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Before you start building a site, you need a plan. When creating your plan, think about your purpose and goals in creating a website. Your purpose and goals will influence your site requirements, which in turn, influence your site design and build. Below, we list 10 things to keep in mind when creating your site plan and requirements list.

10 Things to Keep in Mind When Planning Your Site

1. Be honest with yourself.
   1. Do you have the time and expertise needed to create the site you envision? There are Website Builders you can use to create a site quickly, but if you need a custom-built site, consider hiring an expert.
2. How many pages will your site need?
   1. Sit down and map out the user experience you hope to achieve. Not all websites need 20+ web pages. If you’re creating an online store, you’ll need things like product landing pages and a Terms of Service page. If your purpose is to create a single landing page in an attempt to sell the domain name attached to it, you won’t need a complex multi-page site.
3. Site storage.
   1. Your content needs a repository. Make sure you have enough bandwidth for your current needs and for growth.
4. Details are your friend.
   1. Think about all the ways you want a visitor to interact with your site. Do they need the option to email you or contact forms to fill out? Will you require product listings or transaction tools? Will you provide a map for people to find your physical location?
5. Plan for a comprehensive online presence.
   1. Your website should have links or integrations to your social media accounts. If you can, include reviews and other types of social proof as well.
6. Optimize for the device type.
   1. Not everyone navigates the web from their desktop. Make sure your site is built to look good across mobile devices, too.
7. Security, security, security.
   1. Plan on purchasing SSL and Sitelock to give your visitors peace of mind. A quick way to guarantee poor site traffic is to offer no protection to site visitors.
8. Build with SEO in mind.
   1. Good SEO gets your site and content discovered in the SERPs. Make sure your strategy is comprehensive and addresses on-page, off-page, and technical SEO elements.
9. Measure success.
   1. Determine what KPIs you’ll use to measure the success of your site. Will it be by time spent on the page, overall traffic, conversions, or something else entirely? You’ll never know if you’re reaching your goals if you can’t measure performance.
10. Plan for the future.
    1. Where do you see your online business or blog in 1 year? How about 5 years from now? Are you doing what you need to now so that you can succeed then?

If you’ve registered a domain name only to find yourself asking, “Now what?” then this is the right blog post for you.

After reading this blog post, you’ll gain a greater understanding of all that can be done with a domain. We’ll start by talking about domains, about naming, as examples of linguistic design. From there, we’ll discuss how to best leverage the name you’ve registered according to your personal, business, or brand needs.

Here’s more detailed information on what we’ll be covering in this blog post:

• What’s in a domain name?
• Practical next steps for any domain owner.
• Creating a website or blog.
• Reselling domains and the domain aftermarket.

What’s in a name?

A quick online search turns up lots of advice on choosing domain names, “Make it short! Relevant! Catchy! Memorable!”

And while that’s great advice… it doesn’t help you think about your domain in the larger context of your business.

Did you know that your domain name affects not just how people perceive your brand but how you should go about marketing it?

You see, domain names generally fall into one of two categories: Discoverable or Brandable.

Discoverable domain names are “real world” names. They’re descriptive and made up of dictionary terms, often including generic keywords someone would type into an online search. That means someone who isn’t familiar with your brand could still land on your site if they’re searching for related keywords or topics; this is called “type-in” traffic.

Brandable names are not made up of dictionary terms. Instead, they’re often made up. These domains are designed to relate to the purpose of the brand in an interesting way, usually tapping into people’s associations or experiences. Sometimes, the name is a metaphor or a compound of other words. Since these names aren’t comprised of keywords that could drive type-in traffic, brands built on them need more comprehensive (usually paid) marketing strategies. You’ve got to work a little harder to make the connection between your name and what services you provide in the customer’s mind, but once you’ve done that, your name has the potential to become iconic in your field (hello, Google!)

Think about the type of name you registered: Does it fall into the category of Brandable or Discoverable? Do you have the resources to create a buzz with paid marketing campaigns if it’s the former? Before building a business on your domain, make sure you have a plan for marketing it.

Practical next steps for any domain owner

Now that we’ve talked about domain name types, let’s discuss the practical steps you can take to secure your name and build a strong online presence.

Privacy and protection

First and foremost, make sure your personal information is protected! Certain personal information, like the registrant’s name and email, is collected whenever a domain is registered. That information is made available to the public through ICANN’s WHOIS database. This database allows anyone to search for a domain and find out who owns it. Unfortunately, a lot of bad actors have figured out how to take advantage of the WHOIS database and scrape it to collect personal information.

If you want to protect your personal information from spammers, telemarketers, and bots, then purchase Domain Privacy + Protection. It masks your personal information while still giving you complete control over your domain.

Simplify domain management

Give yourself one less thing to worry about by enabling auto-renew on your domain(s.) If not, you run the risk of losing your domain name when it expires.

Claim your name

No matter what you’re doing with your domain now, you should be laying the groundwork for the future. Do this by creating social media profiles with your name and acquiring a custom, professional email address. Thinking about brand protection now helps avoid headaches in the future. Also, consider registering misspellings and alternate versions of your domain.

Creating a website or blog with your domain

Ready to do more with your domain? Seeing your idea take flight and succeed feels good.

As a starting point, determine your site’s purpose and goals.

Defining the purpose of your website helps illuminate what your requirements will be. For example, if you intend to start a personal blog, you likely won’t need a site equipped with eCommerce capabilities. If you’re launching an online retail business, you’re going to need eCommerce functionality, Terms of Service, and more.

Once you’ve got your requirements listed, you can think about how they affect the design of your site. Will your needs be met with a simple Website Builder? How about an eCommerce Website Builder? Or should you hire a professional to build a site that meets all your requirements?

Reselling domains and the domain aftermarket

Did you purchase your domain with the intent of reselling it?

Well, you’ve entered the world of domaining. Domaining is the industry term for domain speculation.

Domain speculation refers to the practice of identifying, registering, and investing in domain names with the intent of reselling them for a profit.

Is it profitable?

It sure can be! As with all investments, be mindful of risk and carefully consider your opportunities.

How do you choose what domains to register as investments?

Think about what your budget is and the costs of the domains you want. Different domain extensions renew at different price points, so make sure you’ve got the funds to cover the domain registrations and renewals until you sell them.

Is domaining the same as cybersquatting?

Nope! At the heart of the matter is intent.

Legitimate domainers do their research to make sure the domains they acquire aren’t trademarked. Cybersquatters don’t care. They register, traffic in, and use domains in bad faith so that they can profit from others’ trademarks.

How do I advertise my domains for sale?

Good question! You can create simple landing pages for these domains that include your contact information. If you have any other stipulations for the sale, note them where they’re easily seen on the page. You can also list your domains on sites like Namejet.com, a dedicated domain aftermarket service.

Ready to do more with your domain?

We’re excited to see what you do with your domain name and wish you the best of luck with your business! If you need a hand creating a website, designing and implementing SEO strategies, or have any other questions, don’t be a stranger. Our teams are here to help.

