Increase Your Online Holiday Sales

Forrester Research is predicting the 2007 online holiday retail sales to hit $33 billion. Are you ready to share in some of this bounty? Now is the time to make sure your website and Internet marketing plans are in place to take advantage of this buying frenzy in the next two months of November and December.

Online Marketing Plan

If you want to increase sales you need to first have an online marketing plan specific to the needs of your business. This plan could include e-mail campaigns, new website content, search engine optimized press releases, and a well thought out plan to continue building a relationship with your customers and potential customers.

Build Relationships with E-mail Marketing

For many people, e-mail marketing is all about sending out an e-mail to try to get a customer to purchase items. I would challenge that thought by saying that you are shortchanging yourself if you limit your e-mail marketing to sales. Consider using e-mail as a way to continually build trust and consumer confidence.

For instance, a study by RightNow Technologies confirms that 73% of consumers want retailers to follow up after their purchase. Take advantage of this idea and put in place a series of autoresponders to follow-up with anyone who makes a purchase on your website. However, space the e-mails out so that the customer is not being flooded with e-mails from you. Send one e-mail out immediately after their purchase, thanking them and reassuring them that they made the right decision. In about a week, sent out another e-mail to ask them how they are enjoying their purchase. Maybe in two weeks have another e-mail that goes out with a special discount coupon for another item on your website.

Think of this autoresponder e-mail campaign as way to stay "top of mind" with your customer and continue to build goodwill. What you don't want to do is set up a series of autoresponders that are only sales pitches. This turns people off and will make them immediately unsubscribe from your mailing list.

Build Sales with E-mail Marketing

Of course, e-mail marketing can also be used as a sales tool. But rather than trying to make the sale in the e-mail, use the e-mail as way to drive traffic to your website. What you want to do is segment and tailor your e-mail message so that it is personalized. A recent survey conducted by Harris Interactive showed that 68% of consumers said they visited a website after receiving an e-mail from the retailer.

Website Tune Up

How long is it been since you really took a look at your website and analyzed it from the viewpoint of your customer? More than 50% of people that come to your website will land on your home page. Take advantage of this situation by making sure you have a section on your homepage set aside for special promotions. The top right-hand corner of your homepage is what they call "prime real estate." In other words, this is where you want to put the most important sales information.

How easy is it for customers to make a purchase on your website? People want immediate access to information during their purchase process. Make it easy for them to quickly find answers to their questions. For example, something as simple as showing shipping costs before you ask for credit card information can dramatically increase sales online.

Speaking of shipping, Forrester Research discovered that 61% of online consumers said they were more likely to shop online with a retailer that offers free shipping. So, you might want to consider offering free shipping during the holiday season to increase your sales.

Search Engine Optimized Press Releases

It used to be that press releases were only used by big companies to make announcements to the media. The Internet has completely changed the way people do business and the way they communicate. Press releases are no longer just for the media. An online press release is way to reach your customer and your potential customer.

A search engine optimized (SEO) press release is a great way to get information on your company out to the media and to your customer. Everyone is online looking for information. Your SEO press release shows up when someone does a Google search for the keywords in your press release. This will cause not only increased traffic to your website, but targeted traffic to your website. You will be attracting the people who are your potential customers.

Conclusion

According to Harris Interactive, 48% of the people they surveyed said they have increased shopping online "a great deal" or "somewhat" in the past five years. Juniper Research is estimating that 126 million people will make online purchases between the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday season in 2007. Make sure some of those purchases are on your website.

© 2007 Michelle Howe

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