptus for her brand on the mobile Canva App!
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Weekly Canva Design Challenge 06.01.2022: Watch Our Designers get Creative!
Weekly our graphic designers get to flex their creative muscles with the Weekly Canva Design Challenge! This fun community challenge sets a weekly theme that artists, designers, and regular people around the world get to create a graphic inspired by! This week’s design theme is pineapple! Here is what our team has come up with!
To vote for your favorite, head over to Instagram to vote for your favorite design! Share the design to your story to get your friends on your side! 😉
What do our designers win? Right now, just bragging rights… But you should leave comments with some ideas for future competitions! 😏
Design One!
Design Two!
Who do you think takes bragging rights away this round?! Follow for weekly design challenges! Hire us for your own website and social media designs!
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Instagram’s Tips and Tricks for Small Business Growth, April 2022
Here is Instagram’s latest tips for “HOW TO GROW AND SCALE YOUR SMALL BUSINESS!”
View the PDF here to download Instagram’s small business growth tips and tricks.
See how we’ve made it into content! You can do the same with things! Be sure to follow us on Facebook and Instagram to learn how to make great content. Contact with us to see how we can help you make it even better!
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THIS JUST IN! INSTAGRAM TESTING NEW FULLY-INTEGRATED MAIN FEED
We do not want to sound the alarm, but Instagram is experimenting with a whole new feed experience! Something creators and businesses alike should be aware of is that this will change the way you post! No more top bar of stories. No more bottom bar with feed, reels, and shopping all separated in different links… Nope, Instagram is going… TikTok?
But why? Why is Instagram willing to throw out their well-known playbook for someone else’s? Why is Instagram testing a new fully-integrated main feed?
The Background – Instagram vs. TikTok
Instagram has been working hard to take over as the top performing social media platform since it was first released in 2010. Starting out as an image sharing site for artists and photographers, it has since grown into a platform also three different video-sharing abilities: IGTV, stories, and reels. Reels are definitely a response to TikTok’s domination of in-feed videos that can be set to music or voice-overs. As of 2018, Instagram has succeeded in becoming an elite platform, having over one-billion active monthly users! It has since grown 22.9% since last year, gaining 73.5 million active users in 2021.
After rebranding in 2019, TikTok has had over 2.6 billion downloads globally; 315 million of those downloads came within the first three months of 2020, with the global pandemic motivating us to stay inside and isolated. Those early 2020 downloads is what pushed TikTok over the edge, making it king of the social media apps!
The Proof – Instagram Experimental Feed Shown
In the example posted by Alessandro Paluzzi, via twitter, you can see how the experimental feed would now be fully-integrated. Images, stories, and reels would all now be in a single flow. In this system, stories would be presented in a frame bar with the ability to swipe left to see other frames, while videos would be differentiated with a progress bar.
#Instagram is working on a full immersive feed 👀
Alessandro Paluzzi shows first snapshot of experimental Instagram feed.
Originally tweeted by Alessandro Paluzzi (@alex193a) on March 25, 2022.
The Future?
So how would this new feed affect the algorithm?
In theory, this would help make the algorithm more intuitive. The change would allow you to see data based off of the response to each specific post, whereas right now stories, reels, posts, and IGTV cannot be compared side-by-side because they are all separated into different areas of the app. This is where TikTok succeeds!
The video platform is able to pinpoint which specific content is engaging to the consumer. Not only that, TikTok can identify the exact point the content stops becoming engaging! TikTok not only measures if you “like” the content, but also how many times it was watched, how quickly it was swiped away from or back to, and every data response specific to that video. All of this data collection is what helps make the platform engaging to its audience- it learns the audience quicker and at a deeper level, making it even more addictive!
Knowing what content is pulling your consumers in can help you create even better future content! Better posts make for more engaged followers. More engaged followers makes your brand more authentic and inviting!
All of this Instagram feed change is just a rumor and not something that is set in stone. As we analyze our own feeds and build better content for our consumer, video content is absolutely something to embrace! TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and even Pinterest are all using the short video template as its new favorite way to disseminate information. You may not like it, but your followers do!
Connect With Forward!
In the future, we will share more ways to create videos with ease and as little pain as possible! Remember, you do not have to be in videos for your consumer to engage, but building self confidence can lead to brand confidence!
Follow Forward Digital Marketing on Instagram @forwarddigitalmarketing2020 and Facebook @4warddigtialmarketing to get more social media and digital marketing scoops and insights.
Do you need…
—–> A team to help you manage your social media brand?
—–> Social media strategy built for you?
—–> New website created?
We’ve got you! Contact us!
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Make the Meme! How to: Pop-Culture to Support Your Social Media Marketing Strategy!
Last night (February 27th, 2022) little gold trophies were handed out to Hollywood’s greatest and meme gold was created! Will Smith, the popular singer-actor, was provoked to slapping the well known comedian, Chris Rock over some very poorly timed jokes… Luckily, the altercation has been quickly resolved and it has been de-escalated without incident. But just because the two celebrities are over it, does not mean that we are not! We love creating memes for our social media marketing!
Make Your Social Media Marketing Meme Strategic!
A GREAT digital marketing technique is to be quick to jump on a pop-culture moment and making content that fits your business niche. When Will Smith slapped Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscars Award Show, the internet meme is quickly becoming a sensationion! You can take these moments and use them to your advantage by adding humor to the situation and making it about your specific market. Look at our memes below!