Shakespeare famously wrote, “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet,” in his iconic play, Romeo and Juliet. But does that quote stand up under scrutiny?

In this post, we’re examining the question, “What’s in a name?” We’re discussing business and brand names and asking questions like, “How do I come up with a business name?” and “What brand name will resonate in my market?”

By the time you’ve finished this post, you’ll walk away with two things: A solid understanding of how to create your business name and tips to effectively name your brand.

What’s in a Business or Brand Name?

Does your business name really matter?

There are two arguments to answer that question:

1. No, it doesn’t. So long as you provide exceptional service and meet your customer’s needs, then your business name doesn’t matter.
2. Yes, it does! Your name affects how people think of you and therefore, how they’ll interact and engage with you.

Which do you think has more merit? We’re in support of position #2. We’ll explore why that is, but first, let’s talk about the power of names.

Names hold deep personal, cultural, and sometimes historical connections. They are a distilled representation of a thing. For example, instead of yelling, “Short lady with long brown hair, average build, and propensity for discourse” all someone has to do is call out, “Natalie!” and my attention is theirs. That’s a pretty powerful thing, is it not? To give someone your name is to provide them with the power to call you to attention at any point in time.

Inversely, a good name will also capture the attention and mind space of the person saying or thinking it.

What’s important to note about that last point is that people across all cultures and languages have preconceptions about certain names. Or rather, the sounds that comprise names. That means that they’ll have made up certain ideas about you by the sound of your name alone, even if they haven’t met you or had exposure to your brand yet.

Naming and Sound Symbolism

Have you heard of the Bouba-Kiki effect? It’s also been called the Maluma-Takete effect.

Think of two shapes, one round and the other made up of sharp angles. If you had to name one of them “Bouba” or “Maluma” and the other “Kiki” or “Takete” — which would be which?

Did you name the round shape Bouba and the sharp-angled shape Kiki? If so, you’re in good company.

Across a variety of cultures, people think of Bouba as the softer of the two names and Kiki as the spikier one. This assessment could be due to the mouthfeel of the names, with Bouba rolling off the lips while Kiki remains a staccato sound originating further back in the mouth.

Additionally, people can ascribe sharper qualities to Kiki-type names and softer qualities to Bouba-type names. Psycholinguist Penny Pexman of the University of Calgary says, “There’s something about how humans are fundamentally associative,” she continues, “We want to see patterns in things, we want to find connections between things, and we’ll find them even between sounds, and the things those sounds stand for in the world.”

How Should Sound Symbolism Influence Your Name?

As you decide on a name for your business and brand, keep these two factors at the front of your decision-making.

• Your industry.
• How you want your audience, customers, and clients to feel about you.

Let’s use the examples of Joan and Steven. Joan is a family therapist who’s venturing out on her own and starting her own business. Steven has worked in construction for years and is about to build his own steel manufacturing plant. They both need names for their new businesses to draw in clientele.

Joan wants a name that conveys trust and warmth while Steven wants to name his business something that conveys strength and energy.

Knowing that people associate softer, rolling sounds with the qualities her counseling services represent, Joan opts for a Bouba-type name. Steven, on the other hand, chooses a Kiki-type name as it represents the qualities of his business. Not just that, but anyone hearing their business names will associate those qualities with them whether or not they’ve done business together yet.

As you decide on your business name, think about the qualities you want it to represent and allow that to influence your decision.

How to Create a Business or Brand Name

At Domain.com, we’re dedicated to the business of names and naming. We’re often asked, “What makes for a good domain name?” For starters, it should match your brand name.

When it comes to a good name, here’s the basic advice you’ll find just about anywhere:

• Make it short and memorable.
• Avoid unique spelling, hyphens, and an excess of numbers.
• Make sure it passes the radio test.
  • If someone were only to hear your name, could they type it out and make it to your website? Probably not if you’re using “Qu” instead of the letter “K” and have two hyphens in your domain.

Now, while helpful and true, that advice is more suited to evaluating a name you’ve already come up with, not for creating a new name. So, how do you create a name from scratch?

Tips for Creating Names

There are a variety of types of business and brand names. As you come up with yours, think about the following types:

• Descriptive names.
  • These names give a good idea as to what the business is all about.
  • Examples: Cars.com, Domain.com.
• Abstract names.
  • Imaginary or “made-up” names. Not made up of dictionary words.
  • Examples: Venmo, Google.
• Acronymic names.
  • Short names that are made up of letters that symbolize larger names.
  • Examples: IBM, BMW.
• Geographical names.
  • Names that speak to a geographical location.
  • Eastern Mountain Sports, West Coast Choppers.
• Compound names.
  • Names are made up of a combination of two or more names.
  • Examples: Netflix, YouTube.
• Personal/Founder names.
  • Business names are created using their founders’ names.
  • Examples: Cadbury, Ferrari.  

Not sure which type of business name you ought to use? Here’s something else to consider: How will you market your business?

You see, business names (and domain names) can be broken down into two categories: Brandable or Discoverable.

A discoverable name is a name made up of real dictionary words, like “Family Financial Advisors.” A brandable name isn’t composed of dictionary words, instead, it’s made up, like “Optimizely.”

The former name can count on type-in traffic for website visits. That means that people typing those keywords into their browser will likely find that business as a top result. However, it’s going to cost more for their domain name as it’s likely already been registered and is a premium domain. The latter is made up, so there’s a better chance the domain is unregistered and available. However, you’ll need to create a strong content marketing strategy to support your name so it appears higher in search results.

Ready to Name Your Business and Brand?

Before settling on a final business or brand name, make sure it’s available as a domain name and across social media platforms, too.

Once you’ve decided on a name, share it with us below! We’d love to hear about how you decided on your brand name.

While hair grows back and you can recover from a bad idea like that pretty quickly, it’s another matter to invest in and proceed with a bad business idea. That always guarantees a loss of time and money. 

The best business ideas solve problems. We’ll say it again for the people in the back — the best business ideas solve problems.

So how do you know if you have a great business idea or a dud? In today’s post, we’re going to discuss the process of business idea validation and you’ll learn how and why you should validate your business idea.

Validating your business idea

The worst thing you can do when making business decisions is guess. Guessing is not a good strategy when it comes to your business, your livelihood, and your income.

Idea validation is the process of testing and validating your idea with feedback and data before you start developing a new product or service, or starting a business. This process is essential to developing a business or product that people actually want. If your idea is self-serving and doesn’t help solve the problems of others, it won’t go far.  

Large companies and corporations call this process “Research & Development,” and while you won’t need to do anything at such large a scale, there are a few things you can do right now to validate your idea.

By validating your business idea you’re going to save yourself from a future headache and loss of money. So, let’s dig in and figure out how to validate your idea.

The business idea validation process

Identify your ideal customer

Do you know who your ideal customer is? That’s as good a place to start as any when you’re trying to validate your business idea. If you don’t know who your ideal customer is, who are you supposed to ask for feedback and validation? Sure, you can ask your friends and family, but let’s be honest: They’re likely to sugarcoat things so as not to offend.

