The latest reports have claimed that Cyber Monday will be … Do you have a plan for Cyber Monday to make sure you area getting the most of the many, many people that will be online? If not, don’t panic, I have a plan for you:
Day 7: Brainstorm about Your Goal. This is the most important part, so don’t skip it. What is your goal for Cyber Monday? Is it increased traffic? A certain jump in sales? The sale of one particular product line? Identify the goal or goals you have just for Cyber Monday so that you can craft a measurable plan to get those results.
Day 6: Research the Competition. Now that you know what you will be doing, take a quick peak at what your competitor is working on and how it relates to your goals. Odds are they are starting to promote their specials by now, so it is a great time to key into this. How to find out? Talkwalker.com is my favorite tools to spy, er, I mean, watch and learn from the competition.
Day 5: Plan Social. Sure the overall spending of online retailers will go up on Monday, but do you know what else will go up? Social. Because, once people are online, they can’t help but to click on over to their Facebook, Twitter or Google+ accounts and see what’s going on. If you are wise, you will be what they are seeing. This is a great time to use social media planning apps such as Hootsuite or Buffer to schedule out these social updates so that you don’t have to interrupt your own holiday shopping or turkey eating.
Day 4: Buy Advertising. Sure it seems silly to spend money on advertising when you can gain some eyeballs and engagement without spending the extra cash, but guess what? The next 4 weeks are going to be big and you want to make sure that your business gets a market share of all those eyeballs. Pay per click advertising on Google or even Facebook is wonderful for being able to deliver targeted, tailored messages to your key audience.
Day 3: Clean Up the Home Front. You need to be ready for all the traffic that will be coming to your web site. Is your shopping cart up to snuff? Is there any out-of-date information on your website that you have been meaning to take town? This is the time to cross the t’s and dot the i’s. If you do a big marketing push, you are likely to have a slew of new visitors to your website, and you want to make a good impression on all those folks.
Day 2: Send Your Online Newsletter. Perhaps you have already sent it out before day 2, and, if so, that is great, but I urge you not to forget your online newsletter at this time. Your newsletter is for people who are familiar with your brand and have possibly already bought from you before. They are statistically more likely to buy from you again. Don’t ignore them.
Day 1: Promote Your Special Offers on Your Webpage. Even if you are just changing up one or two things on your website, change your site just enough for people to know that you are ready to take their holiday orders. Highlight your sales with a new image, add an announcement on the top part of your webpage, or maybe even just add some holiday color to your site. People are there because they are considering your product. Make them glad they came.
