Domains.co.za discusses tips and tricks to increase visibility and boost sales this Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
1. Sweeten the deal more to stand out
Competition will be manic this year, as customers will be spoiled for choice and pricing won’t be the only thing they’ll be looking for. Sweeten the deal by offering ‘freebies’ like: free shipping, free gifts for when they spend over a certain amount taking service to the next level with a live chat.
2. Improve user-friendliness on your website
Scrutinise your website and get a few mystery shoppers to do the same. Then obtain feedback and make the necessary changes. What is your competition doing differently?
Remember: your checkout process needs to be quick and efficient; you need to have multiple payment gateways and your site needs to be secure with trust-building badges and reviews visible.
3. Make sure your site is mobile-friendly
Don’t take your developers’ word for it, follow the same process as above (on multiple types of phones). Ensure that the display and navigation are as easy and as visually pleasing via mobile as it is on a desktop.
4. Check your site’s speed and adjust if needed
Check your site’s speed using Google’s tool and fix what needs to be fixed. If it takes more than two seconds for your e-commerce website to load, you could be losing potential customers. Look at getting faster and more reliable hosting, and make the change today.
5. Build a Christmas audience while you are at it
Curious shoppers will be dropping by your website to browse, many of whom may leave empty handed. However, you can leverage this opportunity to build your Christmas emailing list. A simple way is to create a pop-up that encourages visitors to subscribe to your newsletter and/or promotional emails, to obtain a 10% discount on their next online purchase. A competition could also be a good idea to get those email sign-ups.
Incentivise shoppers who have completed an online purchase for their next shopping experience with you as well, and don’t forget to ask for reviews.
6. Ensure you are prepared for shipping and returns
Be upfront about your shipping costs, delivery time frames and returns policy. Ensure that shoppers will be able to receive their purchases within a relatively short time frame. If your deals are great, then there may be some frenzy-shopping going on, and the last thing you need is disgruntled customers complaining about your after-sale service.
7. Get the word out
What you want: an influx of new customers and sales over this shopping weekend.
What you don’t want: zero sales leading up to this weekend as everyone is holding off for the Black Friday sale. Or worse, getting lost between the bulk of other marketing messages on this day.
Timing is everything when it comes to getting the word out for your Black Friday and Cyber Monday campaigns. Don’t wait until the 26th to promote, but don’t start too soon either. Remember, online competition will be hectic, and social media feeds will be flooded with deals, yours need to have an impact and the WOW-factor.
If sales for the products you sell are low this time of the year anyway (i.e. winter clothing) start promoting this now.
Marketing ideas:
- Offer gift ideas: Write a blog, send it via email or use your social media platforms.
- Get an influencer on-board: team up with a popular influencer in your industry to create social content about a product.
- Collaborate with another brand: find a company with whom you can do affiliate marketing with. For example, if you sell wine, team up with a glass company that sells great wine glasses. They advertise your promotion on their campaigns, and you can do the same for them.
- Create visually striking content: make beautiful and striking social media posts, landing pages, banners etc.
- Offer something exclusive: how about selling an exclusive product during Black Friday and Cyber Monday weekend? Example: if you sell T-shirts, design or bring in something awesome but only make or order limited stock and promote it as a ‘once-off’.
- Treat your regulars to even more: create an email list for your ‘regulars’ (people who have shopped from you at least 2-3 times this year) and reward their support with a bonus discount promotion.
- Ramp up the reviews: customers like to hear from happy customers. Ask you satisfied clients to share and tell their stories.
- Black Friday and Cyber Monday weekend is like the prequel, or dry run up to Christmas. Get this right and your Christmas campaign could run even more smoothly this year.
DOMAINS.CO.ZA
www.domains.co.za
