Halloween is a thing of the past now and the holiday shopping season is underway! It is also that time of the year where buyers expect to see some enticing Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals to snag just as they are finishing up their Thanksgiving turkey. Below are 5 tips that can be employed on your website to prepare for the spirit of the season:
1. Present a special offer.
2. Direct visitors to a landing page with special offers
3. Promote your special offers through an email to your CRM
4. Take advantage of specific social media promos
5. Edit product pages with updated info/pricing & seasonal photos.
1. Present a Special Offer
Offer a special on your homepage to convert a website visitor into a buyer. There are many special offer options such as a one time use coupon code, free shipping, referral discounts or limited time offers. You should take the time now to outline the terms and conditions of these offers (i.e. can more than one offer be applied, are returns allowed on specials, etc). You may also wish to have different offers for different market segments.
2. Landing Page for Special Offer
Your Black Friday or Cyber Monday offer may be the best deal since the Louisiana Purchase. Instead of directing interested shoppers to your home page, direct them to a targeted landing page with your special offers displayed without clutter and with pizzazz. If you only direct your shoppers to your homepage you could overwhelm them with other options which means they may bounce off your site and abandon any idea of completing a sale.
3. Email Marketing
Don’t forget about your loyal customers and contacts in your CRM. Take a moment to craft a Black Friday/Cyber Monday email (or 2 separate ones!) with your offer and link to your landing page. Advertising isn’t all social media these days!
4. Social Media Marketing
Just because advertising isn’t all social media these days doesn’t mean you should skip over this avenue. Have fun with your social media networks and offer a different engaging activity on each platform. Maybe offer a sweepstakes on one, a promo code on another and even a scavenger hunt on a third. Make sure that that your goal is clear and that you are driving these ‘friends’ back to your landing pages.
5. Edit Product Pages
Periodically throughout the year you should be taking the time to maintain your product pages: updating descriptions, correcting prices, changing pictures and adding supporting content. Now that we are busy with holiday shoppers, why don’t you update your product photos with a bit of holiday flair? If budget is a concern then you can ‘recycle’ pictures used from previous holiday seasons or only update those products associated with the special offer.
Conclusion
Your website is an asset and a critical piece of your marketing & sales strategy. Use one or all five of these tips to prepare your website for the big holiday rush. Even if you are a B2B service solution, you may find value in taking the simplest step of editing your product (or in your case service) pages to be accurate and to provide value.
For help on finding your target customer check out: Identify Your Target Customer in These Four Steps