Many businesses reap the majority of their annual sales during the holiday season. If you are an affiliate who fits into this category or are looking to generate the majority of your income during the fourth quarter, it is essential to apply creative tactics to ensure you attract the right holiday traffic.
Have you or anyone you know ever worked in public relations? If so you will know that it can take years to become a PR professional and acquire that special talent that makes others respond immediately. PR pros are exceptionally gifted at spinning stories, creating buzz, building your brand and making your name memorable. It does not matter if a PR pro is working with a product, a company or an individual; they always have real-time insight into how they can spin a story and sell your brand. These are skills that many affiliates (and retail merchant businesses) can learn from and are especially worth testing around the holiday season. Here are several ideas to help you accomplish that goal.
It all Begins with Analytics
Surprisingly, there are many affiliates who still have not made the connection between their statistical data and their website’s success. If you pull a report for 2010, the first thing you should be looking at is what sales you made, from which merchants, and why. Data can reveal crucial details such as top keywords that were used to find products on your site, month-to-month sales trends, activity from specific geographical locations, top-performing tracking links, and which of your deep-linked web pages saw the greatest return on investment. Analytical information is the solution to understanding which promotional strategies actually worked and in turn, replicating them.
Find a Compelling Angle
PR pros are very adept at thinking of innovative ways to spin and sell a story. Affiliates can apply this same strategy to their holiday offers they choose to sell. A virtual mall, coupon site or any other affiliate business operation is just like any other unless it has an angle. Be selective about merchant products and services. Research should go into evaluating as many holiday offers in as many networks or from as many merchants as possible before actually promoting them. Have a shortlist of 10 or 20 top items with a unique angle that are the most appealing to your customers.
When selecting retail offers to promote, consider what the shopping process is like from beginning to end for your potential customers. Does the merchant accept international credit cards and do they ship to the countries your traffic would be shopping from? What about the cost of shipping? If the merchant you’re choosing to promote does not offer free shipping, then it may be a stumbling block for your target customer, and something to consider before adding to your promotional mix.
Does your Website have the Wow Factor?
Just as a land-based retail store finds creative ways to dress up their window display, affiliates should be doing the same with their website. In retail, the window display is “the hook” to getting customers into a store and spending money. The same can be said of an affiliate’s website. Your home page is your window; dress it up! Facilitating navigation by placing shopping categories with large calls to action in plain sight, along with attractive holiday-themed colors and your most popular products or services should be your display. Make that first impression count and wow your visitors, because you only have one opportunity to ensure that they land on your website, click on your affiliate tracking link, and make an actual purchase. If you want to drive the sale home, try having three featured products, and as many retailers know, including customer reviews can enhance conversions.
Generate Hype with Celebrity
Nothing sells holiday items like buzz! If you know that a celebrity has endorsed a product that you are selling, then use it. Find any banner ads, email creative or other images that your merchants are incorporating into their campaign and maximize those tools on your website.
Furthermore, content such as press releases are a go-to weapon for spreading the word about your website. Exposure that can lead to stories in your local newspapers and TV shows are an excellent gateway for generating hype about your website offline. This type of hype can attract new potential shoppers to your offers you are promoting. Whether it’s a press release, an article, a blog about your site, you need all the buzz and hype you can get to sell, sell, sell. And remember, when you track your marketing channels, you can then identify which channel brought you the greatest return—and next season, you’ll know exactly what to do (and what not to do!).
Everyone Has an Opinion
It is not unusual to be in an offline store during the holiday season and be approached by a person with a Santa hat and a clipboard, that wants your opinion about the service provided. As an online partner in the holiday sales process, you should be doing the same. Collecting customer reviews and surveys can help you understand the scope of your business in a whole new manner. Implementing single-question polls on your blog or website can be quick ways to gather data and gauge the needs of your traffic. You can also solicit customer reviews to help sell more of your popular items you are promoting on your site.
With all these ideas in mind, the general lesson for affiliates is that you need to apply strategic methods to make the holiday season the most profitable. While it is expected that online shopping sales will increase this holiday season, the fact still remains that you need to stand out from other affiliate sites to garner sales. Consequently, you will see a greater return on your efforts during a key time of year, with lessons and strategies that will serve to benefit you all-year round.
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