10 Cyber Monday Marketing Guides You Can’t Go Without
If shopping is like a dance competition, then Cyber Monday is the ultimate showdown. As with any holiday marketing event, you can be sure that brands will be vying for customers’ attention and a share of their wallets.
When it comes to the holiday marketing seasons, only but a few can compare with Cyber Monday. The time of the year where brands and marketers roll out their largest marketing campaigns.
And the numbers corroborate this fact.
💥 Total sales in 2019 hit $9.4 billion — an 18.9% increase from 2018
💥 Online sales via smartphones grew 46%
💥 Between 11:00pm ET and midnight, consumers spent $11 million on average every minute.
So yes, no matter your business sector, if you sell anything online you should be taking advantage of Cyber Monday.
And of course, your competition knows this, too — and they are probably brewing several schemes to cash in on the buying mania.
That said, it’s important to arm yourselves with a variety of marketing tips that will help you stand out from the crowd, and gain as many conversion rates as possible this holiday season.
In this blog, we’re going to be looking at some of the marketing tips you can deploy so you’re off to a great start for the holiday season.
1. Run Tests to Verify the Traffic Capacity of Your Website
According to SimilarWeb, traffic to the top 100 shopping sites increased by 112% on Cyber Monday. This means that with the Covid 19 pandemic we encountered this year and the lockdown the world experienced, traffic will be significantly higher compared to last year.
This tells you that your website needs to be equipped to handle the expected surge. If too many demands are placed on it, a crash would be inevitable. Also, If you’ve recently gone through a redesign or fixed new plugins, your website might be moving really slowly instead of loading quickly. And a website that loads slowly is one of the biggest reasons visitors bounce.
You can test your website’s server load capacity with tools like k6 Cloud, LoadImpact.com, or Blitz.io to see the capacity of traffic it can handle.
2. Limit the Length of Your Checkout Process
Conversion rate optimization is a task that needs to happen steadily all year round. One of the biggest plunges you need to make is to update your checkout process.
By reducing the checkout process, you significantly simplify the buying process, resulting in a higher completion and conversion rate.
This will make checkout faster and easier to use, as fewer steps appeal to time-conscious customers.
3. A/B Test Your Email Marketing Campaigns
Testing your emails is always a good idea because it helps you find the best design presentation and email campaign strategy.
Some ideas for the tests types you can run before Cyber Monday:
- Does a call-to-action or a question as a subject line increase engagement?
- Featuring one product or multiple products?
- What time of the day is the best for sending emails?
- Will including a deal in the subject line help with open rates?
Doing this ensures that by the time Cyber Monday arrives, you know what works for you.
4. Optimize Your Website to be Mobile Friendly
Another Idea you should adopt is to make your website mobile-friendly. The mobile experience continues to show remarkable growth over the years, with Cyber Monday statistics showing an increasing analogy for ‘on the go’ internet surfing and purchases. So your website should be easy to navigate, fun, and encourage shoppers to buy.
It is particularly important to get on Google’s good side, as otherwise you might get penalized instead. And being pushed down on the search results during Cyber Monday could put you at a severe disadvantage. Google has a mobile-friendly test that makes it easy for you to do a quick scan of your site and identify any obstacle that needs improvement.
5. Update Your Product Images & Descriptions
Catchy product descriptions go a long way towards making your products enticing. When describing your products, use words that evoke emotions and provoke actions. Using these words helps establish connections between customers and the products you sell.
Whilst working on your descriptions, don’t forget that a PICTURE TELLS A THOUSAND WORDS. Your Cyber Monday campaigns are bound to be successful if you display great product images.
In summary, your product page needs to reflect the value to compel shoppers to buy your product.
6. Prepare Your Products for Discounts
You need to thoroughly work on the sales & discount aspect of Cyber Monday. This entails figuring out the items you can give a discount on, products you want to sell more of, and vice versa.
Remember that there is no rule set in stone on running a discount on all your products.
Give a discount on products your customers see value in but not on everything you sell.
The end goal of giving discounts is to inspire more sales. So you have to be tactical. What product, when it’s the price is reduced, will inspire shoppers to buy more?
7. Free Your Site of Javascript, Unnecessary Plugins & Improve Page Load Speed
Like every merchant, new plugins and software are tested throughout the year. Some tools are useful, but others do not make the cut. I would advise that these plugins and javascript not used are cleared from your websites’ cache as they have the tendency of slowing down your site.
Studies show that a 100-millisecond delay is all it takes to hurt conversion rates by up to 7%.
A few weeks before Cyber Monday, audit your website and see the wonders it’ll do for your page load time and conversion rate. You can do a free audit with tools such as Ubersuggest, Ahrefs or SEMRush.
8. Team Up With Other Small Businesses In Your Niche
Standing out as a brand on Cyber Monday can be tough over the marketing promotions that corporate organizations are sure to display. Partnering with small businesses that complement what you sell can be great for business. This ensures that you focus your efforts on the common goal of attracting customers.
For example, if you sell belts, you can team up with jeans apparel shops.
The greater the number of participating businesses, the more tempting your promotion is for shoppers.
9. Test Your Website Weeks Before the Holiday Season
A fresh pair of eyes is the perfect way to notice areas of your site where you can make simple improvements. Giving yourself time before Cyber Monday to test the changes made to your site is key.
Putting in enough time for the changes you put in place to be tested makes it easy for you to track if you’re making a positive improvement in conversion rate. And if you happen to see a decline in your conversion rate, there is enough time to revert and continue testing.
10. Conduct Test Runs For Your Marketing Strategies
People mistake planning and execution as one step of the process, but they are two very different things. This is because if all marketing strategies were executed as organized; wouldn’t it be all profit for brands?
So, it is essential you conduct test runs for your Cyber Monday marketing strategies to find the gaps and shortcomings that you have to be corrected before implementation.
Wrap Up
While this Cyber Monday marketing guide is definitely a solid starting point, the reality is that there’s a great deal to be done to get ready for the holiday shopping season.
Recent shifts in consumer behavior have forced many brands to rethink their marketing strategies, and Cyber Monday is no exception.
At Growth Channel, we’ve kicked off holiday season preparation with a personalized marketing plan targeted at making your holiday sales boom.
Also, be sure to check out my blog post on Black Friday marketing campaigns you could adopt for your brand to get you through a successful holiday season.
You’ve got this 👏
