1. Web Site Review
Take a quick review of your site and fix anything that isn’t working right. This is a critical time to find anything that slipped through the cracks.Double check your contact form and any other elements that are in place for customers to reach you.
Review your visitor log files (site analytics) and look for any missing file errors (404, etc.), broken links or missing graphics.
Your home page (or your most active page) is a good place to include links to route holiday traffic to your seasonal offers. Your customers probably have different buying habits during the holiday season than they do any other time of the year. Modify your internal linking structure to reflect seasonality. Put additional links (containing keyword-rich anchor text so that these shortcuts pass PageRank) to your popular holiday categories and products. If you have great holiday gifts, create a Gift Ideas page and optimize it placing it one click away from your homepage.
If you are promoting a holiday sale or specific holiday product, don’t forget to polish that page's META description. That way holiday shoppers/searchers will find seasonal search phrases to encourage them to click through to your site. Including a call-to-action in the META description will also help ensure they click through to your site.
2. Shoppers LOVE “Free”
3. Gift Cards or e-Gift Certificates
These are great for your last-minute shoppers, for someone who can't decide, or for someone who'd like the recipient to make the choice. If you have the ability to offer this, feature it prominently on your site and in your bricks-and-mortar store (if applicable).
Hopefully you already have a blog. If not, make it your New Year’s resolution! Your blog is a great way to connect and communicate with your customers/readers. Share a story, a favorite recipe, or helpful packing and shipping tips. Blogs are great because you can lend your own voice by adding conviction, humor, personality, and value. Your readers come to know your authentic self.
I've had success mapping out my blogging and putting it on my calendar. If you're a retailer with regular sales at given times of the year, you can plan those posts now and start working on them for publishing later. In both Blogger and WordPress, I can submit my posts and post-date them to maintain an active publishing schedule. This works great for me if I'm pressed for time or need to take some time off. I write when I'm inspired creating several posts at once for future use. The goal is to publish regularly and frequently.
5. Get Social
If you're participating in any Social Media (i.e., YouTube, FaceBook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.), publish a list of gift suggestions and "share it".6. Use Video
The #2 search engine isn’t Yahoo, it’s YouTube! Use a video for products that require complicated assembly, need "how to" instructions, or for things you need to hear like music clips or concerts and performances. It's so easy to make a video these days. Most digital cameras have a video function, you can purchase a Flip for about $160, you can use your web cam, or you can use your home video recording device. Don't get hung up on producing a professional video - just produce a simple one and post it to YouTube. Who knows, maybe you'll be famous! ;)
Make sure your web address appears in all your mailings, advertisements, and anywhere else you may be marketing offline. If you have a bricks-and-mortar location, remind people that you have a Web site.
TV news, radio stations, and newspaper reporters are often looking for interesting holiday stories. Come up with an interesting story idea and you may not only get valuable airtime or print mention, but possibly even a link from their site to yours.Recession or no recession, people will shop. There’s still time to maximize your revenue this holiday season.
Ciao for now,
Paula
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