The holiday shopping season is always a busy time for consumers—and for brands. The companies that capitalize on this season of busyness can reap big dividends, but doing so requires a disciplined marketing strategy. It also requires planning ahead: Even though we’re not yet to Halloween, the time to start laying the foundation for seasonal success is now.

What plans can you be making even now to ensure success come November and December? Here are just a few considerations we’d offer.

For online retailers, the holiday shopping season can be make-or-break. Many stores depend on Christmas gift-giving to pad their annual sales, which means it’s important to go all-out in terms of marketing. Remember, you may have the best products, the best deals, and the best customer service—but none of that helps if consumers don’t know you exist.

And the time to get started marketing your online store is now. Here are a few guidelines we’d recommend for seasonal ecommerce marketing.

At enCOMPASS Agency, our mission statement is “Great Work That Makes a Difference.” What that means to us is that we come into the office every day and invest in high-quality work that we can really be proud of; and, we ensure that the work we do makes an impact for our clients, helping them grow their businesses and reach new audiences.

In other words, we’re not in this industry for accolades and awards—but we’d be lying if we said it didn’t feel good to receive recognition from our peers.

Marketers tend to dislike change—yet in the past year, it seems as though there’s been nothing but change, particularly where Facebook is concerned. Due to public relations issues and an increased scrutiny on their business practices, Facebook has made some significant algorithmic updates that the end user has largely benefited from. For marketers, these changes may not be quite so welcome.

In content marketing, consistency is key. In order to keep your readers engaged, it’s important to regularly share compelling blog entries and social media updates—and while it’s not the end of the world if you miss a day, or a post shows up a few hours late, a long quiet spell could cause your followers to lose interest and head elsewhere.

An editorial calendar can be a helpful way to add structure to your content marketing—but what’s the best way to actually implement an editorial calendar?

One of the biggest misconceptions about social media marketing is that your brand has to be everywhere, present on every possible social channel. For most brands, even attempting this sort of ubiquity would be impossible; it’s a lot of work to maintain a regular posting schedule on even one social platform, let alone several! In most cases, it’s also a waste of money: The better approach is to be judicious, spending your social time and dollars on the sites where you know your customers to be.

It may seem as though paper coupons have been around forever. That’s not exactly true, but they’ve certainly been part of the retail experience for several generations, going back at least as far as the late 1880s. But while coupons remain prized by many consumers, the form these coupons take is changing. In fact, new research reveals that mobile coupons are about to overtake their paper counterparts in terms of overall popularity.

Much ink is spilled on the topic of search engine optimization—but at the end of the day, there’s one perspective that matters the most. Of course, that perspective is Google’s.

To that end, Google has reported that roughly two thirds of smartphone users are likely to purchase from companies that take the time to localize their online presence—that is, tailoring their online information to the end user’s geographic location.

To put it differently, consumers are using Google to locate businesses near them—and the companies that accommodate are the ones who will win those consumer dollars. How, though, can your business ensure a properly optimized, properly localized presence?

Business relationships are always founded on trust. Simply put, customers won’t buy your product or sign up for your service if they think you’re disreputable, or if they question whether or not you can hold up your end of the bargain. Because of this, one of the primary functions of marketing is establishing that trust—proving to customers that your business is credible.

There was a time when TV advertising represented the best, most efficient way to get your advertising message out into the world—but that’s not necessarily the case anymore. Over the past decade or so, TV viewership has slowly declined, while daily Internet use—including consumption of streaming content—has risen. Many advertisers are aware of this, and have begun redistributing their ad dollars accordingly.