The holiday season is for sure a magical time of the year, for not only children and families, but for small businesses as well. This time of the year drives people online for all of their holiday needs, so it is time to start prepping your website for the potential holiday rush and customer desire for information. Here are some pointers for getting your website ready for the holiday season.
Update Your Hours
Make sure that all of your holiday hours are updated, clear, and listed on your website. Customers will use your website as a resource to see when they can contact you, order something, or if you have a shop, come pick something up. Nothing is more frustrating during the holiday season than counting on hours you find online and then missing out on purchasing something because the business never updated their hours online.
Have a Plan to Respond to Your Customers
Although you may limited open holiday hours it is important to still have some way for customers to get in contact with you. By checking your social media accounts and emails at least once a day you will be able to get back to your customers in a timely manner. Your response to people reaching out during the holiday season will show them that you care and are making an effort to improve their experience with your company. This will also save you from potentially losing business.
Update Social Media
Make sure your social media is up to date and informative about what your company is up to this holiday season. Update the hours and contact information. You can also add a fun holiday header graphic to get your customers in the holiday mood. Also by offering a different type of discount to Facebook or Twitter followers you will reward loyal followers and you can keep track of where your business is coming from. These discounts will also increase business because people are always looking to buy things for a good deal. Always make sure to respond to Facebook messages as you would any other phone call or email. How you respond to on Facebook and other social media messages says a lot about your business, especially during the holiday season.
Plan Promotions
Come up with promotions for your business early. Things like email campaigns and social media campaigns can help drive traffic to your website, and help customers know what you are all about this holiday season. Thinking of promotions early will help you avoid having to come up with how you wish to promote your business during the stressful holiday season. By doing things ahead of time you will have everything ready to go and set so you can focus your attention on making your customers happy and planning your personal holiday needs.
Have a Jolly Attitude
The holiday season is about giving. Show your customers that you care about something other than sales by donating some percent of holiday sales towards a charity, or offer customers a deal on your holiday themed goods. This will show them that you are in a giving holiday spirit and will make your shop more desirable than ones that seem to only be out for themselves and using the holiday season to only make money.
Conclusion
It is never too early (or late) to start preparing for the holiday season and the end of the year. Once the new year rolls around, make sure to update your hours so they are back to your normal routine, send an email thanking everyone for a great holiday season, and start planning what you might want to do throughout the rest of the year.
Sources:
http://bmighty2.com/get-your-marketing-ready-for-the-holidays/