Brick and mortar stores aren’t the only retailers that experience a massive increase in sales during the last three months of the year. And for good reason! With Black Friday and Cyber Monday leading the charge into the month of December, you should do everything you can to claim your own slice of that multibillion dollar eCommerce holiday pie. Bump up your social media presence, go omni-channel with your purchase options, consider adding a gift wrapping option for your customers, and update your site with holiday themed content.
One of the best ways to drive traffic towards your site, which in turn will increase your own sales, is to add a gift guide to your blog content. Not everyone knows what they’re going to buy their friends and loved ones for Christmas, and a gift guide can nudge them in the right direction. The good news is that you don’t have to be a retail marketing genius to add an effective gift guide to your site and that we’re here to help!
Stick with What You Know
Mostly likely, your particular online private label store caters to a distinct demographic and target market. Maybe you sell essential oils and crystals. It wouldn’t make sense to add a gift guide targeted to sports enthusiasts or musicians. You want those that land on your blog to also explore your products, so this would be a great time to exploit your niche. Include products that you believe in; things that you know your loyal customer base would buy.
Inspire consumers to truly consider the gifts in your list by explaining the purpose of each gift and who would appreciate each one the most. Include as much information with high quality images of each, so your customers can feel confident with their purchase.
Cater to All Budgets
Every year, Neiman Marcus puts out their luxury gift guide. This year, they’ve included a custom candy bar loaded with a million pieces of candy, a month long trip to discover India, Nepal, and the Maldives, and even a 74-foot long Neiman Marcus Edition yacht. While certainly entertaining and jealousy-inducing, their gift guide isn’t realistic for the average e-shopper. Think about it. Offering a wide range of products in several different price points would obviously expand your pool of potential customers, so the same concept should be applied to your gift guide.
You could actually create separate gift guides for a specific price range to create even more clickable content for your site. Content marketing has long been known to create brand awareness, not just for the brands you’ve included in your gift guide, but for your own as well. Basically, by offering more pages for people to land on, even if they’re about other brands’ products, the increased traffic to your site can lead to an increase in sales for yourself! When you provide your followers with a gift guide loaded with a wide range of products for any budget, you’re ensuring your own success.
Post and Promote
The more people that see your gift guide, the closer you get to snagging your piece of the holiday profit pie! Post and promote your gift guide in as many places as possible, and get creative with it as well! Think beyond the typical blurb on Facebook and create customized posts for as many social platforms as you can stomach (Pinterest, Twitter, email newsletter, etc.). Shareable content online is the modern version of “word of mouth” marketing from the old days. The online gift guide is pretty much the modern take on the Wish Book put out by Sears that almost every child of the 80s scoured every year before Christmas.
Basically, having an online gift guide can drive traffic to your site and increase sales. The billion dollar holiday online shopping season is upon us, and we are here to help you tap into as much of it as possible. Ask us how!
