With the holidays quickly approaching, proactive brands are beginning to deploy their holiday strategies. Businesses that want to be successful never turn a blind eye to the importance of the fourth quarter and what it signifies for annual revenue. Many larger businesses earn as much as fifty percent of their revenue each year in the final two months, and they are able to do in large part because of existing brand recognition. But if your brand isn’t a Fortune 500 company, then you’ll have to work hard to build a holiday marketing and sales machine. Below, we’ll point you in the right direction by outlining three vital tactics you need to employ if you want to expand your market and enjoy additional success in the coming months.

Deploy Location-specific Sites

For some brands and businesses, you may not have the option – or it may not simply make sense – to categorize your offerings by location or country. For others, this can be a great tactic that will maximize potential when pinging for SEO and ensure that you are being seen by as many people as possible. A majority of holiday shoppers will use the web to find products on their holiday shopping lists, but those who buy early often scout out deals that they can buy locally. If you are able to target specific, localized niches, then you have a better opportunity of catching their business through online means than the average retailer.

Use Google AdWords in Other Countries

If your business or brand is willing to ship anywhere in the world, then it is high time to expand your market into other countries. While you may not wish to deal with the hassle of operating a website in multiple languages, English-based sites can compete in other markets through Google AdWords. You’ll be able to target markets in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and a variety of other smaller countries. If you do decide to expand your market into other languages, please be aware of any cultural differences; some countries have different holiday structures and as such, a November and December marketing campaign may not yield any fruit – even if executed well.

Advertise Through Social Media

Paid advertising and marketing will be the biggest element of any holiday push to expand your market, and social media is yet another great venue through which to grow. With several different social media outlets that offer advertising solutions, you will likely want to use more than one to get the word out. We recommend Facebook for the most targeting potential and Pinterest for the most likely to engage in commerce. When you combine a paid advertising approach with quality posts and interactions on your existing social media profiles, the effect becomes much stronger – especially when dealing with a localized audience.

Conclusion

It takes months to build a solid marketing presence and customer base for the holidays, so consider this year an opportunity to learn from your mistakes in preparation for a perfect marketing strategy for 2015. In the short-term, however, you can expand your market by advertising through social media, using Google AdWords to reach other countries, and pinging for SEO by having location-specific domains for your products and services.