Rather than spend money in these tough times, consumers are saving
it (savings accounts are the new black). Instead of resigning yourself
to a red holiday season (in the bottom line sense of the word), now is
the time to gear up and make the most of the holiday season.
And you can – with a few well-thought out strategies that I outline
in this, Part II of Web Marketing Holiday prep. (If you missed Part I,
wherein I talk about aligning online and offline strategies, you can
find it here.) This week: getting your online house in order!
First: Ensure your site is extra secure for online transactions.
I visited the website of a financial institution
recently and was appalled to note that the little “lock†icon was
missing from the right corner of the Web page AND the secure “httpsâ€
was missing from the URL.
Even worse, this site wanted me to log-in to my account using my social security number. Bad news, people! According to SSL.com,
if you’re asking for customers’ sensitive information, i.e. credit card
numbers, your website should be super secured using SSL.
Having a secure website eases customers’ fears about
ordering from your site – and it gives you a leg up over those clueless
retailers who leave security to chance. In fact, it’s probably a good
idea to educate consumers about how you’ve secured your site as many
people don’t know about how online security works.
Second: Help buyers compare similar items.
In a recent trip to the mall, I was pleasantly surprised
to see the parking lot full and the mall crowded with people. It’s not
that people aren’t spending money – it’s that they’re comparing
products and prices and often visiting two or more retailers to find
the best deal. (In fact, consumer spending data shows that debit card
use is up – an indication that people are using cash versus credit.)
Online retailers have a real advantage over their
bricks-and-mortar colleagues because you can develop Web pages that
compare your products with your competitors’ products, including
features and pricing.
Such information saves consumers time and helps them
making buying decisions – especially if they’re in a hurry and need to
make a purchase, like now.
Third: Let consumers see if product is in stock.
One of my Yield Software co-workers visited Best Buy in
her town in order to purchase one of those cool netbooks. First she had
to put her name on a list to even get waited on, then when her turn
came, she found out the retailer was out of stock of the netbook.
Grrrrr!
So she went online to Staples and in a few clicks saw
that a store near her had the netbook – and plenty of them. Thirty
minutes later, she was the proud owner of one.
Again, you’re saving customers time and money – both of
which are in short supply – by providing your customers with an online
inventory database. Balking at the cost? Remember, consumers are buying
your goods with after-tax dollars and using cash, meaning they have
fewer dollars in their wallets. Your cost for creating an inventory
database is a business expense on pre-tax dollars – so do it. Your
bottom line will thank you.
Fourth: Make it easy to contact you and return product.
I once bought the wrong power cord for my laptop from an
after-market retailer, and found out, much to my chagrin, that I had no
way of contacting the online retailer in order to return it. The site
lacked an email address and phone number!
You can give consumers confidence when purchasing from
you by including your contact information – and return policy –
prominently on your website.Fifth: Update your homepage, product pages and your blog.
If you’ve been putting off website updates — including content,
navigation or back-end technologies — now is the time to draw up a
to-do list. Think about who is best able to make the changes you need,
consider any budget-related impacts, and assign them their duties and
deadlines. Now is not the time to put of until tomorrow what you can
get done today. If you’ve been neglecting your blog lately, start
reinvigorating it now — you’ll want to reawaken search engine crawlers
to the fact that you’re regularly updating your website again. (In the
final post in this series, we’ll address these issues again as they
pertain to SEO, PPC campaigns and landing pages.)
Finally: Take advantage of trends.
Eco-friendly. Organic. Green. Energy efficient.
Consumers are hot for these trends and will spend hard-earned cash if
they believe they’ll some positive impact in the long run (and believe
me, consumers are becoming much more savvy about how their purchases
affect the environment). As I’ve already hammered-home, frugality is
the order of the day and trumps all other trends (with luxury brand
categories a possible notable exception), so you should also be sure
you’re highlighting how it is your products and services saves money,
time or other resources. Think about two-for-one or gift-with-purchase
promotions. More than anything else, shoppers want to see value in
their purchases.
Instead of offering products (such as robotic singing
elves whose voices make you want to commit suicide) consider offering
products such as wooly blankets made from free-range sheep. Your
customers will walk away with a good conscious and they’ll stay warm
over the winter to boot.
In part three of this series, I’ll cover how to prepare your landing
pages, paid and natural search keywords, and PPC campaigns for the
coming holiday rush.
