Local Small Business Holiday Optimization 2020 Edition
Are You Ready for Christmas 2020?
Today I wanted to go over some quick wins that can get your website and business ready for Christmas 2020. These are some tips at getting more sales and converting more visitors into customers, especially important over the holidays. And even if you don’t have an ecommerce website, this can still help!
First Things First, Get an Ecommerce Website!
While I am a Shopify Partner, I am because I believe in them. The pricing, the easy user interface, and the beautiful designs make this a no-brainer for most businesses. You can get your business online within a couple weeks with Shopify. So if you don’t have a site where people can shop online, or pick up in store, sign up for Shopify now! It is only $29.95 per month.
Google My Business
Google My Business is so important to local businesses these days. It is how your potential customers find you online! And best of all it is totally free. All it takes is signing up, providing some information about your business, and then Google will mail you a postcard. This postcard will have a pin code inside. You just have to log back in, enter it, and your Google My Business listing will be live within 24-48 hours!
Paid Search
The biggest player in the game is Google Adwords. There are so many options here for advertising. From local geotargeted ads, to Google Shopping, to Buy on Google, to Local Inventory Ads. I don’t recommend doing this on your own, at least in the beginning. Get an expert to help you get everything set up.
Pop-Ups
This is something you should always have on your website in order to grab emails or phone numbers, especially from those visitors that didn’t purchase. This is especially important during the holidays. This could be a pop-up talking about your amazing free shipping or your guaranteed delivery dates, or a discount for signing up. Whatever it takes to get your holiday message across or get their email address.
In addition to the regular pop-up, you should have an exit pop-up. This is normally one that offers a discount for a would-be leaver of your website. Not only is it potentially your last chance to get them as a buyer, but asking for an email in exchange for a discount allows you to remarket to them (see below).
Remarketing
A majority of your customers are not going to purchase the first time they visit your website. You are going to be lucky to get 5 sales from every 100 visitors to your site. That’s why you need to remarket to them. This is especially important during the holiday season! And this can be done in a variety of ways, but the three most popular:
Email Marketing
As I mentioned above with the pop-up. Getting their email address and then remarketing them through a series of emails. You can talk about your company, the benefits of purchasing with you, or just offering a discount to come back. This can also be used for shopping cart abandonment and browse abandonment campaigns. I highly recommend Klaviyo for this sort of thing.
Social Media
Adding a Facebook pixel to your website allows you to remarket to your visitors when they are browsing Facebook or Instagram. Like above, you can show them posts with a video, an offer or images. And you can test these against each other to see which ones gets you the best return. You can do this manually or depending on your platform, their are some nice apps that make this simple to implement. I like AKO.
SMS Messaging
This one is the newest of the bunch, as it is gaining more popularity due to the more and more emails people are getting throughout the day. Now you need to be more forward about letting your customers know you will be texting them. I normally due this through an opt-in check box in a pop-up and through your checkout. Unlike email, where I normally have an opt-out campaign. SMS campaigns are much more intrusive, so you want to make sure they know what they are opting in for. Depending on the platform, I like Retention Rocket and SMS Bump.
*PUSH Notifications
I know, I said three, but this is also a great one. When I say push notifications, I am not talking about apps. I am talking about browser pushes. These are marketing messages that you can push to their browser if they sign up. These are great. For the price, they can be very profitable. Takes a while to build these up, because again, visitors have to opt-in, but over time, this really builds and it’s just another area to advertise and market to your potential customers. I mention this here, because with push notifications you can also go after people that abandon the site or abandon the cart.
Recommended Marketing Campaigns
Email Marketing (Sales)
Email Marketing (Non Sales) - What does this mean? Send your customers good content. For example, are you a realtor? Send them tips on decorating their home. Are you an insurance agent? Send them an email on keeping their home safe from fires (think Christmas trees/lights).
SMS Marketing
Push Notifications
Social Media Boosted Posts - Target your fans, but also go after new customers. You can target demographics or geographic areas, for example, if you have a store.
Internal Search (BONUS) - While this isn’t a marketing campaign, this is a great way to see what customers are looking for especially during the holidays. You can use Google Analytics or depending on your platform, an extension that will allow you to track what people are searching for on your website. Amazing data just sitting there for you to use.
What is Important to Customers?
This is according to study by Google.
This is what was most important to customers during the holidays.
Order Online, Pick Up in Store
Free shipping Sales
discounts, & promos
Fast delivery
Free shipping
Product availability
Customer reviews
Estimated delivery date
Cross-store price comparisons
Low prices
This is What Wasn’t Important
Ability to share product pages
Ability to chat with the merchant
Non-credit card payments
Reviews from family/friends
Loyalty rewards program
Warranties
Customer store reviews
Brand/company based in-country
Popularity on social media
Website Additions
During the Christmas season, people want to make sure a product is in stock and that they are going to get it before Christmas. This is why I recommend a few additions for your website.
Phone Number - Always have a phone number on your website with the hours you are available.
Live Chat - This is a great way to stay in touch with customers instantly. You can even tie it to your phone, so you can chat with customers wherever you are…bet you love that ;-)
Shipping Cut Off Times - Customers want to know this. List your shipping times and cut off times for Christmas delivery.
Returns - This should be very evident on your website. Whether you list it on every page or have a specific page for it. Let customers know your rules about returns.
Free Shipping - This is huge during the Christmas season. Customers don’t like to be surprised with big shipping costs. Offer free shipping.
When to Get Ready?
Now…well a few days ago. If you look at Google Trends, Nov 1st is when holiday shopping kicks off. It peaks Dec 9th - Dec 22nd. Need help? That’s what I am hear for. Contact me and I would be happy to help!