This time of year is one of the biggest for businesses. The Fall season kicks off the holiday festivities and that means customers are buying. To ensure that you are cashing in on this prime time for marketing, here are 10 top tips to spruce up your marketing for the season. 

1. Use a Content Calendar for easy writing prompts
A Content Calendar is important when it comes to planning out ideas for your marketing which helps to give you and your team clarity around what you will be showcasing for that time-frame. 

2. Celebrate Autumn - nature, outdoor activities, harvest
Stay current with the season. One of the ways to do that is to share some of your favorite memories or activities at this time of the year. 
Images of hot chocolate, the leaves changing into beautiful fall colors are simple ways to spruce up your marketing.

3. Capitalize on Trends: Back to School, Fall Fashion
During this time of year, moms of school-age children are all the way into back to school. I remember those days and if you are a mom, you do as well. Tap into that. Again, you can share your experiences. If you offer products/services that are related in anyway, this is a great opportunity.  Fall fashion for business women is a great topic as well. Every year when we host the MACsWomen Success Summit, we share information on what to wear. It is usually around this time of year. 

4. Show support and share a story for Veteran's Day
With several family members in the military, Veteran's Day is a day to remember the men and women who have served and paid the ultimate price for our great country. Incorporate that into your marketing with a custom graphic that shows support or even offer a deep discount to military families.


5. Share Holiday Budgeting & Saving techniques
Fall is more expensive than we often admit. But fall means great shopping, trying to cram activities in before winter hits, Halloween, holiday shopping and holiday hosting, all of which really add up. Offering budgeting and saving techniques at this time of year can be great advice for your audience. 

6. Photo Contest - Encourage Fans to Upload their Holiday Pics
Oh, this is a fun one! Who doesn't love pictures? Especially pictures of other people and at holiday time? Run a contest on your Facebook page where your fans share their holiday photos and the picture with the most engagement wins. So fun and a great way to spruce up your holiday marketing!

7. #Hashtag Your Way into their Hearts - #Gratitude #FallLove
I never get tired of training on the importance of hashtags! It is how you get attention and join conversations online. Shoppers are getting savvy when looking for content online. Using hashtags that are related to your business or your offers will help your content get found.

8. Election Time - Create a Voting Challenge
Here again, you can incorporate what is happening in real-time into your Fall marketing. Run a challenge. They are fun and excellent for building a loyal tribe. 

9. Thanksgiving is a Big One - Show the Love
The biggest shopping weekend for businesses and non-profit organizations. Show the love with discounts and content that is centered around being grateful and compassionate towards your audience. If you need help with putting a holiday marketing plan together, contact me. 

10. Run holiday sales!
The holiday season is all about giving…major discounts! With over 35% of shoppers making holiday purchases before Thanksgiving, this is the time to start pushing some sales. On our handy content calendar, you’ll notice we took the liberty of including a few promotion ideas. You can run a “buy one get one free” sale, offer 50% off on your entire store, give free shipping for 24 hours and so much more! When planning your sales, keep in mind that you want to create a sense of urgency. Sales that run for a limited amount of time tend to give buyers the kick in the butt they need to make a purchase.

MACs-iMized Tip: Create hype around a specific product by adding a “special holiday price” label.

It is time for another post to help you get clear about taking some simple steps to getting traffic to your website, offers and sales pages. 
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This is still one of the top questions I get asked by my students and @macswomen group members. "How to get more traffic online."

Here are 10 easy free ways to start getting more traffic to your website and more traffic to your free offers and sales page. Let me know which ones you are already using (and tracking) or will be using in the comments below, okay? Thanks!

1. Post on Quora in Relevant Subjects ​

2. Share Articles to Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn

3. Create a Facebook Page (How To)

4. Add a Link from Your Twitter Profile

5. Add a Link from Your Instagram

6. Add a Link from Your Skype Status

7. Add a Link from Your Pinterest

8. Appear on a Podcast

9. Post Videos to YouTube

10. Share Pictures to Flickr

How easy are these free traffic tips? Pretty easy ways to get free traffic to your website right? If you have easy ways of driving traffic to your website, offers and sales pages and they are working for your business, please share your tips with us in the comments. 

Get more online marketing tips, live streams and connect with other business women inside of my Facebook group.