Are you ready to gear up your online sales this holiday season?
Black Friday and Cyber Monday are right around the corner. National Retail Federation (NRF) sees sales in November and December jumping 4.1% to $616.9 billion (excluding autos, gas and restaurant sales), up 1% from the 2013 increase. Did you know that in 2013, $150 million dollars in revenue was generated just between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday?  Total online sales generated from November 1 to December 31 was a whopping $46.5 Billion.  You still have time to gear up your online marketing efforts to garner a piece of that revenue.
Social Media. People are already talking about holiday shopping. Your products / services need to be in the conversation for people to talk about them. Referrals from Social Media accounted for the highest percentage of purchases in 2013. Here are some Ideas you can implement right now:
- Create a Pinterest board of holiday gift ideas and include some of your products in the mix.
- Use Instagram to post up photos of your goods
- Use #gifts, #giftidea and #shopping hashtags, as they are already starting to trend high.
- Change your Facebook cover photo to one of you best selling items. Be sure to link the photo to your sales page
- Paid Advertising: Whether it is Google AdWords, or social media, paid advertising increases your content’s exposure exponentially. Google AdWords lets you buy the targeted keywords that best suits your products. Social Media ad buys give the opportunity to target behaviors and demographics that match your target customer.
- Email Marketing: Strategic email marketing can create greater awareness about your goods and services. Email marketing also generates a high level of spontaneous purchases.
- Use a special “email list only” coupon
- Bundle goods for special prices
- Create landing pages on your web site for those special packages
- Mobile Friendly: Nearly half of last years holiday sales were made from a mobile device. Those numbers are expected to increase this year. Make sure your website and email campaigns translate well on mobile.
What if you are NOT in retail? Â
For those of you who offer services, now is a great time to offer gift certificates to your customers and “soon to be” customers. From massage therapists to coaches, you too can participate in the holiday buying frenzy. Â There is a lot of focus on simplifying the home, life and work. Â Gift Certificates offer a way for people to buy meaningful gifts without increasing the clutter.
If you are not sure how to craft your sales message, contact me for a consultation or pick up the Holiday Sales Bundle. Together we will make the 2014 Holiday buying season your best season yet!
Great overview! What an amazing idea to offer gift certificates for services. Thank you.
Owning an online natural products store, I love the idea of posting items to Pinterest!
Pinterest is a great way to build your community and increase traffic John. Glad you found the tip useful.
Great tips. Another: Blog more! If you blog at least 15x a month, you get 5x the traffic. More traffic equals more conversions because there are more eyes on your product.
Good point Lauryn! Thank you for sharing!
Great title! I really love the point about making your cover photo your best selling item. So many people forget to use that as an effective marketing tool. Truly informative!
Thank you Shana!
What an awesome post! So many great things to try! Love the hashtags #gifts #giftideas #shopping (I don’t think I would of ever thought of those!) I have never used coupons before but I think I am going to try this one out too! Thank you so much 😉
#gifts, #giftidea and #shopping… thanks!! Valuable reminder. Will DO.
Some great tips Melissa. I can’t wait to use them in my business this holiday season!
Good stuff! You really inspired me to branch out into Pinterest and Instagram, hadn’t thought about that for my contemporary art from Nepal! Thank you, Melissa (— and I just LOVE the avatar of you on the top left of the page)
My “cartoon me” she’s a hoot! Thank you!
Great tips. Your brought some things to the for front that I still have to work on. I need to get my site mobile friendly and I also need to finish setting up my email marketing and newsletter. TY!
Email marketing is HUGE.. If I can be of help, please let me know Jacque
Social media is so family and friends oriented that it’s a great time for online biz!
I love the hashtag tips and the instagram and pinterest tips!
I LOVE all of your tips, I’ve just started getting more involved with instagram and I made my first sale their last night. I’m going to use those hashtages you’ve recommended too to get the word about my new book out to shoppers. Thank you!
Peace – love your web site! It’s gorgeous. Good luck selling your new book, if you need help just shout!
Melissa this quick guide was fun and user friendly. The Holidays are right around the corner and this is a great guide for online sales.
Thank you Melissa
Love & Light
Denita
Great tips Melissa. Thanks for gearing us up for a productive and prosperous holiday selling season in our businesses. Excellent tip on starting a Pinterest board featuring holiday gift ideas.
Oh you gave me a great tip for a Pinterest board idea… I love it! I love the tip about gift certificate and wonder if you have any website or online tools to create e- gift certificates for a service base business? Thanks for the great tips1