Holiday Marketing Strategies for Online Retailers

by | Sep 26, 2011

If you think it’s too soon to start shopping for the winter holiday season, then think again.  Now is an tulsa internet marketing shopping onlineimportant time to start thinking about internet marketing because there are retailers out there who have had their eyeballs on holiday sales since early summer.  Last year you might recall how Walmart and Target ran their “Black Friday in July” sale.  This year, some major retailers (Like Meijer in the Great Lakes Region) have already put out Christmas stock for the 2011 holiday season – and we haven’t even hit Halloween.

With the early launch of the holiday season, that not only means that retailers are trying to be more creative (even relying on search engine optimization to get ahead) to spark buying activity in a lagging economy.  It also means that many of them recognize how competitive the online marketplace has become for organic and paid search space. Research from eDigitalResearch shows that just over 40% of consumers are planning to spend more online during this holiday season than last year.

Even if they don’t buy online, many people do their research on the web so it’s important for you to come up with a strategy for content marketing as well as SEO and internet marketing.  Here are some tips for web savvy retailers like yourself to pair up with an internet marketing agency to leverage the rise in online buying trends.

Internet Marketing- Tip #1: Update Ads in Real Time

One of the best ways to stay on top during the holiday season and avoid wasted advertising budget dollars is to update your ads online to reflect your current stock.  Customers will find it frustrating if they click on ads for a product only to find that you’re sold out.  When you keep ads updated based on rotating stock throughout the day you’ll avoid lost customers and conflicts with shoppers.

Internet Marketing- Tip #2: Optimize your Listings

Your products are important to your business, especially if you’re running an online business.  The products in your ecommerce system need to receive the same attention for search engine optimization that you give to your landing pages.  With optimized, original product descriptions, you’re far more likely to stand out in search results for product related keywords and you’ll certainly beat out the competitors who use canned descriptions from the manufacturer (hello duplicate content.)

Internet Marketing- Tip #3: Break Out the Camera

Retailers spend hundreds of thousands of dollars each year (some each quarter) on shooting commercials.  You can do it on your own with nothing more than a flip camera and a little face time.  Sites like YouTube allow you to upload and share videos for free.  Likewise you can optimize your video using targeted keywords to improve visibility.  Talk about the benefits of some products, why you sell it, where to get it and provide a link to your site.

Getting ready for the holiday season is not something you want to do last minute.  If you’re one of the first to get in on the online action for holiday shopping then you’ll more than likely hold that point throughout the winter season.

Discover how you can combine organic search marketing with paid search to dominate your market.  Call us today at Tulsa Internet Marketing for more information.