If you haven’t already begun planning for the holiday buying rush,
then it’s time to get moving. In this Part Three of Prepping for
Holidays, I’ll show some of the things you can do to ensure online
buyers find your products and services. (In Part One I talked about aligning your online and offline strategies, and in Part Two I covered how to spruce up your virtual store-front.)
In our free e-book, The Link Economy,
I talk about how successful search marketing companies develop
all of the components of a search marketing campaign at one time.
What we mean by this is a savvy marketer will sit down and plan out
the campaign strategy, keywords, and content (i.e. blog posts, landing
pages, offers) before implanting the campaign – often months in advance.
Pre-campaign planning gives you the 30,000 foot perspective – and it
allows you to see and fix any bottlenecks or problems before the
campaign launches. When planning for the 2009 holiday shopping season,
you’ll want to keep in mind the following search marketing best
practices.
First, Find the right keywords.
We’ve covered this topic considerably in previous blog posts at Yield Software’s Community Blog (see here and here).
Suffice to say, the foundation of your successful online
holiday season starts with the right keywords. How do you know which
keywords to use for the holiday season? You can use the tips in the two
articles cited above plus these special (and guaranteed enjoyable)
“holiday†keyword tips:
Read dead-tree media – If you sell
consumer products to women, for example, read the gossip rags. One,
you’ll learn how women talk to each other – “baby bump,†“gladiators,â€
and “hobo bag†are all terms women know and use in their online
searches – and two, you’ll learn what the celebrities are wearing. This
is important information as women often search by celebrity name plus
the product – for example, “angelina jolie makeup.â€
Watch TV – Watch popular shows, such as American Idol
or Sunday football games. Again, pay attention to what people are
wearing or talking about in the off-the-cuff commentary. Also analyze
the commercials – what are the big retailers advertising and how are
they doing it? Do they use URLs that take people to a specific landing
page (i.e. www.domain-name.com/TV offer)? If so, test the URL and offer
to see how things work – and note any roadblocks you encounter.
Do a mall stakeout – Park yourself on a
bench at the mall and let the crowd flow by you. Listen to people talk
on their phones and face-to-face. Look at their clothes and other
items. What’s hot? What’s not? Teenage boys, for example have made
Vans, a popular skateboarding shoe, a hot selling item – and in fact,
“Vans skulls†(a shoe with a skull pattern) is a moderately searched
keyword!
Second, develop your search campaigns around your holiday keywords.
Now sit down and plan out your PPC and SEO campaigns
around these keywords. Again, we’ve written many blog posts on these
topics:
Three Big PPC Mistakes – and How to Avoid Them, Part I and Part II
The goal here is to develop well-thought out campaigns
(re: strategic) that are targeted and optimized for what people are
looking for. In your plan, note how many new pages you’ll need in terms
of SEO – or if you can tweak existing pages by changing Title / meta
tags, headlines or page copy. Also note any new PPC ads you’ll need
plus the landing pages that go with them.
Third, plan out your blog posts in advance.
Blogs should be an important tool in your marketing
strategy. One, it’s easy to create keyword-rich content “on the flyâ€
and two, blog posts are often included in the search engine results
pages within hours of being published – versus the days or even weeks
it can take the Google, Yahoo or Bing crawlers to find your new
“static†HTML content.If you have a blog, develop a holiday editorial calendar and note
when you’ll write posts that announce in-store events or online sales
and when new products become available. Also be sure to include time
for ongoing research and writing posts in response to “news.â€For example, if you’re reading a gossip rag and you see a celebrity
teen boy wearing Vans with skulls – and you sell this very shoe – then
you’ll want to include a picture of the celebrity in a blog post plus
the fact that people can find these shoes at your store (when other
retailers are sold out). You’ll want to optimize the title of your blog
post with the keyword phrase plus link the keyword phrase “Vans with
skulls†to your landing page where you sell this shoe.
We’d love to see you have a hugely successful
holiday season. If you have tips or suggestions for how to improve
online sales, please send them to me via Vator.TV and I’ll feature them in
future posts.