Your ideal customer is the person whose needs are met by what you’re offering. To identify those people, you’ll need to know your products and services from your customer’s point of view. Think from their perspective: What sets you apart from competitors? What problems of theirs does your business solve?

Identifying your ideal customer isn’t about identifying who you want as a customer, it’s about identifying who benefits most from your product or business as it is.

Think about what you’ll ask when validating your idea

In order to validate your business idea, you’re going to have to present it to people to get their honest feedback. You don’t want to inundate them with a massive presentation; instead think about how you can present a handful of ideas, the best ideas and solutions your business aims to provide.

If you start with your life story and amble into a presentation about your business, you’re going to lose your interviewees’ attention (yes, interviewing is part of the process.) You’ll want to keep your presentation short so that it doesn’t get confusing and focus on the core of your business or products.

Reach out for interviews and feedback

Once you’ve identified what your ideal customer looks like and know what you’ll be asking, it’s time to do some reachout. Make a list of potential customers or clients that you think fit your ideal customer profile and ask for their time. You’ll want to set expectations with them: Let them know you aren’t trying to sell anything, why you’ve contacted them, and that it won’t take much of their time.

As we said earlier, friends and family are likely not great candidates for interviews. They’re personally vested in you and may gloss over issues they see in your product or business idea. It’s not because they’re trying to be unhelpful, but more often than not, they won’t want to hurt your feelings.

The business idea validation interview

When you start your interview, remember that these people are giving up their time to try and help you succeed. So, say “Thank you” and let them know how much you appreciate their time. Explain that their feedback is essential to you designing and creating something people will actually benefit from. People like to know that they’re important and valued, and assuring them of their importance during this process can help them open up to you.

Give them a brief rundown of your business, but don’t get lost in the weeds or use technical terms that they’re unlikely to understand. Then, launch into the core aspects of your business idea that you need their opinion on. Present these ideas individually and allow people to give you their thoughts on one of them before proceeding into the next. The interview is a back-and-forth between you and the other person, not a one-sided soliloquy.

Once you’ve completed the interview, thank them for their time and again reinforce the importance of their opinion and insights. You may find that you’ve just earned yourself a future customer or client.

Review your feedback and optimize your business idea accordingly

After your interviews, sit down and review what people had to say. Look for common themes and patterns in your feedback — is there anything everyone was excited about? What negative things did they highlight?

This process of validating your business idea isn’t designed to deflate anyone’s confidence, it’s designed to help you create the best and most effective business to suit your customers’ needs and wants.

Take what you’ve learned from the interview feedback and use it to modify and improve your business idea. Always keep the customers’ point of view in mind as you move through this exercise as they’re the ones who will be keeping you in business once you launch.

What happens after you validate your business idea?

After validating your business idea and making any necessary changes, it’s time to create a business plan and launch your business.

Keep in mind that it’s essential for businesses to have a digital presence these days. Online business has boomed throughout the Coronavirus pandemic, and we don’t see it going away any time soon. If you want to be competitive, be where your customers are — online.

Creating an online presence for your business starts with a domain name. Your domain name is your online address and will lead people to your site. You can easily create a beautiful website using a website builder once you’re ready to go live.

If you need help or have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact us or comment below. We wish you the best as you launch your business!

They “are many, varied, ever-changing, and [seemingly] eternal. Fighting them is like fighting a many-headed monster, which, each time a neck is severed, sprouts a head even fiercer and cleverer than before. You are fighting that which is unfixed, mutating, indestructible.”  

Today, should you choose to pay attention and follow the lessons of the illustrious Mistress Minerva, you might just learn a thing or two that’ll put you head (and shoulders) above the rest.  

First things first, let’s review our syllabus.  

Understanding Security Threats 

Class is in session.  

You are here learning to defend yourselves against that which cannot easily be seen.  

Dark creatures abound on the Internet. As we progress through our lessons, we’ll seek to identify and uncover them — all the while discovering what incantations and ingredients best keep their dastardly deeds at bay.  

These shadowy cybernauts seek to prey on us by accessing and damaging computers and networks. They revel in their ill-begotten spoils — in your business, personal, financial, or even medical information. And once they have it in hand, the damage has been done — no matter whether they’re holding it for ransom or auctioning it off to another digital shade. 

The average attack costs small to medium businesses $18,000. In the U.S. alone, 40% of cyberattacks swindle their victims to the cool tune of $25,000+, an 80% increase over last year. 

And do not be so naive as to think that all a cyberattack could cost you is money. As the professional sector is so often the target, both your reputation and customer base are at stake.  

In 2021, Norton discovered that 53% of mu—, I mean, adults, are more worried than ever about being a victim of cybercrime. Despite this, as of March 2022, 51% of SMBs have no protections against cyberattacks.  

As these shadows hone their prowess in performing feats of the darkest digital arts, so too shall we learn to combat them. 

Defend Against Phishing

Remember this: At their cores, cyber attackers are liars.  

They’ll feed you sweet words, send you messages appearing to be from positions of authority, and offer deals too good to be true, all in attempts to ensnare you.  

Their goal? To compromise you. To access your accounts and gain mastery over your assets.  

But how can they achieve such things without certain personal information, like usernames and passwords? 

There’s one vulnerability these silver-tongued, digital serpents know is always exploitable: You.  

These are known as social engineering attacks, and they skirt cybersecurity tools by way of human loopholes.  

Last year, the average cost of phishing attacks reached $4.24 million dollars. And that cost comprises a variety of things, like: 

• Stolen funds or direct monetary loss.
• Damage to brand and reputation.
• Compliance fines and penalties.
• Loss of customers.
• Loss of revenue.
• Cost of response and remediation.
• Legal fees.
• And others.

Do be careful — there are many forms of social engineering attacks. Below, we’ll learn how to identify them.  

