Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday — no matter what you call it, the 2014 holiday shopping season is officially in swing.

More brick and mortar stores were even opening their doors a day early on Thanksgiving, which certainly caught the eye of shoppers and critics alike. The tactic seemed to work with more than a third of 86.9 million holiday shoppers making purchases on Thanksgiving Day, according to the National Retail Federation.

What generation shopped the most over the Thanksgiving weekend?

As usual, the millennial generation, aged 18-34, drove the bulk of sales this weekend. Nearly 75 percent of millennials, who see the day as a social event, were shopping this weekend. Not only were millennials shopping more, but they were also spending an average of 7.5 percent more than average adults, according to NRF.

Trends that emerge from the Thanksgiving shopping weekend usually continue to ring true for the entire holiday season. Fine-tune how you market and approach holiday communications this year with these four marketing tricks that work for businesses of all sizes and shoppers of all ages.

1. Deep discounts don't disappoint

Getting shoppers' attention around the holidays can be tricky. Everywhere they look there's another ad, another sale, and more often than not, a deep discount that they can't resist.

Shoppers are not going to settle for a measly 10 percent discount. According to 2013 NerdWallet data, electronics — a classic holiday favorite — were on discounted 37 percent on average. Big discounts, upwards of 30-50 percent, combined with free items and free shipping are holiday showstoppers.

After all, it is the holiday season. Show your giving spirit.

2. Maximize the mobile

Online shopping is more popular than ever before. 2014 Black Friday online sales grew 20 percent from last year, according to the Custora E-Commerce Pulse. And, 33 percent of those shopping online were doing so on their phones and tablets.

Needless to say, your mobile site and mobile purchasing experience needs to look good, be easy to navigate and maintain the full functionality of your desktop site. The easier you make it for your customers to purchase on their phones, the more money your business will be raking in this holiday season.

3. Keep your eye on social

Social sales in the past have been the black horse of holiday shopping. Yes, social content and advertisements help build awareness. But tracking the conversion of these tactics has been tricky.

With mobile and online shopping becoming more prevalent, social is become a bigger player in the holiday marketing repertoire. This year, Black Friday was the most social holiday ever.

Over the Thanksgiving weekend, there were more than 2.7 million social mentions of Black Friday, according to Salesforce Marketing Cloud. This year, Adobe found approximately 2 percent of Black Friday sales came directly from social, with Facebook averaging the highest sale total at $114.45.

4. Old school tactics still going strong

While social media is converting more sales than ever before, traditional marketing tactics are still doing most of the legwork. Email marketing was the most successful channel for driving online purchases, influencing a whopping 27 percent of sales.

The advertising circular also continued to be a Black Friday staple with nearly half of shoppers pursuing them before purchasing. The holiday shopping season is just ramping up, so make sure your business ends the year with bang by using these marketing trends.