Internet Marketing - 18 Nov 2014

Online Marketing- Are You Prepared for the Holiday Season Sale?

The holiday season is here once again! Are you prepared for earning huge profit? The holiday season is the most profitable time of the year for any online business. The last quarter of the year enjoys an increase to the number of orders and the average order sizes tend to be much bigger. Some retails make up to 40% of their annual revenue in the last quarter alone.

With the day-to-day hustle and bustle of running an ecommerce business, you may forget upcoming holidays. Holidays come once in year to make you realize that you should prepare for a promotion in advance.

If you wish to make this year your best year as an online retailer, then you need to be prepare and plan ahead. So here are tips that will help you to prepare your online store for the holiday season.

Why to Plan Ahead?

For online businesses, the holiday season is particularly important time. The last two months of the year are packed with special holidays which you can use to your benefit to touch yearly targets, introduce new products and clear out the old inventory. Make the most of these holidays if you wish to earn huge profit. Every day, if you are involved in managing marketing, shipping and providing excellent customer services, you hardly get time to plan for holiday season.

The drawback of involving in the business means you lack in planning for upcoming events. For many ecommerce businesses in their first few years, it generally means missing important holidays. Therefore, it is important to plan in advance.

When to Start Planning?

The sooner it is, the better it is. If you check the Google Trends, you will come across a lot of people start searching for “Christmas Gift Idea” in August.

Be Prepared for Holidays

Once you know the importance of planning for the holidays, it is the time to get organized. Few important components can aid in making your holiday marketing campaign effective. Before you execute campaigns, you should plan a few critical components. These include:

• Plan for the holidays in which your online store will participate in and start preparing for holiday promotion.
• It is important to create a promotional calendar.
• Staying organized will be helpful in ensuring the success of your marketing campaigns.
• Next step is to plan out your return policy and extra payment options.

Advertising Channels

Determining on the ad channels will help you to stay focused to avoid last minute hassle. Put your best efforts for various channels like Blog Posts, Email Marketing, Pay Per click (Google Adwords), Facebook Ads, Social Media and Re-targeting. Start early email marketing and pay attention to social media. Plan out deals and discounts for the customers. Appeal more customers by offering them free shipping, last minute deals and same day delivery benefits.