Last week I mentioned three things you need to start doing now to get your website ready for those all important Christmas sales. Here’s the second part of what you need to be doing:
4. Interact Online
The web is becoming more and more interactive, so you need to start interacting online to get your name out there and find people who are interested in your products. Networking online is proving to be very effective for many businesses, and the best thing is that most of it is free, it just requires time. Start by commenting on blogs, find groups to join in Facebook or if that doesn’t appeal to you, forums are a good place to answer questions.
5. Encourage Conversions on Your Website
Once you get more visitors to your site, you need to make sure that they’re buying from you. If you want to increase your conversion rate, there are a few things you can try:
i. Create a short usability test for some friends or family who don’t know your site. Ask them what they think of your site and to perform some basic tasks. See where improvements could be made.
ii. Make sure your web pages have strong calls to action and visitors know what to do on your site or where they should go.
iii. Add fresh content regularly so visitors know the site is up to date and the company is proactive. Add news, product reviews, testimonials, tips. Anything of interest to visitors. Even changing images regularly can make a big difference.
iv. If writing sales copy isn’t your forte, then employ someone who can, as good copy can make a real difference to the success of a website.
6. Keep on Top of Your Competitors
As part of your online marketing, you should also be checking regularly to see what your competitors are up to. Are they advertising via PPC or other websites? Where are they gaining links from? Are they getting good PR coverage, and are they prolific social networkers? Have they recently updated their website and what have they included? All of this information can help you improve your online marketing and make sure you keep up with them or take the opportunity to overtake them!
All of these activities I’ve posted about in the last week should help your campaign in the run up to Christmas so that you benefit from increased visibility online and increased sales.
