For any business that sells products or services online, November is a month to get excited about! This is because it is the month that Black Friday and Cyber Monday takes place.
Last year, total retail spending for the four-day Black Friday weekend reached 8.57 billion British pounds, making the UK one of the highest spenders in Europe on this holiday. This statistic alone shows why Black Friday and Cyber Monday are worth getting involved in, and an awarding winning SEO management agency such as Global Search Marketing can help you to capitalise on this opportunity fully.
What do you need to do to prepare for Black Friday and Cyber Monday?
Time is of the essence when it comes to planning for these two retail celebrations. There are a number of steps you should take to ensure that your business is in the best position to capitalise on the millions of shoppers who are looking for great deals during this period.
Start early
One thing you cannot afford to do is wait! Customers start looking for deals in October, so you need to make sure that you plan your strategy and get people excited about the different offers you’re going to have available in advance.
Optimise your checkout process
Now is the perfect time for you to optimise your site’s speed and checkout process. The first thing you need to do is test your website and figure out how long it takes to load. Did you know that 46 per cent of shoppers have said they would not return to a slow website?
According to WebFX, your site should load within two seconds. If your site takes longer than three seconds to load, you can expect 53 per cent of your users to abandon your website and look elsewhere, which is the last thing you want!
You also need to ensure your checkout process is optimised. There is nothing more frustrating for a customer than having to jump through hoops to make a purchase. The shopping process should be quick and convenient. Amazon is a great example of a company that makes it as easy as possible for people to checkout.
You should look at your existing checkout process and determine whether there are any changes you can make to speed up the process. Do you ask customers for information that is not necessary? Do you force users to become a member before they can checkout? These are the sort of inconveniences that can turn people off and encourage them to look elsewhere.
Look for new marketing opportunities
From pitching to blogs and gift guides to retargeting past site customers and visitors, you need to look for different ways to get the word out about the deals and offers you’re going to be running!
Put together an effective email marketing campaign
Custora have reported that more than 25 per cent of the sales made on Black Friday start with email marketing. Because of this, you should start looking into the creation of an email marketing campaign right now!
Email marketing is effective because it gives you the ability to connect with your loyal customers directly, providing them with special discounts for the retail holiday.
We recommend sending off your emails at least a week ahead of Black Friday so that you can whet your consumers’ appetite.
Your emails need to be well prepped, containing exciting images and enticing copy. Give yourself a lot of time to review everything ahead of the big day.
Some companies send emails a month in advance, with reminders being sent to customers once per week in the build-up to Black Friday. You can then send an email on the eve of Black Friday and again on the eve of Cyber Monday to remind customers about the day and the discounts you will have running.
Update your support process
Your customers and potential customers should be able to contact you with ease during Black Friday and Cyber Monday. The last thing you want is to miss out on a sale because your customer could not get a question answered quickly enough regarding one of your products or your delivery options.
Setting up a live chat is a good idea. If you are not able to ready to commit to having live chat in place throughout the year, you could still use it strategically during busy periods such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
To get the most out of live chat, it is a good idea to have it placed on product pages so you can answer any queries before customers hit the purchase button. You can also ensure it is available strategically during key points within the purchasing journey, for example, when someone is navigating through the checkout process.
Think mobile-first
Finally, we can all safely assume that more purchases are going to be made via mobile in 2020 than they have been in the past. This is because smartphones have become the number one device for mobile usage.
Because of this, in order to optimise your efforts to encourage more sales, you need to think mobile-first. What is the user experience like for customers visiting your website via mobile? Is it intuitive and easy to make purchases?
You should go through the checkout process yourself to monitor this, as well as getting a handful of other people to do this for you so that you can get some objective answers. You will be able to find out about any potential roadblocks so that they can be rectified ahead of Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Final words
So there you have it: your SEO and website checklist for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. If you want to make the most of these retail holidays, engaging a reputable SEO agency is something you should do sooner rather than later. After all, you want your efforts to grow organically and make an impact over the coming months, so there is no time to waste.