A Compendium of Social Engineering Attacks  

• Phishing  
  • Here, digital dark artists use illusion to befuddle, confuse, and fish for your information. 
  • They’ll send emails appearing to be from a legitimate company asking you to update your payment method. Or you’ll receive a text from an unknown number asking that you confirm your next doctor’s appointment by clicking a link. Perhaps they’ll disguise malware or viruses as an unassuming attachment, lulling you into a false sense of security so that you’ll click “Download,” and infect your device.  
  • Phishing attacks are the handiwork of opportunistic cybercriminals — they have no specific target. 
  • Whispers say these attacks are alleged to have been created by a Nigerian prince, though it cannot be confirmed.  
• Spear Phishing
  • Like phishing, but with an intended target, either an individual or a larger organization.  
• Angler Phishing  
  • Fake customer service accounts on social media pose as legitimate business accounts in hopes that you divulge your login information to said service.  
• Whaling
  • A form of spear phishing targeting a high-profile or wealthy person or organization.
  • High-profile targets often equate to larger payouts, so these are especially enticing to those practicing the digital dark arts.
• Smishing
  • Phishing attempts done via SMS/Text.
• Vishing
  • Phishing attempts communicated via telephone.
• Baiting
  • Mind your curiosity. Nefarious cybernauts know that humans are prone to wonder and they use it to their advantage.
    •  Online Baiting Example: A pop-up or landing page claims that you’ve won an incredible amount of money! All you have to do is click a link to claim it. That link is chock-full of malware, unbeknownst to the target.  
    • Offline Baiting Example: Occasionally, our dark artists leave the Internet and enter the physical world. They may leave a non-descript USB stick strategically abandoned in a high-traffic cafeteria of a large business, knowing someone will be curious and plug it into their computer to find out more. But that USB stick is rife with malware — Avada Kedavra your network.
• Piggybacking (AKA Tailgating)  
  • Another form of in-person social engineering. In these scenarios, a scammer attempts to enter a secured premise immediately behind someone who has access.  
  • To prevent it, don’t let anyone into restricted areas after you. Ensure they have ID and make them use it to enter the premises, just as you had to do. 
  • These dark artists do not have your best interests at heart. They anticipate that you’ll be “too nice” to say anything to stop them, thereby giving them access. 
•  Business Email Compromise  
  • Last year, the FBI received almost 20,000 reports of business email compromise. 
  • These attacks range from cyber scammers spoofing emails posing as employees or other trusted persons requesting sensitive information in their emails, to full account compromise. That’s when a hacker gains access to a legitimate account, instead of just spoofing one to look like it.  
• Quid Pro Quo  
  • Fake tech support scams fall firmly into this camp. Someone calls or messages saying that your device is infected, or that you’re eligible for a software upgrade. All you have to do is give them your credentials and they’ll ensure you’re taken care of. Do not believe their lies.  
• Scareware  
  • Fear is a big motivator. Cyber attackers create pop-ups that appear in your browser saying something to the effect of, “Your system/device has been infected! Click here to fix.” 
  • Don’t click, never click. Doing so will ensure your device becomes infected. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. 

With only a cursory glance, perhaps you won’t realize these are naught but lies. They’ll send you sweet messages, deals simply too-good-to-be-true, and indiscriminate vagueries to pique your interest and ensnare you.

Use your powers of logic and observation. Ask yourself, “Is this too good to be true?” and “Does this message make sense based on the sender?”, “Do I recognize the sender’s domain name?” and “Why would this person be asking that of me?” If anything seems out of character, think twice about continuing any further.

If you engage positively with them — clicking their links or answering their texts — they win.  

Too much protection isn’t a thing. In addition to reviewing everything with a critical eye, you can use the following tools to keep your website and business email secure.  

Cryptology 

How does information remain secure when it’s communicated over the Internet? 

To answer that, we’ll need to take a step back and understand what happens when you traverse the interwebs.  

Whenever you open up your computer to visit a website you’re quite literally docking into the Internet like a boat would dock at a port. Once someone is docked, they’re then able to communicate information to and from others who are also docked. Ports are numbered differently to indicate their use and properties. These ports are called TCP, or Transmission Control Protocol Ports.  

SSL, or Secure Sockets Layer, is a technology that keeps internet connections secure. It encrypts and protects sensitive information and data as it’s sent between two systems (like your browser and another website or two servers). SSL stops cyber shadows and bots from reading or changing the information being sent between the systems (like credit card information during an e-commerce transaction.) 

Can data be transferred from one server to another without SSL? Sure can. But that’s like dancing with the devilish hackers themselves, exposing your information to any who care to intercept it.  

How can you tell if your connection to a website is secure? 

Look at the URL in the address bar in your browser. You’ll see that the URL starts with one of two things: it’s either HTTP or HTTPS. The HTTPS indicates a secure connection (and it uses port number 443.) HTTP is an unsecure internet protocol, (and uses port number 80.) 

Are you a website owner? It is your responsibility to secure your digital domain, both for you and your site visitors. Do so by purchasing and using SSL on your site.  

Advantages to using SSL: 

• Faster web page loading  
  • HTTPS loads pages faster than HTTP. Who waits around for a webpage to load nowadays when there’s always a competitor around the digital corner whose site might be faster? 
• SEO Improvement  
  • Your site is likely to rank higher in search results if you’re using HTTPS as opposed to HTTP. 
• Stop hackers and bad actors in their tracks  
  • SSL encrypts the data transferred back and forth between two systems. Even if these bad people and bots could somehow see the data being transferred, they won’t know what it says. 
• Maintain PCI Compliance  
  • PCI Compliance stands for Payment Card Industry Compliance. This is required by all credit card companies when making transactions online to further secure and protect against data and identity theft. 
  • Part of the PCI Compliance guidelines is that your site must use HTTPS, which means your SSL certificate needs to be configured on your site before you can accept payments via credit card for purchases. 
• No scary alerts  
  • If you’re using HTTP then chances are your site visitors are receiving notices telling them your website isn’t secure when they land on it. Frankly, this looks bad. It causes them to lose confidence in your site and odds are good they won’t be back. 

Protect Your Properties 

Do you seek the formula for digital security?

I’ll share it with you below. Strict adherence guarantees luck in your online endeavors…

Custodi Domum Digitalis Tuam

• Use strong passwords.  
  • Learn what makes for a strong password right here. 
• Install an SSL certificate.  
  • People are evermore distrustful of “HTTP” in their browsers and for good reason. They want to know you’re doing what you can to protect their information. Your SSL port indicates there’s a secure, encrypted connection keeping their data safe from prying eyes. 
• Use a reputable host.  
  • A reputable host has a proven history of maintaining their customers’ security and is capable of helping you address threats and malware should they occur.  
• Perform regular malware scans.  
  • Who has the time to manually monitor their online security? Sitelock Security protects your website from malware, viruses, hackers, and spam. It scans your site for these malicious things, automatically removing any it finds, and alerts you when something doesn’t look quite right. 
• Backup your site.  
  • Why? Backing up your website is the only guarantee you have that your site can be completely restored if it encounters an egregious issue. 
    • Human error (inadvertently deleting files), malicious cyber hackers, or outdated and unprotected themes and plugins can all introduce risk to your site.  
• Keep WordPress plugins or other site plugins and web apps up to date.  
  • The digital dark arts are ever-evolving. To stay ahead of them, keep your plugins up to date. Not doing so leaves your site vulnerable and open to attack. Not just that, but they can affect your site experience, causing issues for legitimate visitors.  
• Perform regular site audits and tests.  
  • As people, we’re constantly striving to improve ourselves. Why should that be any different for our websites and other digital properties? — Do they not represent us?  
  • This scroll contains the secrets to auditing your digital presence. Use it wisely.  
• Keep your finger on the pulse of your digital health.  

Protect Your Brand 

Digital dark artists understand the power of a name. It’s why they’re gunning for yours.  

Your name is irrevocably yours — it’s part and parcel of your brand — that special thing that makes you, you. It comprises every public-facing facet of yourself, and inversely, what people think of those facets – of you.  

Your personal brand CANNOT survive lies and deception.

This is why cybercriminals will always target it in addition to your digital properties, like your site and social media. If they capture your name, they control your narrative.  

How might they do this? Their nefarious options are legion.  

