I know, can we really be thinking about Christmas now! Well, we are certainly having to, as we do at this time of year, every year. We have had and are getting many requests from existing clients and new ones about either recommendations or new feature requests or new site requests. already. It goes without saying that the run up to Christmas is the peak trading time and no-one wants to miss it!
This year there will be an even bigger push as more and more people are doing their Christmas shopping online. You must also remember the 4 key sale dates; Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day. Here, we discuss some ideas for you to take full advantage of this key retail period.
As we have discussed in other blogs, preparation is key. Take some time out to think about the offers you will promote; increased number of loyalty points, buy x get y half price, free delivery over x and so on. Then think about your marketing plan. There is little point waking up the morning of Black Friday and then suddenly deciding to do an offer, all your competitors will have been promoting and telling their customers about what is coming. Here are some ideas for you:
Your website
Get a good clear banner on your website, tease the visitors about the offers that are coming and provide a countdown. Put something in that will make the potential purchaser feel like they will be missing out if they don’t take up one of these offers.
Don’t let them have to think, give them solutions! This will be the ideal gift for dad, this is perfect for the friend that likes… This is a busy time and some people are just fresh out of ideas. Start giving them these ideas now, so that they can start building a mental list of presents.
Perhaps there is something that the site visitor wants for their Christmas presents, so consider introducing an ’email a friend’ button.
For those items you are putting on offer, make sure you have got an area on your product page where you can promote other products that would either go with this one or you can up-sell.
Perhaps take a few of your products and bundle them together to make a complete package and in turn increase that basket value.
How about doing a flash sale, sell only a few at a really low price, this will get people to your site, even if the product has sold out.
Email Campaign
Now is the time to make sure you are collecting as many email addresses as possible, so that you can email them about the offers. Personally I find onsite pop-ups when I arrive at a site really annoying, but I have been seen to enter my email address in them and I have seen good results when our clients use them.
Have a think about how many emails you will send as the time draws closer. Don’t be afraid, you see it done by so many brands, you have to get out there and tell people and you cannot do that by calling them or knocking on their door!!
Paid Search
This is also a good time to get some good Ad campaigns running. The most popular ones to run are Google Ads, but do check your Google Analytics to double check if you should in fact be using Bing or another search engine. Facebook Ads are really good too. You can upload your email addresses and get Facebook to suggest the audience you can reach based on the profile of the people you have uploaded.
So, this is the time to get preparing; think about the offers, think about how you are going to promote those offers and get them to action! You have to be in it to win it.
