I went shopping today at
a local department store to buy some Halloween candy. I know it's only
September. And I know the candy won't make it to Halloween.
I walked into the store
and "WHAM!" They already had the Christmas Trees out. Santa's all
around. It was 90 degrees here in New Jersey, yet I was staring at Ol' St. Nick
already. I hadn't even been thinking about the holidays. At least not those
holidays.
But that raises an
interesting question. Are YOU ready for the Holiday Selling Season?
Are you ready with your
traditional holiday mailers? Do you have your promotional items and give-always
on order? Does it prominently display your website and your email address?
Is your website ready?
If you are a
foot-traffic driven business, are your directions and hours of operation clear,
easy to find and up-to-date? Are you offering any coupons to drive people in to
your website? Are you collecting email addresses of visitors? Do you have a
"club" for customer's to build loyalty?
If you are an
ecommerce-driven business, are your prices updated? Inventory levels? Have you
gotten properly discontinued items that are no longer available? Do you have a
good search engine on your site? When does your SSL Certificate expire? Are
your best sellers on your home page? Do you accept all major credit cards?
If you are an
appointment-based service business, is your phone number very visible? How
about your rates? Listing your areas of coverage by town and county not only
make it clear who you serve, but also helps give keywords for people in your
area searching for your service.
In general, when was the
last time you ran an online ad campaign? Was it successful? Where do you appear
on the search engines? Do you have any natural or organic presence when doing a
search for what you do or what you sell? Do you have any sort of site
measurements to let you know if your website is making the returns on your
investment that you demand?
The clock is ticking.
It's not too late to get
your website cleaned up and ready for the Holiday Selling Season. The holidays
will be here sooner than you know. If you want to capture your share of the
people looking for what you do or sell, in the area you do it in, your website's
focus and your online marketing strategy can help make the difference between
feast and famine this business year.
If you have specific
questions about how to get started, drop us a line. We are here to help.