• Counterfeit websites.  
  • If a customer lands on a fraudulent site and suffers real-world harm (malware on their device, compromised sensitive information) they will always associate it with your name. Would you want to continue doing business with someone if their name alone caused you memories of traumatic events? Probably not.  
• Copyright piracy.  
  • Cyber shadows don’t care for honest work. They’ll illegally reproduce and disseminate your copyrighted materials, hurting your bottom line.  
• Trademark infringement.  
  • To convince others that they are who they say they are, hackers have no qualms about using trademarks in unauthorized manners.  
• Patent theft.  
  • A patent is representative of a great deal of work. Whatever your patent, behind it lies hours of ideation, creation, iteration, and finalization.  
  • A digital dark artist will take the easy route. They’ll do whatever they can to make, use, and sell your products without obtaining a license.  
• Impersonation on social media.  
  • Social media is a fantastic tool for building your brand and connecting with your audience. Until someone else does it for you and deceives your unwitting audience into revealing their private information.  

To protect your brand, follow these steps: 

• Acquire misspellings of your domain.  
  • Cyber hackers purchase variations of domain names in hopes of catching traffic that was intended for your site.  
• Purchase alternate domains/TLDs.  
  • Depending on your business, you might not want your brand name associated with a .sexy or .xxx domain name.  
  • Register those domains before someone else does and uses them to your detriment.  
• Focus on the aesthetics and elements of your brand that establish your authority.  
  • Increase trust in your customers’ inboxes by using a professional email address that matches your domain name. It helps them know they aren’t about to open a spam message and have their system infected with malware.  
  • Refer to this Branding and Website Design Checklist to ensure your brand is cohesive no matter where you are online — your site, your social media, and more.  

Abundant Caution Does No Harm  

It does not do to dwell on a false sense of security and forget the dangers that lurk about the Internet.  

Man the boundaries of your site, social media, and email accounts. Do your duty to protect your site, your customers, your brand, and your name.

And do make sure you aren’t late for class tomorrow.  

Yes, it’s that time of year already.

It doesn’t matter whether it’s your main source of income or if it’s your weekend passion project — when you have an eCommerce website, the holiday season takes on extra importance.

Sure, it’s the season for family, friends, and those we love; but it’s also about cutting through the carols to increase your bottom line in one of the busiest retail seasons of the year.

And that’s especially true for 2022 — a year in which we’re all feeling the pinch of inflation.

Salesforce predicts that this year’s online sales won’t exceed those of 2021, bucking the net-positive trend we’ve experienced since 2019. November’s and December’s totals are expected to reach $1.12 trillion worldwide with $265 billion of that in the United States. Those numbers represent a 2% decrease in online international sales as compared to last year, and only a 3% increase in the U.S.

Being mindful of the current economic situation, how should you go about maximizing the holiday season for your business?

With thoughtful, data-driven planning.

And so, we’re learning to create an engaging and effective holiday marketing plan in this blog post.

Creating a Holiday Marketing Plan

A good marketing plan serves as the framework for building customer relationships and gaining mindshare in a cluttered digital landscape. Not only that, but it directly contributes to influencing positive customer and client actions, like increasing completed purchases or subscriptions.

A great marketing plan does all of the above, as simply as possible, because at the heart of marketing is humans building relationships with other humans, and we do that best when we communicate effectively.

Rob Garf, VP and GM of Retail at Salesforce, sets the stage for how we ought to approach a marketing plan with the following statement:

"Inflation has finally caught up to bullish spending, with consumers buying fewer items from fewer retailers. This likely isn't a temporary mindset, but instead a signal of a larger consumer behavioral shift towards value and convenience. For retailers to address this, it's ... [about] finding ways for channels to work symbiotically to attract and retain loyal shoppers." 

Keeping that larger consumer behavioral shift in mind, our challenge is to form a marketing plan that supports you working smarter, not harder.

Designing Your Plan’s Framework

Domain.com’s Content and Social Media Marketing teams use the following framework to kick off their marketing plans.

It distills your plan down to its core elements, providing clear direction for you to further define your specific tactics, S.M.A.R.T. goals, and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). As we design our holiday plan, we always keep our brand, mission statement, and ideal customer top of mind.

Defining Your Target Audience

For holiday eCommerce success, you’ve got to know your archetypal customer.

Why is that so important?

Well, your eCommerce site, as great as it is, isn’t for everybody. Some folks will love what you offer and turn into repeat customers, some can appreciate what you offer but won’t commit to a purchase, and others won’t be interested at all. (Sounds a lot like dating, doesn’t it?)

This blog post, “How to Identify Your Ideal Customer” dives into the topic, discussing customer personas, demographics, and data and analytics in further detail.

The Holidays That Matter to Your Audience

Focus your time and attention where it’ll make the most impact.

Unless you’re a big box store with outposts across the world, odds are that your audience isn’t “everyone” and they don’t celebrate each and every fall and winter holiday. And generic spray-and-pray marketing is a dinosaur best left in the past.

To stay relevant and authentic, identify the holidays your customers most likely celebrate and concentrate your efforts there. This 2022 holiday calendar will help.

Now that you’ve selected the holidays where you’ll be concentrating your marketing efforts, let’s dive further into the specifics of what you’re trying to achieve, and how to get there.

Defining Goals and Specific Holiday Marketing Tactics

At this point, you should be asking yourself:

• What actions do you want your audience to take? For example…
  • Is it to complete more purchases instead of abandoning items in their carts?
  • Do you want them to subscribe to your email newsletter?
    • DYK: In marketing lingo, every time one of these desired actions is successfully completed, it’s called a conversion.
• How do you measure success? Identify the data points that matter.
  • E.g. – you’ll never know if your goal of increasing online sales is successful if you’re only measuring the total number of visitors to your site.
  • Bias has no place in data or data analysis, and vanity metrics are not actionable and won’t help you succeed.
  • Focus on the data points that are the most relevant and accurate reflections of performance.

S.M.A.R.T. Goals

A holiday marketing plan is no place for obscurities or egos.

Your plan defines how to connect and communicate with your audience effectively so as to positively influence them toward the desired outcome(s), thereby increasing conversions.

And now, we explore S.M.A.R.T. goals. You’ll want to have these goals concretized before launching any of your marketing initiatives and going live with specific tactics. The process of creating these goals includes brainstorming tactics to help move the needle toward conversion (though we have a dedicated section on tactics coming up next.)

S.M.A.R.T. Goals are:

• Specific – Get granular.
• Measurable – How can you quantify success?
• Achievable – Did you seriously just create your first eCommerce site and genuinely expect to compete with Wallyworld’s online sales this holiday season? That would be the opposite of achievable.
• Relevant – Keep it focused.
• Timebound – At what point should you stop to assess your performance?

Here’s an example to help you create your S.M.A.R.T. goals. In this imagined scenario, an eComm site owner wants to leverage Black Friday fervor to increase their revenue.

Now to some, that last sentence might seem goal enough. But it begs the question: increased revenue as compared to what? And how will they be leveraging Black Friday — by asking it nicely?

