September has arrived in full force, and that means people are starting to look forward to the holiday season. Lots of companies make 40% of their annual revenue in the last quarter of the year, and even though September is almost half-way over, it is not too late to prepare and take full advantage of the upcoming shopping craze. Here are four tips for prepping your business for the 2017 holiday season.
Analyze Previous Holiday Season Data
If your company has been in business for more than a year, you have access to some very valuable data from last year’s holiday season. Take some time to analyze where your income streams made the most money, who was buying the inventory, and what kind of effort you put into your promotions and social media. Ask yourself, where did the majority of your holiday traffic that turned into sales come from? You can use your Google Analytics data to gather this information, but then you must act on it. If the majority of your traffic that converted to sales came from email marketing, it would be wise to make the most out of email campaigns this year.
If you just started your business and this is your first holiday season, do not be discouraged. There are plenty of resources online that can help you make the most of marketing data for your niche.
Make Sure Your Website is Ready for the Traffic Load
A good portion of holiday shopping is done online, so you want to make sure that your website is ready for the increase of traffic. Check your website to make sure everything flows smoothly, the pages load quickly, and the search function works well. Update your contact information, and if you have a physical location, make sure your address is updated as well, so it is easy for customers to find you.
Before the holiday rush starts, you can build holiday-specific landing pages and cut the ones that just get in the way. One of the most important things to do now to get ready for the holiday season is to make sure your website is mobile friendly, since many people use their phones to find and purchase gifts.
Create Your Promotional Calendar
Create a calendar over the next two weeks to map out all of your ads and promotions, with the dates that you will release them. If you can’t write all of your blog posts ahead of time, at least schedule the topics and when they need to be posted by. Decide which ads and sales will be when and for which holidays Try to create your graphics and content now, so you are not rushing around and getting behind in the midst of the holiday craze.
Update and Polish Your Social Media
Throughout the holiday season, it is important to stay on top of your social media because most people use a business’ social media accounts in part of their decision to buy your product or somebody else’s. However, before the rush begins, take some time to address any bad reviews or discrepancies that could potentially hurt you.
The holiday season is just around the corner, but there is still time to prepare! Whether this is your first holiday season, or your business has been around for several years, spend the next two weeks prepping your website and promotional calendar, and you will be golden to take on the biggest shopping season of the year.