It hardly seems possible that we are entering another holiday shopping season. Year after year, advertisers start campaigning to win over early-bird shoppers earlier and earlier. Holiday decorations are popping up in retail stores even before some families are planning Halloween. So, in light of preparing well in advance, here are some tips to get your eCommerce site ready for the 2013 holiday shopping season.
Use vacation terms in your campaigns
You can capitalize on early bird shoppers by using those keywords in some of your campaigns. Do your due diligence first to look at the potential in your particular niche, but incorporating key phrases related to the holiday shopping season could tap into the early buyer market. Terms like “early holiday discounts”, “pre-holiday sale”, “holiday shopping” and similar terms combined with your niche keywords can be effective in the pre-season with early buyers.
Promote pre-season prices on hot sale items
Some shoppers specifically look for early deals on fashion items. The video game Skylanders is popular with kids and teens right now, for example, and parents may be looking to purchase game systems and characters before prices start to rise in time for peak shopping season. If you’re offering a hot seller at discounted prices, let buyers know.
Analyze last year’s performance
Now is the time when you should carefully analyze the performance of the past year. What marketing tactics did you use and how well did they perform? Should you allocate more of your budget to PPC or organic SEO this year? If you’re using content marketing, start planning your efforts and get to work.
Have your plans in place now. If you need to hire a copywriter to spice up your product descriptions or run a branding campaign, you have time to do it. But if you wait until the holiday shopping season is in full swing, you’ll be chasing your tail.
Increase your product descriptions
Your product descriptions are what will sell your inventory at the end of the day. You can drive visitors to your site by optimizing and using PPC, but your product descriptions are what will drive conversions. Take a close look at your product copy and reinvigorate it. Run some A/B tests to dig into the most effective titles and descriptions. You can also start planning how you’ll incorporate holiday-relevant copy into your descriptions, such as “2013 Christmas must-have for teens” or “on the 2013 holiday featured list.”
Take advantage of Google+
Google is really pushing Google+, so you should use it to your advantage. Make sure your physical location information is up to date and make sure you share your engaging content there. There is a definite SEO benefit to Google+, not to mention that you can drive additional traffic through your connections.
Adjust your local business presence
If you also have a physical location, make sure your local business presence is strong. Local customers will find it online this holiday season. Update your hours, contact information, physical address, and description. Make sure your description is relevant and keyword rich, including the main products you sell. Give directions if your location is hard to find.
Use retargeting
Now is the perfect time to start using retargeting. Because shoppers search the web for ideas, they may spend time on your site and then leave without making a purchase. After all, they have plenty of time to order before the holidays.
But you can make sure you stay top of mind with consumers, and give them an incentive to buy, by using retargeting. Hit visitors with special offers and deep discounts on items that are sure to be top sellers, and offer them some motivation by letting them know that the items they viewed are in short supply at current prices.
be a resource
Everyone has at least one hard-to-buy person on their holiday gift list, and shoppers are always looking for great gift ideas. Become a resource for your visitors by offering tips on how to find the best deals, what’s hot on this year’s wish lists for different recipients, ages, etc., and other fun and informative information. The more valuable content you provide, the better your organic rankings and the more likely visitors are to share your content.
Pay attention to mobile
More people are shopping via mobile than ever, so making sure your site is mobile-optimized is vitally important. This is particularly difficult with e-commerce, as many product listings and the checkout process are often difficult to adapt for mobile devices. But if you neglect the mobile audience, you will lose valuable conversions. Your PPC ads will also be shown to mobile users, but they will quickly recover when they realize how difficult it will be to complete the checkout process from a smartphone.
It’s not too early to start thinking about the holiday shopping season. Retail stores already have holiday inventory on the shelves, and shoppers will soon be searching the web for ideas and deals. Take advantage of the opportunity by heading into this year’s holiday season armed with your best marketing efforts.