S.M.A.R.T. goals don’t leave room for interpretation. Here’s a better goal for that eComm site owner:

On Black Friday, I’ll increase my eCommerce sales by 20% over last year by using social media to prompt my followers to visit my site for the following exclusive 24-hour deals: 20% off my best-selling goods, including discounted or free shipping, dependent on purchase size.

If this is your first year in eCommerce and you don’t have any historical data from previous years as a basis for comparison, your goal could look like this instead:

On Black Friday, I’ll increase my average daily sales by 20% by using social media to prompt my followers to visit my site for the following exclusive 24-hour deals: 20% off my best-selling goods, including discounted or free shipping, dependent on purchase size.

That goal encompasses all the elements of a true S.M.A.R.T goal — helping you to define and measure your successes — and perhaps those not-so-successful endeavors, too. It can happen to the best of us so don’t get discouraged — what we so often see as failure is just as readily a lesson in what doesn’t work. A learning experience so we don’t make the same mistake twice, if you will.

Depending on what you’re trying to achieve, your goals and accompanying tactics may vary. And while money does talk, there’s nothing restricting you to discounts and coupon codes. A little creativity can go a long way when it comes to creating value for your customers and encouraging them to transact on your site.

Holiday Marketing Tactics and Offers to Promote eCommerce

• Gift Guides
  • Help those indecisive shoppers find the perfect gift with a holiday gift guide.
    • No one ever knows what to buy for Aunt Bea or Cousin Freddy, but with your excellently curated guides, their names are getting crossed off the shopping list early this year.
  • Include a variety of gift guides catered to different budgets and relationships (i.e. – separate gift guides for family, friends, and coworkers, respectively) so there’s a little something for everyone.
• Free Gift Wrapping
  • Want to increase eCommerce sales on Small Business Saturday? Do something most other online retailers won’t and offer free gift wrapping.
• Offer Free or Discounted Shipping
  • Drive online orders this Cyber Monday by offering free or discounted shipping based on the purchase total. Customers will be enticed to add more goods to their shopping carts so they can reap those free shipping rewards.
• Tips, Tricks, & Advice
  • The holidays aren’t just about shopping and spending. Provide value to your customers by giving them relevant tips and advice to help make the holidays less stressful. For example, if you’re a salon you can offer tips on how to pamper yourself during the holidays. This is also a great way to highlight the services you offer and include ways for people to book them.
• Holiday Recipes
  • Share a favorite holiday recipe from your family (or restaurant if that’s your industry) with your customers to provide value and make a connection without offering a discount.
• Holiday Photo Contest
  • Ask your customers to share their holiday photos with your business online. You can ask them to tag you on social media or use specific hashtags to make sure you see their posts.
  • You can offer a prize for “best photo” or provide a discount to those who engage with your business online.
• Gift Cards + Bonus Value
  • Want your customers to buy more in gift cards? Offer a bonus amount with each gift card purchase! For example, every time someone purchases $50 in gift cards you can give them an additional $10 for free.
• Promote Holiday Events
  • If your business hosts events, whether virtual on in-person, you’ll want your customers to know about them and attend. Drive interest in your events by marketing them to your audience and offering a discount on tickets.

Leverage the Best Marketing Channels for Your Business

The holidays are often a busy, hectic time. With that in mind, it’s important that you get your message to the right audience and at the right time.

Stop and think about all the different ways your customers and prospects interact and communicate with your brand. Where are those engagements happening?

Below, we’ve listed some of the most popular channels and methods for communicating with your audience. Review them and decide what works best for you. Don’t dissuade people from doing business with you during this busy time by accosting them with messaging on every single platform — no one likes a nag.

• Social Media
  • Social media is a valuable tool and almost everyone has a social media account on one platform or another. It’s not essential that your brand have a presence on every social media platform — focus on the ones where your customers are.
    • Facebook is a great platform to engage with your customers and audience throughout the year and especially during the holidays. Update your business page’s cover photo with a holiday image to reflect the festive season and post about your special events, discounts, and offers. Most Facebook users access the app through their mobile devices, so it’s a fantastic way to target local consumers.
    • Twitter’s platform works wonders for engaging with your audience and sharing bite-sized content that’s both helpful and insightful. Consider sharing your tips and advice on this platform, and don’t forget to share your offers. If your customers reply to you, engage them in conversation on this fun channel.
    • Instagram is heavy on visuals — which is perfect for styling and showcasing the items you mentioned in your gift guide. Share photos of your staff at your annual holiday party or behind-the-scenes clips as your business preps for the season.
    • YouTube’s popularity isn’t going anywhere. People love engaging with videos and absorbing content in that medium. Consider “unboxing” a popular product and sharing it with your audience.
• Website
  • Your website is your business’s home base online. Update the images and text on your site to reflect the holiday season and any special events or offers you may be running.
  • No website? Get started today with Domain.com.

• Email
  • Reach your customers where they are every single day: Their inbox. A few well-crafted emails to highlight your holiday offerings and events can do a lot to drive business. Include easy-to-click buttons that take your readers directly to your online store and the products you’re looking to sell. Don’t forget to include your discounts along with a clever subject line to entice your audience to open your emails.
  • Help your customers recognize you in their inboxes. Get a professional email address that matches your domain name so you don’t get sent to the spam folder.
  • You can perform a quick online search to find a reputable Email Service Provider to help with your email marketing needs.
• Text/SMS
  • SMS marketing has grown in popularity over the years and there’s good reason for that. Gartner reports that “98% of SMS messages get opened” and Omnisend found that “SMS marketing’s conversion rate rose 102% in 2020.”
  • A quick online search can help you identify the perfect SMS marketing vendor to help you reach your customers.
• Paid Advertising
  • Not all businesses have the budget for paid advertising, but if you do, you should consider leveraging it during the holiday season to get in front of the right audience. Paid advertising can be done on Google to appear higher in the search results, on social media, and on various other online platforms.
  • Concentrate your efforts on the platforms where your audience spends their time.

Once you’ve decided on the channels you’ll use to communicate with your customers, think about when to start sending your messages. Too soon and you may soon be forgotten. Too late and your message may get lost in a multitude of other last-minute, opportunistic messaging. Plan to send a series of communications starting a week or two before the holiday occurs and culminating on the holiday itself to stay top of mind with your audience.

Ready to rock your holiday marketing?

Don’t leave any room for silly mistakes or error in your planning. By leveraging the holiday marketing guidance in this post, and referring to this Holiday Marketing Checklist, you’ll be well on your way to a successful season of online sales.

With a little creativity, thoughtful planning, and some elbow grease, you can create the perfect offers to attract your audience and provide value all while nurturing customer relationships.

As you market your business this holiday season, keep track of what efforts are successful and which ones aren’t. You’ll want to have this information handy for future years so you can tweak and iterate your marketing messages instead of starting over from square one.  

Do you have any other holiday marketing ideas for businesses? Let us know in the comments below!

If you haven’t had the time to prepare for them, don’t fret. We put together the following 2022-23 eCommerce holiday calendar to help you get started.

