The preconception that businesses only make profit in the fourth quarter is a common trap that many new e-commerce companies fall into. It is true that many shops, particularly bricks and mortar shops, will make the bulk of their annual profit in the final months of the year due to the Christmas shopping rush, but this doesn’t mean that it is impossible for profit to be made during the rest of the year. 

This is for many reasons including the fact that Christmas is only celebrated within certain cultures, and the need for products doesn’t suddenly stop once January comes around. 

So, how do you ensure you’re reaching your customers outside of this peak selling period? Let’s take a look. 

1. Invest in PPC

One of the greatest mistakes we’ve seen small businesses make is to pull their PPC budget as soon as the fourth quarter ends. 

However, if you’ve invested in PPC over the winter, then keeping it over spring and summer can give you a competitive advantage. This is because your competitors have probably considered doing the exact same thing. 

Instead of removing your PPC presence, we would suggest shifting its focus:

Ad copy

Obviously we are not suggesting that you continue your Christmas campaigns past Christmas. You will need to take any winter focussed ads down and create new ones. There’s no way to get around that fact, and it might take a bit of time. 

But, one of the first places to start, as you may have guessed, is to look at the collections you planned to launch in the coming months and create fresh, exciting ads to promote your fresh, exciting products. 

Change up your copy to target keywords associated with these products and make it enticing.

Target seasonal keywords

Use analytics tools to determine which keywords people search for throughout the year and reallocate your budget. 

For example, if you are a clothing shop, use your analytics tools to see what keywords people search for in the summer. This could be: 



• Summer dresses (165k) 
• Beach dresses (27.1k)
• Holiday outfits (14.1k) 

Of course this is a very generalised example, but by bidding on terms that see a spike in the summer, you can attract high intent traffic that is likely to convert outside of the fourth quarter.

Promotions and offers

Summer is a great time to highlight promotions, deals and discounts and PPC can be an incredibly effective way to push these to customers who might be looking for more affordable products. 

Use ads across search engines and social media to display these deals using high value keywords.

Retargeting

If you’ve had customers show interest in your product over winter, then looking towards the coming year can be the perfect time to set up retargeting campaigns for these customers. 

Remarketing is a more targeted tactic that can help you maximise ROI in the months when you might see a reduction in profit margins, and can therefore act as a more efficient way to spend your allocated marketing budget. 

For more information on how this works, take a look at our blog: How to Maximise ROI with Remarketing.

2. Keep your SEO efforts going 

SEO is a long term strategy and is therefore not a tactic we would recommend to push seasonal campaigns, which is exactly what makes it ideal for pushing sales all year round. 

SEO might not convert your customers, but it will definitely bring them to your website through targeted optimisation. The most important thing to remember is that your efforts must remain consistent for you to see the results you’re after. 

Make sure you: 



• Publish content regularly 
• Have clear and concise title tags 
• Structure your pages using headings 
• Embed internal links within your text 
• Give images, graphics and videos alt text 
• Invest in listings to increase your backlinks 

For a deeper dive into the complexities of SEO and how you can optimise your website, our SEO White Paper is the perfect SEO how-to guide for small businesses. 

3. Look into your listings

Understanding how to choose the right directories for your business can have an impact on your conversions. When you choose the right listings, you will attract customers who are looking for your products when they are ready to make a purchase, which in turn helps you convert outside of the fourth quarter. 

Remember, it takes an average of seven interactions with a business before a customer is likely to buy from a brand, and sometimes finding multiple listings that appeal to the same customers can pay off. 

Playing around with these tactics as well as choosing reputable, relevant business directories, blogs and online news articles throughout the year can help you find the perfect combination for boosting your SEO and bringing customers with high lifetime value to your site. 

We recommend starting with: 



• Google Business Profiles
• The Yellow Pages - that’s right, they’re online now! 
• Facebook pages 
• Yell 
• Hotfrog 
• LinkedIn Company Directory 
• Apple Maps

4. Make sure your website is up to scratch

Once you have users on your website, you need to know how to convert them, and embracing UX design is just the way to do it. 

We recommend taking a look over the following elements of UX design and optimising your website before the fourth quarter so that it is ready to drive conversions as soon as peak season is over:

1. User Flow

User flow refers to the movement a user takes to navigate a website. To determine user flow, you need to consider what the user is trying to achieve, what they need to do and what barriers are in the way. 

Key Components of User Flow:



• Entry Points: Where users first interact with the website.
• Actions: The specific steps users take to accomplish a task.
• Decision Points: Moments where users make choices or decisions.
• Exits: The points where users leave your website.

Top tip: Create a flow diagram to visualise which steps & pages the user will follow to meet their end goal.

2. Keep your website consistent

Keep your website consistent across the board so your users know exactly how to navigate your website, and there are no obstructions in the way of them making a purchase. 

This includes: 

• Colour consistency across the website 
• Using rich media like graphics, images and videos only when they are relevant 
• Including clear, simple and obvious CTAs

3. Mobile responsiveness

If your website isn’t responsive in 2024 then you are missing a trick. And that trick is the ability to convert over half of your potential customers. 

Because web design can seem overwhelming at times, we have broken it down in our Web Design White Paper so you can boost your website’s usability without the help of experts.

5. Keep emails consistent

Email marketing is a great way to put your brand into the minds of customers for even a few minutes a day. 

What’s better? These customers are already interested in your brand, or have already converted before. 

And the golden rule of marketing is that customer retention is far easier than customer acquisition. So, use the tools at your disposal to remind your customers what they love about your products. 

Make sure you: 



• Update your customers on promotions and offers 
• Remind your customers to review your products 
• Make your emails user friendly 
• A/B test email content to find the most effective content
• Personalise content based on previous purchases
• Keep your emails mobile-friendly 
• Send valuable content
• Include one call to action per email, and lead your customers to it

Don’t know where to start?

Here at Infoserve, our web design experts are on hand to help you create and build a unique, functional and responsive website aimed at converting customers, and our PPC, Listings and SEO teams help your website get found.