With the holiday season fast approaching, I’m sure you’ve started planning for how you’re going to take advantage of the time when consumers are eager to pull out their wallets and pony up their hard earned cash to purchase your wares. If you haven’t thought about it yet, or if you’ve been struggling to come up with ideas on how to take advantage of the period of retail abundance with your website, don’t worry, it’s not too late!
If you’re wondering if it’s worth spending time to build your online revenue instead of dumping all of your resources into driving customers into your brick and mortar locations, these facts might help you end that struggle. An expected 61% of shoppers will use online resources to find the perfect holiday gift. Additionally, 77% of consumers rely on retailer’s promotions to shop during Thanksgiving weekend.
You might be thinking, “Sure, I’m not surprised that people do research online prior to the holidays, but people love going to the stores to enjoy the full shopping experience.” Well, that may be true for the majority, but research from the National Retail Federation indicates 46% of holiday shopper’s budget is spent online. I’m certainly not comfortable walking away from that much wallet (or purse) share, and I’m sure you’re not either!
The following are a few inbound marketing tips for you to use right now to put yourself in the position to capitalize on those staggering statistics.
Tip 1 | Use search friendly blog post titles
Take some time to do keyword research on the products or product categories which you believe will have medium to high search demand. Integrate those keywords into your blog post titles and create entertaining and compelling content for your potential customers who will be shopping for what you have.
Once you attract them to your website with a nice keyword focused blog post title, don’t disappoint them. Make sure you take the opportunity to talk about all the benefits they’re most likely looking to receive, but try to think of some unique benefits they aren’t looking for. Make sure your content rises above your competitors who aren’t taking a value driven approach.
Tip 2 | Create holiday themed product categories
Do you carry the perfect holiday gift for the person who has everything? What about those wives who are committed to surprising their hubby with something unique, yet thoughtful? Spend some time brainstorming on these type of product categories that will show your buyers know you understand the problems they face when it comes to holiday shopping, and be their hero by solving them.
Sure you might have to spend some time combing through your products and adding additional tags to tie them together within your website, but it’ll definitely be worth your time and effort, and help you climb much higher in the search rankings. If you’re super creative, you may even find that you attract attention and links from people who find your creativity innovative!
Tip 3 | Explore trending stories on Facebook & Twitter
The closer we get to the holidays, the more the conversations will amp up all over social media. Take time, or set up your monitoring tools to notify you when these relevant conversations are trending, and then take the time to participate in the conversation. This will help position your company as a thought leader or a valuable source of help, and you’ll be rewarded.
When you’re engaging in these conversations remember that it’s not about selling. It’s about helping, and the company that is viewed as the most helpful will typically win the battle over where they buy. In some cases, it’s not about who has the least expensive products (think of Zappos), it’s about who engaged, entertained or educated the best without an expectation or requirement of anything in return.
Bonus Tip | Turn “Wishlist” into a “Naughty & Nice List”
Amazon received some backlash on their Prime Day in July when they reduced prices on random products such as hair dryers. They’ve learned and will offer promotions this holiday season based on shoppers’ wish lists. You can also learn from this and utilize your own data to send targeted, 1:1 email communications to your customers based on what they are really interested, helping increase your chance to becoming the go to solution.
During the holiday season, consider offering your site visitors a Naughty & Nice List feature that acts much in the same as a wish list.
And don’t forget about self-gifting opportunities.
Is your mind racing with ideas?
If you’d like more help (and ideas), we’re offering a free holiday inbound marketing assessment by just clicking the button below. We look forward to helping you further.
