Start Preparing Now for Next Year’s Cyber Monday:

The weekend following Thanksgiving can easily be named one of the biggest shopping weekends of the year. Just this year, Cyber Monday brought over $11 million in sales from over 80 million people. As a small business owner, this opportunity is not one to miss as it can help you reach your short- and long-term sales goals. We suggest that businesses start preparing now for next year’s chaos to ensure that Cyber Monday is a success.

Thankfully, Cyber Monday has made it easier for customers to purchase their holiday gift list with a simple click of a button. Unlike Black Friday, customers no longer need to map out shopping routes, wait in never-ending lines, or fight their way to the cash register. This significant change in retailing has urged more consumers to order online. To prepare for a large number of shoppers visiting your online store, we suggest updating the speed of your website. You can measure this through Google’s Paid Speed Insights. Note that your website should ideally load in less than three seconds. If your website does not load within that time range, there is a high chance that users may move on to your competitor’s site.

You can additionally use your website to promote offers running exclusively on Cyber Monday. This campaign can create a sense of urgency for customers who may be browsing your website before November 29. As an example, try revealing weekly deals on hot products leading up to Cyber Monday. If your website utilizes cookies, you can track whether a customer has viewed these offers, and therefore, tailer their future visit around this information.

Since there will be a large number of online traffic, it may be helpful to have a customer service team available to answer questions and assist customers with any problems. An effective customer service team can be easy to reach on multiple platforms, such as phone, email, social media, or online chatbot.

As explained in our previous blog, Direct Marketing Solutions, direct marketing can also be an effective tactic to use when communicating with your customers. If your business has established a mailing list, we recommend utilizing the subscriber’s information to send specific details about Cyber Monday. By directly contacting customers, there is an immediate sense of loyalty felt between the recipient and business. You could use this relationship to offer brand advocates a pre-access code to Cyber Monday deals or a product sample with a specific purchase. If successful, this promotional style will translate to word-of-mouth marketing through their advocation for your business.

Although loyal customers are always beneficial to a business, it is important to reach new customers too. To do this, we recommend using social media to inform and engage prospects about your Cyber Monday offers. At Absolute Marketing Solutions, we like to use Instagram and Facebook ads to reach a larger audience. These platforms allow you to track analytics relating to your advertisement and can be easily managed. To differentiate your Cyber Monday advertisements from others, use hashtags like #cybermonday, #shopsmall, or #cybersales.

Although many other promotional tactics can be used to market a business during Cyber Monday, we have selected these specific methods to ensure success in sales.

If you have any questions regarding promotional or marketing tactics, please contact one of our experts at Absolute Marketing Solutions.