Once you’ve identified the holidays you’d like to participate in, refer to our Holiday Marketing Plan Guide for more insights and instruction.

Pro Tip: Don’t worry about each and every holiday listed below. Focus on the holidays that resonate most with your target audience.

Holiday Marketing Calendar ’22-’23

October Holidays 2022

Dates of note:

• 4 — Yom Kippur begins
  • Considered the holiest day in Judaism.
• 10 — Indigenous Peoples’ Day or Columbus Day
  • Indigenous Peoples’ Day is a recognized holiday in some U.S. states and cities. It’s meant to commemorate the indigenous peoples of America.
  • An official federal holiday in the U.S. that commemorates the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the Americas in 1492.
• 24 — Diwali
  • One of India’s biggest and most celebrated holidays.
  • Known as the “Festival of Lights” it’s celebrated by Hindus, Jains, and Sikhs.
• 29 — National Cat Day
  • Meow…
• 31 — Halloween
  • “The tradition originated with the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, when people would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off ghosts.”

Monthly Themes:

• Breast Cancer Awareness
  • As of 2021, breast cancer has become the most common type of cancer across the globe. It accounts for 12% of all new cancer diagnoses worldwide.

November Holidays 2022

Dates of note:

• 6 — Daylight Savings Time ends
• 11 — Veterans Day
  • A U.S. holiday dedicated to paying tribute to all veterans who’ve served their countries honorably.
• 24 — Thanksgiving
  • Celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November, Thanksgiving is a holiday to celebrate the harvest and other good things of the past year.
• 25 — Black Friday
  • The Friday after Thanksgiving.
  • Traditionally marks the start of the holiday shopping season.
• 26 — Small Biz Saturday
  • The Saturday after Thanksgiving.
  • A day to celebrate and shop at small businesses to support all they bring to their communities.
• 27 — Artists Sunday
  • Sunday after Thanksgiving.
  • Started as a national marketing campaign to encourage shoppers to buy from artists and give one-of-a-kind gifts for the holidays.
• 28 — Cyber Monday
  • The Monday after Thanksgiving.
  • Created to encourage online shopping, it’s the second-biggest shopping day of the year.
• 29 — Giving Tuesday
  • The Tuesday after Thanksgiving.
  • It is “a global generosity movement unleashing the power of people and organizations to transform their communities and the world.“

Monthly Themes:

• “Movember”
  • Focus on men’s health.
• Holiday preparation and shopping.

December Holidays 2022

Dates of note:

• 18 — Hanukkah begins
  • An eight-day Jewish celebration commemorating the rededication of the Holy Temple.
• 21 — Winter Solstice
  • Marking the onset of winter in the Northern Hemisphere, this is the shortest day of the year.
• 24 — Christmas Eve
  • Marks the last day of Advent before Christmas begins on the 25th.
• 25 — Christmas Day
  • A Christian festival celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ.
• 26 — Hanukkah ends
• 26 — Kwanzaa begins
  • Observed by many African Americans, this secular holiday celebrates culture, heritage, and traditional values.
• 26 — Boxing Day
  • Originally a day to celebrate and give gifts to the poor, it’s now mostly a shopping holiday.
  • Celebrated in the UK and other commonwealth nations.
• 31 — New Year’s Eve
  • The last day of the Gregorian calendar.

Monthly Themes:

• It’s the height of the holidays.
• Charitable giving and goodwill.

January Holidays 2023

Dates of note:

• 1 — New Year’s Day
  • The first day of the Gregorian calendar.
• 7 — Orthodox Christmas
  • Also known as “Old Christmas Day.”
  • Celebrates Jesus Christ’s birth according to the Julian calendar.
  • Observed by the Orthodox Church.
• 14 — Orthodox New Year
  • The first day of the new year according to the Julian calendar.
• 16 — Martin Luther King Jr Day
  • A federal holiday in the U.S. that marks the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr.
• 22 — Chinese New Year
  • Also called “Lunar New Year.”
  • Annual 15-day festival in China and Chinese communities across the globe.
  • Celebrates the beginning of the new year according to the lunisolar or Chinese solar calendar.

Monthly Themes:

• New beginnings and resolutions.
• Health and wellness.

With everything happening, it’s often the case that things fall through the cracks or don’t get the attention they deserve.

Don’t let that happen to your marketing efforts.

Below, you’ll find a handy holiday marketing checklist to help guide you through the busiest retail season of the year.

Holiday Marketing Checklist 2022

Pre-holiday Checklist

Have the following items completed by mid to late October.

• Review and forecast your online store based on your historical data or the previous year’s performance.
  • If this is your first year in business, review industry trends and data from the year prior, so you have a sense of what to expect.
• Create the framework for your marketing plan.
• Decide on the holidays you want to focus on.
• Set your S.M.A.R.T. goals.
• Figure out what tactics you’ll use to support your overall strategy and goals.
• Optimize your online store for the holidays.
  • Fix broken links, optimize SEO, test your user experience, and add holiday elements where appropriate.
• Prepare and update your social media accounts.

As the Season Progresses…

• Keep tabs on your performance.
  • Actively monitoring your online performance helps you identify and resolve issues as they occur, instead of allowing them to become bigger problems.
• Communicate your “ship by” dates to your audience. And then remind them of it!
  • Create a sense of urgency, or FOMO (fear of missing out), so that your audience is incentivized to transact ASAP.

Post-Holiday Checklist

• Remove holiday content from your site in a timely manner.
• Review and analyze your metrics while they’re fresh.
  • If you haven’t kept great records, you might not remember what actions influenced your results come next year.
• Keep your customers and clients engaged!
  • You want them to do business with you all year long, not just the holidays. Stay in touch via email, and social media, and keep your site current.

But if that’s true, why does it feel so stressful?

As a business owner, you’re likely feeling the stress of the looming holidays and the biggest retail season of the year. Everything from decorations and website updates to deciding what sales to run and deals to offer falls on your shoulders. Then, you have to think of your home life and purchase gifts for your nearest and dearest without breaking the bank. 

By the time the holiday season actually arrives and carols commandeer our radio stations, odds are good you’ve been overwhelmed for a while. 

It doesn’t have to be that way.

You deserve relaxation and to be shown care and concern. But sometimes, that has to start with ourselves and learning self-love and appreciation. 

Though you wear a lot of hats and time is tight, self-care is vital, especially during the holidays. Below, we’re exploring 10 ways you can practice showing yourself gratitude. Keep reading for our best holiday self-care tips. 

10 Holiday Self-Care Tips

Ah, the holidays… 

The weather (and responsibilities) outside could be frightful… but inside? Your mind could be a calm oasis, a place to find refuge during the holiday storm. When business, social expectations, and life all seem too much to handle, take a step back and refer to the self-care tips below. 

1. Plan your downtime

When you have a million things to do and tasks of all sizes await your attention, it seems difficult to justify taking a break. Adding to that, we live in a world where busyness is glorified. Silvia Bellezza and other researchers at the Columbia Business School “…argue that a busy and overworked lifestyle, rather than a leisurely lifestyle, has become an aspirational status symbol.”

