Thanksgiving is coming fast, and that means Cyber Monday is just around the corner! Cyber Monday is the Monday after Thanksgiving, and has, in recent years, become the biggest online shopping day of the year.
If you’re going to be participating, there are a few things that you’ll want to sort out before the big day to ensure your e-commerce success.
Clean Up Your Front Page
We’ve written about this before, but with only a week to go there area couple of important things you’ll need to make sure are sorted out as soon as possible.
Show People Where the Deals Are
Cyber Monday is all about the deals. If someone comes to your website, you need to make sure that they know you’re participating, and what kind of deals you’re offering. Visitors need to feel like they know exactly where to click to get where they want to be within a few seconds of clicking onto your front page.
Fix Your Formatting
Make sure your front page looks like what it is: a central hub that leads to the rest of the site’s content. Remove any big blocks of text and instead use it to guide visitors to where you want them to go. In this case, you’ll want to make big visible announcement that points them to your Cyber Monday Landing Page.
Set up a Cyber Monday Landing Page
Since you wisely didn’t put a bunch of text explaining exactly everything you’re doing for Cyber Monday on your front page, you’ll need to put that information elsewhere, like a handy landing page for that exact purpose. So, what should be on it?
Remember to Say Hello
A lot of pages that I’m seeing as I’m browsing around just launch right into the nitty gritty details. Don’t be that business. Start with a short greeting, like “Happy Cyber Monday! We’ve got some amazing deals to start off the holiday season! Come say hi on Facebook & Twitter, we love hearing from you!”, or something of that nature. You’re a real person, and people will see you as one if you sound like one.
Keep it Concise
Again, like the front page, this page is meant to send people elsewhere, to your product pages. Simply explain the nature of the sale, like “20% off everything in X category, and 30% off everything in Y category” and provide links to those pages. Depending on what you’re selling it’s ok to include an example product or two, but it’s important not to create clutter that distracts your site visitors.
Engage Your Fan Base
The reason we call it your Cyber Monday “Landing Page” is because most people won’t be getting to your site through your front page, at least if you’ve been doing your marketing.
Get on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, and whatever other channels you’re active in, and let your fans know what’s going on. Send emails to existing customers and let them know what’s going to be available, and encourage them to share the news with their friends and family.
Build Your Social Campaign
Create contests and incentives to help you engage your fan base and to reach well beyond your normal group of social followers. You can do this through contests that are based on social shares or likes, or by setting up a referral system that rewards fans that advocate for you and bring in other customers.
Cyber Monday is the biggest online shopping day of the year. It’s extremely important that your site and social profiles are in top-shape for the big day. Call a social media marketing expert if you need help!