Do you own an e-commerce business that sells items more appropriate for certain seasons in the year? Maybe you own a chocolate bunny business that makes the majority of its sales during Easter? Or a card company that sees the most sales around Valentine’s Day? Or maybe you own an online store selling Christmas decorations?
Whatever your business, below are 7 sure-fire ways to plan an effective marketing campaign to maximise sales and profits for your seasonal e-commerce website.
1. Make sure your content is optimised and ready
When it comes to making your site ready for the holiday season, the most effective way to do this is through keyword optimisation. Consider the phrases and keywords your audience are likely to search for this time of year and sprinkle them across your site content. This will boost the chances of your audience finding and visiting your site. If you’re not sure which phrases to target try Google’s Keyword Planner tool.
2. Clearly display offers and discounts
Your offers and discounts will more often than not be hook that reels customers in. But if your audience don’t see them, they will soon move onto the next store. Seasonal discounts and offers should be promoted across your website, ads, social channels and email marketing material. This will increase the chances customers choosing to buy from you.
3. Create landing pages for PPC and email marketing
If you plan to run seasonal PPC and email marketing campaigns to promote your e-commerce store (and we highly recommend you do!) then you’ll need to create landing pages. These landing pages are what your customers will click-through to when they see your ad. The pages need clearly represent what was advertised in your campaign to have a higher chance of converting your customers.
4. Make the most of PPC advertising
PPC advertising will put your e-commerce store right in front of your audience. By creating seasonal ad campaigns to support your theme and key messaging, you’ll stand a better chance of attracting new customers to your store. You can use PPC to advertise your offers, discounts, sale items and must-have products and reap the rewards with better-targeted traffic and an increase in sales.
5. Get vocal on social media
With this one, we suggest you start early. Telling your customers about your products, offers and seasonal sales is made easy with the help of Facebook, Twitter and other social media channels. And the sooner you start the better. As the holiday seasons approach social media activity increases – this is your best opportunity to reach out and engage your existing and potential customers.
6. Keep on top of your category pages
Once you have customers on your site, the last thing you want them to see is an array of out of stock items and broken links. Carrying out regular audits of your website, checking category pages and updating stock quantity will help you avoid this problem. Make sure your site is always functioning and is easy for your customers to navigate through – this will lower your bounce rate and increase your conversion and sales.
7. Measure and manage your campaign
With analytics and measurement tools you can see exactly where you are generating traffic from and how effective your advertising efforts are. Monitoring these insights will allow you to tweak your campaign where necessary, cut down the cost of your PPC campaign and ensure you are promoting your site in the most-effective way.
So there you have it, 7 very useful tips to increase sales and profits for your seasonal e-commerce website. If you’d like to know how our SEO & PPC services can help you and your e-commerce business, get in touch today by calling 0161 452 7146 for a friendly chat.