Breaks are essential to a healthy lifestyle, and it’s time to reframe the way you think about them. Taking a break isn’t a sign of laziness; instead, it’s an opportunity for you to refresh and promotes productivity and improved creativity. 

Moving forward, make a point to carve a few minutes out of each day for a bit of downtime. 

2. Define and delegate

When you started your business, you did it with a vision. You know how you want your business to grow and what needs to be done to get there, and it can be difficult to let others into your plans. In an effort to “do it all,” we resort to multitasking. Multitasking seems fruitful but consider the following passage… 

“Research suggests that ‘multitasking, which many have embraced as the key to success, is instead a formula for shoddy work, mismanaged time, rote solutions, stress, and forgetfulness,'” says author Kimberly Himes. 

If you feel like the best way to get everything done is to do it yourself, and if you’re drowning in responsibilities, we’ve got one word for you: Delegate!

Defining what needs to be done and delegating those tasks “helps leaders manage their workload and maximize productivity while also helping employees build skills.“

Learning to delegate helps relieve stress. You can rest easier knowing that delegation prepares your team to handle whatever happens if you are unavailable due to an emergency, or just taking a break.  

3. Breathe 

Have you ever had someone tell you to “calm down” during a time when you were visibly stressed?

It didn’t help much, did it?

When you’re stressed, your prefrontal cortex is impaired. That’s the part of your brain responsible for rational thinking, so following a simple instruction like “calm down” seems nigh impossible. 

Stress impacts your decision-making and ability to interpret information related to your business, too. 

So, what can you do to minimize the effects of stress and regain mastery over your mind? 

Breathe.

The Harvard Business Review reports that “different emotions are associated with different forms of breathing, and so changing how we breathe can change how we feel.”

The critical thing to remember is this: When you exhale, your heart rate slows down, and when you inhale, it speeds up. A popular breathing technique to combat stress is inhaling to a count of four and then exhaling to a count of eight. Try that for a few minutes the next time you feel stressed.

4. Prioritize what matters

When you’re running a business and trying to make a profit, it can be hard to remember what the holiday season is truly about. Keeping your business afloat and successful is, without a doubt, important. Still, it isn’t the only important thing in your life. 

If the pressures are mounting, turn to your loved ones and favorite activities to help ease the burden. Whether you find comfort with your family or pets or close friends, remember that the holiday season is about coming together with those you love and those who love you. 

Make time for a holiday movie with your kids after a day at work. Or call up a friend and snuggle on the couch with your dog as you rewatch “The Grinch” for the first time in years. 

If coming together with family and friends sounds more stressful than relaxing, then make time for what does relax you. Is it playing a league sport in the evenings? Do arts and crafts warm your heart? Whatever it is that makes you happy — make time for it!

5. Eat good food

It’s the holiday season and cookies, crackers, and assortments of baked goods abound. We don’t think you should restrict yourself from the sweet treats the holidays offer; just enjoy them in moderation. 

Here’s why: Good food equals a good mood.

The next time stress has you feeling blah, combat it via your plate. According to the Cleveland Clinic, “The best meal to enhance your mood is one that combines complex carbohydrates with lean proteins and colorful produce.”  

Complex carbohydrates, like those found in sweet potatoes or quinoa, can increase the availability of serotonin, a “feel-good” chemical, in your brain. Proteins have been associated with increased levels of the chemicals dopamine and norepinephrine, both of which influence a person’s mood and concentration. 

And fruits and vegetables? There’s evidence “that people who eat more fruits and vegetables have a lower incidence of mental disorders, including lower rates of depression, perceived stress, and negative mood.”

6. Don’t skimp on sleep

Short work doesn’t lead to a smoothly operating business. Depending on the situation and what needs to be completed, it might mean you’re burning the midnight oil and forgoing sleep. While you can probably get away with a bad night’s sleep every now and again, don’t make a habit out of it. 

The American Psychological Association says that “sleep is a necessary human function — it allows our brains to recharge and our bodies to rest.” And missing out on sleep is more detrimental than you might think. “Sleep is so crucial that even slight sleep deprivation or poor sleep can affect memory, judgment and mood.”

To sleep better, establish a nighttime routine.

This routine can include meditation, breathing techniques, reading, or other relaxing activities. Additionally, stay off your phone and turn off your TV before starting your bedtime routine. 

7. Understand your emotions

Most of us have strong feelings surrounding the holidays. Whether those emotions are good or bad depends on our personal histories, external influences, and much more.

Around the holidays, many people resort to overworking, overeating, or drinking as ways to compensate for feelings they don’t know how to manage. Instead of burying your emotions and feeling the resultant stress, explore and acknowledge them. You can do this by journaling or seeking outside advice on how to manage your feelings and emotions.

When you begin to feel stressed and overwhelmed, sit down with a notebook and a pen and try to determine why you’re feeling the way you are. The more you practice acknowledging your feelings and understanding where they come from, the less control they’ll have over you.

8. Disconnect

When the stress of the holiday season gets to be too much, take a step back. It’s okay to disconnect if you need to (just remember you can’t stay disconnected!).

Disconnecting looks different depending on your situation and needs. Maybe it means turning your phone off for set amounts of time each day or muting notifications. Or perhaps your version of disconnecting includes meditation— a literal forgetting of self.

Taking a step back from it all doesn’t mean you’re a failure or don’t know how to cope. Sometimes, life is just that busy and you need to find a quiet refuge where you can collect yourself and rebuild momentum.

Looking for ideas on how to take a break from the Internet and other stress-inducers this holiday season? Take a look at this curated list of ideas on how to disconnect from social media and more.

9. Talk about it

We’ve all been there — so stressed out that we get lost in our own heads and ways of thinking. When that happens, turn to someone you trust and talk it out. Getting an outsider’s view can offer perspectives on your issues and stressors that you likely wouldn’t reach on your own.

Eva Stubits is a Houston-based clinical psychologist specializing in stress management. She says “that talking about how stressed you are can help you get it out of your system.“

“It’s kind of like the pressure cooker analogy: If you don’t open a lid periodically, the steam can build up and cause you to feel even more stressed. If you let it out, it can help you process whatever it is you’re worried about.”

10. Work it out

You’ve heard it before; exercise helps keep you healthy. That doesn’t mean that exercise only keeps your body in good form; it keeps your mind healthy, too.

Exercise in almost any form helps your body to reduce stress and its effects. Whether you choose to walk, run, or perform burpees and wall squats in your office, the important thing is that you get moving. Physical activity increases the number of endorphins in your body, producing a “feel good” effect in your brain. You may have heard this phenomenon referred to as a “runner’s high,” but any good aerobic exercise can lead to the same result.

If you’d like to learn more about the effects of stress on your body, and how to implement an effective workout routine, check out this article from the Mayo Clinic.

Making the Most of the Holiday Season

We hope these self-care tips help you make the most of the holiday season. Let us know what else you do to manage stress during the holidays in the comments below.