If you’ve been awake for the past few weeks, you know two things: Holiday music is on full force wherever you turn, and people are blasting out seemingly outrageous deals at every single turn.

With Black Friday and Cyber Monday behind us, many will back off assuming that the frenzy will soon die down. This opens up the perfect opportunity for creative marketing and increased profits through strategic deals. Here are some ways to effectively use deals to reach your customers this year!

Compete on value, not price

Every retailer seems to be offering incredibly cut-rate deals around this time of year. For everyone but highly specialized shops, this kind of intense competition can seem overwhelming. Fortunately, if you look a little closer you can see that the majority of these deals are on products that, frankly, were never that valuable to begin with. You can actually discount a more reputable, higher quality product less than their lower quality counterparts, yet still receive more interest overall. There is a reason that Apple products sell fast when given even marginal discounts. Apply the same strategy to your store and you can quickly outpace the competition.

Offer combined deals

Along the same line as the last tip, you can also outcompete bottom-barrel prices by offering more creative deals. Often, this might be through the inclusion of complimentary items that have a high-perceived value but little in the way of manufacturing or acquisition costs. If, for example, you are a store that sells camping hammocks, including your highly effective hammock straps with the purchase of a deluxe hammock is a way to deliver an amazing combination that offers a lot to customers for only slightly less than you would have made without an active deal.

Use push notifications for precise targeting

Push notifications let you send instant deals to anyone who has your mobile app downloaded. Use this to your advantage by sending out specialized push notifications that benefit from immediate redemption. Have a major cold-front coming through? send out a one day deal for sweaters or hot cocoa mix with free overnight shipping. The versatility of instant deals means that every business can find a place for them in their holiday toolbox.

These are just a few ways to keep your customers interested this holiday season. Have you had success with these types of strategies or would you like to share some of your own? We’d love to hear about it!