How to Get Ahead of Cyber Monday
opens IMAGE file While not as popular in the media as Black Friday, any business with an ecommerce component understands the value of a powerful Cyber Monday strategy. In fact, if your business isn’t geared up to really invest time and energy into this online shopping holiday, there is a huge disservice happening. Not just any last minute strategy either… a great Cyber Monday involves developing a solid plan. Here are some areas that need dedicated thought and consideration when creating a strategy for this once a year opportunity.
Discover Your Audience
The first sign of a poorly thought out concept is one that doesn’t take current trends and target audience into consideration. Just because you have an item you think is worthy of Cyber Monday glory does not mean that it meshes up with what the consumer is looking for. Invest in figuring out all that you can about your ideal client and target audience. This is the first step to any decent marketing strategy. Once you know who the best fit for your product or service is then you need to do some market research to find out what this particular set of people are seeking this holiday season. Offering exactly what the client wants is a no brainer when it comes to making an impact on this sale. Also, spend some time doing keyword research so that your promotional materials reflect exactly what the search engines are finding successful.
Develop the Deals
Once you’ve determined what your shoppers will want, it’s time to come up with the deals and promotions they are looking for in a Cyber Monday sale. Develop all the deals and coupons and start building the graphics for them right away. Keep it simple, however. The idea for this event is to grab the great deal before it’s gone. This means consumers will be scanning advertisements for key terms and will not take time to read the fine print. Don’t make your specials so complicated that your message becomes confusing or overlooked. Also, think creatively. Free shipping is extremely appealing to buyers and has been known to raise net profits by 30%. Build these deals into your costs so that you aren’t losing profits. Appealing, easy to read, and easy to understand discounts – promoted as widely and as often as you can – is the key to success.
Deliver Hype
Once you have everything ready, it’s time to promote. Building hype for your event will deliver 10x more notice and profits than just posting it on your website. To get people interested – and even excited – build ads, advertise to your email lists, and start talking it up on social media and the other online communities you are connected with.
Tech Check
There’s nothing worse than investing time, energy and money into a campaign only to have technical issues impact the results. Set up everything enough ahead of time so that there is an opportunity to do a couple of test runs. Have a person on staff ready to deal with any issues as they arise on Cyber Monday. Take volume into consideration as well. If the site folds because of too much traffic, the profits lost will be extremely frustrating. Ask around for advice from other ecommerce companies to sort out what their successes and setbacks have been in regards to their technology.
Last but not least, look beyond just the sales numbers. The traffic on Cyber Monday, if done correctly, will exceed the number of visitors for just about any other day of the year. Take advantage of this opportunity to collect data and build and fill your sales funnel. Incorporate a call to action in the visiting and purchasing processes to entice traffic to sign up for one of your digital marketing channels. This practice will increase your audience year after year and lead to even more successful Cyber Monday sales.