Posted on Jan 16, 2014

Is your Online Store preparing for Valentine’s Day (or Mother’s Day for that matter)?

Is your Online Store preparing for Valentine’s Day (or Mother’s Day for that matter)?

Brick and mortar retailers are preparing for holidays earlier and earlier every year. Your online store should as well! If you have been thinking of selling your products online you should set up your website as soon as possible. If you are already an online retailer who sells products that are popular gifts, you should prepare at least a month in advance!

It is important to prepare ahead of time so you can carefully select the products you want to feature in your marketing campaigns and the audience you want to target. Do you sell gifts that are perishable and need to go out last minute or can you sell your goods ahead of time for someone to hide in a closet until the special day? Even if you only have a short sales window you should start a drip campaign weeks ahead of time so that you are fresh on the customer’s mind and they do not go with another merchant before they even see your advertising. Offering customers ideas for gifts a few weeks ahead of time, even if they are not ready to buy, sets up a potential sale. Plus if your item is unique and you post it to social media (Pintrest is great for this) your customers can share and inspire many other potential customers to buy! You can also create a pre-order list for interested customers so that you can easily manage demand and plan ahead. Ask interested clients to sign up for an email list to receive access earlier or a special discount on the featured item this will give you targeted lists to market to a few days before the holiday, but with more predictable sales!

If you sell teddy bears or other nonperishable gifts you should start marketing sooner than later to catch early bird customers. A marketing message along the lines of “Buy early before the Valentine’s Day price hikes” can inspire more customers to purchase early. You may also want to target any social , PPC and Banner related marketing campaigns at potential recipients for the first two weeks and potential gift givers during the last two. “Ask you Husband/ Boyfriend for Sample Product or Brand” should flow into “Give Her Sample Product Brand to Prove You Really Do Listen”.

Any successful marketing campaign, holiday or not, requires careful planning. Holidays simply limit the window of time when the campaign can be successful while increasing the potential “wins” which are otherwise known as sales.

 

Article Courtesy of Sophia+

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