Editorial: The top 10 things you need to do NOW to prepare
for the year's biggest shopping season
By Derek Gehl
There's a particular word that strikes terror in my heart when I hear it at this time of year.
And that word is?
Christmas.
Don't get me wrong, I love the holiday season -- the food, the time with family, the parties...
and of course, the presents! ;-)
But I'm the kind of person who ALWAYS leaves my shopping to the very last minute -- which means December
23rd or 24th usually finds me running around in over-crowded, over-heated shopping centers, getting
frustrated because the stores have run out of the things I was planning to buy, so I have to think up
new gift ideas on the spot...
Ugh.
Fortunately, I'm much better at
selling during the holiday season than I am at buying!
The holidays are by FAR the busiest shopping season of the year, when businesses that sell mostly to
North American, European, and Australian customers tend to pull in their highest revenues.
But in order to make the most of this year's big shopping season, the time to start preparing for it is
now.
To make it easy for you, here's my list of the top 10 things you MUST start doing now in order make
sure your holidays are as full of cheer as possible (and by "cheer" I mean, PROFIT):
Derek Gehl's "Holiday Sales Preparation" Checklist
1. Split-test your salescopy
Make sure you do some testing to discover the salescopy format that converts the highest percentage
of your visitors to customers. (A great tool for this is Google's Website Optimizer.)
Test long copy vs. short copy, different kinds of headlines, and different calls to action.
Make a note of the winners -- this will be important information when it comes to writing your
"holiday copy." (More about that in a moment.)
2. Make sure you're using your best keywords for the season
Take the time to dig into your web logs to discover what your best SEO terms were for November
and December last year. Which keywords drove the greatest number of buying visitors to your site?
Make a list -- and then make sure you embed those keywords in your "holiday copy."
Speaking of which...
3. Start writing your "holiday copy"
During November and December, your salescopy should speak to the needs of holiday shoppers.
They're looking for presents for their loved ones, so make sure your copy presents your product as
the "perfect gift" for that special someone in their life.
Would your product make a good gift for Mom or Dad, or a teenager, or a child's elementary
school teacher? Then make sure you describe it as such in your copy.
(And don't forget to make good use of the keywords that yielded the best results last holiday season!)
You should be prepared to "turn the switch" and put up your holiday salescopy
as soon as Thanksgiving is over (if your customers are mostly American, that is).
In the U.S., the weekend after Thanksgiving is usually the busiest shopping weekend of the year --
you want to be ready for it.
4. Make sure your bonus offers are as strong as possible
Your bonuses are a key component of your sales pitch. You want to make sure you're offering valuable
bonuses to "sweeten the deal" and make it even easier for those holiday shoppers to reach
that all-important buying decision.
Consider making your bonuses "soft" products, such as electronic information products
(such as eBooks or online videos), or online coupons.
They're easy to create and don't cost anything to ship, which means you won't have to change your
order form. (And that'll save you a huge headache!)
5. Set up your holiday pay-per-click campaigns
A great way to drive even MORE holiday shoppers to your site is to write some holiday-shopping themed
pay-per-click ads. This is another place where those holiday keywords from last year will come in handy!
Once again, if you sell to a lot of Americans, you should be ready to activate your holiday pay-per-click
ads by Thanksgiving weekend.
6. Confirm your shipping capabilities
What's
the most important thing holiday shoppers want to know before they buy a gift?
That it will arrive at its intended destination BEFORE Christmas!
Contact your postal and shipping services to find out what the "order by" dates are to
guarantee deliverability before Christmas to different parts of the world. Then prominently list
these "order by" dates on your site, so people can make a purchase, confident that the
gift will be under the tree on Christmas morning.
7. Tune up your email list
If you have built up a healthy list of subscribers, email should play a major role in your holiday promotions.
To make sure you get the most "bang" for your email "buck," do some testing to
make sure you know how to send mass emails effectively and that your deliverability is good.
Also, be prepared to send MORE emails than usual. If you normally send one email a month to your list,
you should be prepared to send as many as four during the holiday shopping season (say, from the end of November
until your last possible “receive before Christmas” shipping date)
8. Put "live contact" opportunities on your page
A great way to increase holiday sales is to include live contact opportunities on your salespages.
This can be a phone number or a live chat program -- whatever allows people to ask you questions and
get answers
right away.
Remember, holiday shoppers are short on time! And when they're shopping online, they can go from store
to store very easily. They're going to buy at the site that is most credible and does the best job
of resolving any questions they might have about the product.
Make sure that site is yours!
9. Dress up your site
What's Christmas without a little mistletoe? ;-)
Add a few Yuletide decorations to the design of your site so that it reflects
the mood of the holiday season.
In order to be inclusive, you might want to think about adding some graphic elements that refer
to other seasonal holidays (such as Hanukkah) as well.
10. Start planning your Jan/Feb backend NOW
(No, that's not a reference to what your rear end's going to look like once
all that delicious holiday food has been eaten! ;-)
A great sales process doesn't end with a purchase. The people who have bought
something from you once are most likely to buy from you again, so you want to
make sure you stay in touch with them and present them with new offers in the
future.
Ask yourself what people who just bought or received your product would also
want to buy. Focus on products or services that make a great match with your
product.
(For example, people who just bought or received a new video game console are
probably very interested in buying new video games!)
Just remember, in order to present your backend offers to people, you need to
have their email addresses. And since many new owners of your product might
have received it as a gift, they're probably not on your mailing list.
So make sure your product package includes an email registration form for the
end user. You may want to include an attractive offer for free valuable information
-- or a free downloadable product -- in exchange for their email address.
Then, once you've got them on your mailing list, you can develop a relationship
with them and sell more products to them over time.
Okay, so those are my top 10 suggestions on what you need to do to start getting
ready for the holiday season NOW.
You have about a month and a half to accomplish as many of these tasks as you
can... so it's time to get cracking!
If you do things right, you can expect to get twice as many visitors as usual.
And if you keep your conversion rate as high as it is right now -- or are able
to push it even higher -- then you can expect at least twice as many sales during
the holiday shopping period!
And that's a pretty good way to end the year right, don't you think?
To your holiday success,
Derek Gehl