When the Oscars provide Meme Gold! Me vs. The Algorithm 
“When I Post More Than 3 Times in an Hour vs My Social Media Manager 
“Reels Do Not Work” vs. “Social Media Research” The Britney Spears’ Wedding Digital Marketing Meme!
Britney Spears’ 2022 wedding was a beautiful event! The famous gal gangs features: Donatella Versace, Paris Hilton, Madonna, Selena Gomez, and Drew Barrymore New Double Decker Plane Seats… Digital Marketing Meme
Double decker airplane seat design < Golden meme template Forward Digital Marketing and YOU!
We love joking about the algorithm, but usually users struggle with content engagement because of a lack of consistency… We help small business create a better plan of action for their social media feeds. Also, Forward Digital Marketing helps you better understand your digital insights, making your marketing campaigns for effective. Here at Forward Digital Marketing, we do the marketing research so you can keep your business growing in other areas! That being said, be sure to follow us on Facebook and Instagram to see all of our advice!
We love when you build original content to support your small business! But, we also love when you share ours!
Need more help building original content to support your business?!
Connect with us to learn how we can help guide and direct your social media and digital marketing strategy!
Need a website built? We do basic website and ecommerce sites! Reach out! We would love to hear from you, today.
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How to Manage Facebook Follow Settings
Good marketing is good management.
If you don’t manage your online presence well, there is a good chance you can lose business to someone who is running their business effectively.
You may want to follow various similar businesses to enhance your own or use these steps to get your new and current followers to be more engaging.
Follow these steps to improve your Facebook following!
Once you have liked a page, there is a 3 dot button to the right.
This will give you different options. Choose ‘Follow Settings’ at the top. If you haven’t followed the page already, you will have to select ‘Follow’ before you see the ‘Follow Settings’ option.
There will be many choices to select, but what we are focusing on is the News Feed section. By choosing the ‘Favorite’ option, this will make the posts that a page sends out appear higher as you scroll through Facebook.
Don’t forget to scroll down and click the blue ‘Update’ button or your settings will not save.
We hope this crash course gives you a better understanding of how to improve your Facebook follow settings.
Log on to your Facebook today to get started with your Facebook follow settings!
If you would like to know more, we have the answers! Visit our Contact page or follow us on our social media accounts below to chat.
Always Looking Forward!
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The 5 Must Knows of Mobile Marketing
Adobe defines mobile marketing as a multi-channel digital marketing strategy aimed at reaching a target audience on smartphones, tablets, and other mobile electronic devices via websites, email, social media, messages, and apps. This read on mobile marketing isn’t just for business owners, managers, or technologically sound people. It’s for everybody because in a way, marketing connects all of us through our mobile devices. So wherever you fit into the marketing world from producer to consumer, it’s important to develop personalized content and keep the attention of your audience through their little screens!
1. If it’s not obvious already… mobile users are EVERYWHERE.
A study done by the Pew Research Center in 2019 shows that 1 in 5 Americans are ‘smartphone only’ internet users. This means there is no laptop or computer in their house or any type of broadband service. So, as everybody continues to be on the go, so does their mobile phone! As a business, this is important to know because you have to find a way to strategically market where your target audience is – which is more than likely on mobile devices.
2. The number of smartphone users increase daily.
Statista predicts that the number of smartphone users worldwide will surpass 3.8 billion in 2021. Whereas in 2016, there were only (but still a lot) 2.5 billion users.
Number of smartphone users worldwide from 2016 to 2021 This indicates yet again that people would rather be on their phone than anything else. So what does this mean for producers, managers, and anybody that develops and creates for the digital marketing world? It time to design easy to engage and mobile friendly websites, apps, messaging, accounts, and more!
3. Good mobile marketing = good mobile traffic
No, I’m not talking about when the highway is backed up. I’m talking about ways to track your audience’s responsiveness to what you are putting on the internet for them to see! Google Analytics is a popular site for looking into all kinds of reports from page visits to how users found your site to what kind of browser they were on – it’s crazy y’all! It might even be able to show you what you had for breakfast…just kidding!
4. You have Viral Potential
If you don’t believe me, just look at Instagram! Influencers, brands, bloggers, small business owners, friends and everyone in between can use Instagram to promote their content. In fact, Instagram alone has topped over 1 billion monthly users according to Adobe Spark. An app like Instagram is so easy to share videos and/or pictures by messaging, putting it on other social media platforms, copying the link, etc. Your content can be found by hundreds, thousands, and millions of people! This form of mass communication creates room for more exposure without the effort of the company. Just let the mobile marketing content speak for itself and people will share!
5. Payments made easy
This is specifically for anyone that sells any time of product or service online. We all know how it is looking through your purse to find your wallet, swiping your card or making exact change for your purchase. Comparingly, online payments are playing a significant role especially during this COVID period. So get online, sit back, and watch your mobile marketing sales go up!
Now you know – mobile is the best way to market! So what are you waiting for? Bring your business to mobile phones to see great new results!
Struggling to figure out the best way to market on mobile? No worries, that’s what we are here for! You can send us a message on our Contact Us page, give us a call, or connect with us on social media account below. We hope you learned something new from this article and don’t be afraid to reach out to us if you have any questions…that is what we are here for!
Always Looking Forward,
Shelby
