e-commerce around the holidays Archives | Rosewood Marketing

The holidays are the perfect time for giving back to the community. While it is fairly easy for individuals to come up with ideas for giving back through charities, brands can sometimes find the opposite.

“Why”, you ask?

Most brands want to give back to something that they genuinely care about while being aligned with their company’s mission.

But why is giving back to the community so important for brands? Consumers love to support brands that make it their mission to give back to the community. Consumer’s perception of your brand can change for the positive if you can make a positive impact in your community.

During Thanksgiving planning, our clients, Food In Motion, reached out to us to let us know that they wanted to give back to their community. Together we were able to determine causes that were close to them and that aligned with their business. ⁠

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Food in Motion partnered with Welcoming Arms, a non-profit organization that gives back to low-income families in Aurora, Ontario. ⁠

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For every 10 Thanksgiving Meal Packages sold, Food In Motion donated 1 Thanksgiving dinner to a family of 4. ⁠

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By advertising their holiday special and their partnership with Welcoming Arms, Food In Motion was able to surpass their sales goals. All while being able to donate 16 hot Thanksgiving dinners to families in need in Aurora. ⁠

A great place to start when trying to figure out what to donate would be asking your team for their input. See if there are any potential causes that they are passionate about for giving back to the community.

Here’s a list of potential ideas that you, as a brand can adopt for a little holiday give-back this season.

Reach Out To Another Brand With a Similar Mission

Head to social media to find out what other brands share missions similar to yours. Partner up with them to create exciting ideas for giving back to the community. This can also you to grow your network while doing something great for causes you feel avidly about.

Gifts That Give Back

Another great initiative for a holiday give-back would be to purchase client gifts from brands that also support a cause. Bonus points if they are local!

Not only will you be supporting another company but you will also be playing an active part in helping them achieve their ‘giving back’ mission.

Donating Your Services Or Products

Yes, you can also give away free products or services to those in need. Ask yourself if there are families/businesses in the community who were impacted by the pandemic that can benefit from your product or service. Work with your team to see what you can do to help support them, without spreading yourself too thin (especially if you are donating a service).

There are many ways to give back to the community this holiday season So, if you are unsure about how you can do an authentic holiday give-back, contact us today to set up a call where we can go over causes that are important to both you and your brand while helping you figure out a give-back plan that is sustainable for your business.

With Black Friday and Cyber Monday behind us, let’s take a tally. How many people shopped online? And how many people went into a physical store? If you’re like me, I did both, although the majority of those days were spent online shopping.

There is a Fine Line Between Informative and Annoying

My inbox was LIT. Full of emails boasting 40% off, 50% off, 80% off, etc. And you know what? These emails worked! There were two companies I purchased from on Cyber Monday, simply because their promotions notices went straight to my inbox. And the deals were just too good to pass up.

That being said, there were a few companies who overdid it. Some companies that I regularly purchase products from sent me no less than 15 emails on Cyber Monday, and about 30 emails in total from Black Friday through the weekend. This was absurd, and very annoying. It left a bad taste in my mouth about the company and their products.

Authentic Marketing All Year Round

Rosewood is a proponent of Authentic Marketing. If you are providing a service of value, people will purchase it even at full price. Your product/service should speak for itself. If you decide to run a promotion, make sure people know about it, but do it in a respectful way. Think about your own habits as a consumer.

Taking Advantage of Automated Tools:

Abandoned Cart

We’ve all been there: shopping on a website, adding items to your cart, and then leaving before you finish the checkout. Most companies have enabled some sort of an “Abandoned Cart” tool. If the person is logged in or has input their email address before abandoning the cart, the store will email them, notifying them of the items in their cart. Sometimes they’ll even offer an incentive discount. This can be a great strategy, since you already know they are a qualified lead, and perhaps just need a little push (ex. free shipping) to close the deal.

Sales Countdowns

This tool comes in and out of fashion. It offers a countdown sale unique to every visitor. It is incredibly smart, and tracks the IP address of the visitor so it knows how long is left in their specific sale period. You can also set up automations that will offer incentives if they’re closing in on the end of their sale period. There are many possibilities!

The holidays are competitive for online sales. If you have an online store, what tools are you taking advantage of this holiday season? We would love to hear from you in the comments below.

If you’d like to discuss your website needs with us feel free to contact me. You can follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. And don’t forget to sign up for our monthly newsletter as well for more education and inspiration!

Deanna