When your favorite store has a sale, how do you know about it? Usually email campaigns, mailers and things of the sort get your attention. Sometimes, you happen to be at the right place at the right time and find yourself walking through aisles or racks signed with percentages off.

But what about online?

If you're a small business that sells things online and especially if you run sales throughout the year, you have to get creative on how to get the word out about your deals. Here's how:

1. Make sure the discounted items have their own home. In a store, you'll typically find special displays of things that are on sale. The same can be done online! Put a page on your website that shows your sale items only.

2. Get people to that page! Here's where social media comes into play. Use your social media accounts as an announcement board to talk about your sales, and link over to the specific page on your website. Also, if you have partnerships with other vendors, ask them to post your deal, along with a link on their pages as well. (They may ask for the same in return, but it's still win-win.) Another win - link building is fantastic for SEO. So, getting in the habit of asking other vendors to link to your site is a great practice year round.

3. Blog about it! The life-span of a blog post is nearly infinite compared to a social media post. Also, a blog post allows you to dive deeper into what items you're running sales on, instead of just announcing that you're having a sale. These points are great for readers:

• What items are on sale
• Are the items good for gifting? Why might a customer need to purchase?
• Is there anything unique about any of the sale items? Handmade items, things that were made in the USA - these are the types of things to point out in a blog post. Tell what makes the things you sell unique beyond the actual product itself.
• Timing. Discuss how quickly someone can have the items in-hand after they pay. As humans we thrive on instant gratification so if you have a great shipping policy, let everyone know!
• Get them to a shopping experience! Blogs are incredibly useful tools to crosslink with your website. Remember that special page with your sale items that we mentioned earlier? Make sure you put a link (or several) within your blog post to get clients shopping.