For anyone with an eCommerce site, holidays can be a joyous and happy time, albeit for different reasons than most. Traffic and sales spike starting with Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and continue right through Boxing Week. But then, around comes January, and everyone starts feeling those eCommerce Winter Blues and sales lulls. Gift-time is over, and now we’re back to that grind to get sales. But don’t fear, there’s plenty of ways to take advantage of that holiday fun and start the New Year right.
Create A New Online Sale
Black Friday and Cyber Monday offered that first kick of sales for the holiday, but it doesn’t mean you can’t start your own thing. Why jump on the bandwagon? This is your golden chance to be creative! People who appreciated the holiday sales, are still hungry for a deal - so be the one to provide it.
Change Your Messaging
Holiday messaging = give this gift to a loved one, indulge, have a merry season. People in the new year are more focused on self-improvement, goal-setting and feeling great about their year. Change your website messaging, advertising and marketing to reflect this. People are back to buying for themselves, so keep your target market in mind and not those buying for your target market.
Re-Targeting Ads
Have you installed a Google or Facebook pixel on your website? If not, you’ve missed out on a terrific opportunity to attract new customers. In the past, people who visited your website would be long gone as soon as they left, however these free tools allow you to follow people across the web (creepy, but useful!), and re-advertise to them on Facebook or any page with Google ads. Plus, ads are generally less competitive after the holidays, so you may get more bang for your advertising buck!
Use that Newsletter
Hopefully you took advantage of your online store’s email collecting ability. The spike in customers means a spike in emails, to whom you can offer special “post-holiday” deals and offers.
And get this! Newsletters get way more clicks and engagement then re-targeting ads. If segmented and implemented properly, newsletters are your best friend to keep first-time customers and turn them into long-time repeat customers. Hello increasing that LTV (lifetime value). Make sure you keep newsletter friends attached by not sending too many emails and keep offering exclusive deals that people can’t get enough of.
Offer Online Gift Cards
Hopefully you offered e-gift cards for your online store this year. Sure gift cards technically count as “holiday sales,” however, people with gift cards generally spend MORE than the amount on their card (they certainly don’t spend less). These gift card spenders are a whole new crop of customers you can re-target with ads and newsletters, so don’t underestimate the value of the cards!
Prep for Next Year’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday
This year’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday eCommerce sales were the highest they’ve been ever. Make sure you start planning for next year now by taking advantage of everything on this list. You can often figure these things out yourself, but if your looking for a little help, give us a call and we’ll see what we can do to guide you in the right direction.
Have a great year of sales!
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