It’s that time of year again. Black Friday is fast approaching, and retailers are putting together their strategies to capitalize on the influx of customers coming in for doorbusters. There are some tried-and-true tips any retailer can use to increase sales on Black Friday, but there are also things you may not have thought about that could help boost your bottom line.
Why do they call it Black Friday?
A retailer’s sales numbers from the day after Thanksgiving are reported in terms of red ink—black for a profitable day and red for a not-so-profitable one. In 1963, Philadelphia police used the term Black Friday to describe the chaotic scene they encountered on the morning of Nov. 28 when they tried to control a crowd of shoppers stampeding toward a department store rumored to have cut prices for its best customers.
Thankfully online businesses will not fall prey to this danger over the season. Whether you have a brick and mortar store, or an eCommerce website, these tips can help you gain more sales this Black Friday season.
The 5 tips for improving sales this holiday season
We’ve compiled a list of five ways to increase sales on Black Friday below. Give these a read if you haven’t already started planning out your strategy!
1. Show off customer testimonials and trust signals
In a social media age, customer feedback was a greater concern than in the past. Your satisfied clients can help provide yours with one of your valuable weapons – your testimonials. If your business holds any professional accreditations (even something simple like a Better Business Bureau certification or a membership in your local chamber of commerce) put these trust signals at the top of the site. Similarly, the inclusion of trust signals can be an excellent way to increase online sales as it creates a more favorable perception of your brand in the mind of the prospect and can potentially overcome hesitations preliminarily. If you’ve got a great list of successful prospects make sure they understand it.
What makes a good testimonial?
Before you start soliciting your customers for a glowing review, consider these tips to ensure your testimonials are top notch:
- Make sure the ‘testimonial’ is really a testimonial. Nothing turns off a prospect more than being asked to write about their experience without being told that it will be appearing on your site.
- Keep them short and sweet. By including too much information in a testimonial, you risk losing readers’ interest quickly. Testimonials should be less detailed than an other parts of the website—keep them between two and four sentences long, or around 100-500 words if they’re longer. If readers begin skimming the page before getting halfway down, something’s up!
- Use action verbs. In a genuine testimonial, the person is talking about their experience in the past tense. To help clarify this with your readers, use action verbs in your copy “I was able to,” rather than “I can.”
- Keep it personal. A testimonial should focus on what you did right and how it helped them—they shouldn’t read like a press release or a product description with a byline.
How many reviews do I need to have?
One thing to note is that even a very small number of reviews can be helpful for building your brand’s reputation. In the case of an eCommerce website, one review from a customer isn’t going to have much influence because it doesn’t show any proof that other people have been satisfied with the product or service being offered. However, 100 unique reviews from customers who come from different demographics and geographic regions can demonstrate to your prospective customers that you’re offering a quality product.
Peer pressure is one of the most powerful tools in a business’s arsenal. When prospects see that other people have already bought your products, they’re more inclined to purchase themselves. This may not sound too beneficial for those with an online business, but companies like TripAdvisor and Google have already proved that its benefit can accumulate. TripAdvisor’s listings received an average of 13% more visitors after they introduced their “reviews from travelers” section on the site. Over the years, these effects will multiply until you’re turning a profit just because someone bought your product yesterday.
How do I gain reviews and testimonials?
Asking your customers for reviews is simple, and it’s also one of the most important things you can do. Make sure to include a link in your follow-up emails so customers won’t miss out on the opportunity to provide feedback. Additionally, creating an incentive to encourage them could be beneficial. You could offer incentives like discounts or sweepstakes entries to the first 50 paying customers who complete a review.
How do you make your customers interested enough in your product to buy it? When they see something new and fantastic, prospects sometimes ask themselves: “Who is this for?” Asking yourself that question before starting any campaign can help determine its success or failure. If potential clients don’t understand what your product does, you should move on to something else.
This is an important part of any business because it helps create a positive image that can be used throughout all channels of the company. When shots are posted on social media or shared with friends, they’re more likely to have a positive influence rather than detracting from the brand’s reputation.
The final thing to remember is that reviews are more than just words on a page—they’re also the numbers attached. Whether it’s reviews or testimonials, you’ll want to include these figures so your customers know they aren’t the only ones who’ve had positive experiences with your business. Once they see how many people have already been satisfied by your product or service, they’ll be more likely to give it a try themselves.
2. Add an opt-in pop-up offer to push them over the top
If your goal is to expand your store sales, don’t ignore opt-in programs. These prompts motivate people to subscribe to your newsletter mailing list and your loyalty programs. Even if they decided against the buy at a later date they have still added it to your database. The more people they sign up for your newsletter or loyalty program the more possible sales you will generate in the future. Always perform an audit of each element with a guarantee of the highest optimized performance. Test the copy’s phrasing, a position as it appears on the site and the flow in which visitors are directed through the process. Consider having the popup displayed when a visitor exits the site for one second to see it right before the page ends.
Human nature when it comes to online shopping
The fear of missing out is very influential in online shopping. The more time you can provide to your visitors to make a purchase, the less likely they are to make an impulse buy. If you’re having trouble with this tactic, try implementing it only during the holiday season or on discount days.
Related items are also huge when it comes to how people shop online. If your visitors are looking at one product but can see similar items right below, they’re more likely to purchase something else. This is especially important during the Black Friday season because prices are lower and limited-time offers are available.
Opt-ins should be specialized to your target audience
The core to any successful opt-in campaign is the ability to design it around the customer. This means sending tailored messages based on their interests, location, and demographic information. The more you know about your audience, the more likely you are to create an effective email marketing strategy that’s primed for success.
Don’t just blast out the latest deal, really take the time to understand your customer’s needs and patterns. When you can create an opt-in campaign that’s personalized to your target audience, the response is likely to be much higher. If someone receives a generic message like “you should give us your email,” they’re not nearly as likely to sign up for anything.
WordPress plugins that offer FREE pop-up opt-ins
1. HelloBar This plugin is simple and easy to use, but it’s a great way to set up a powerful opt-in campaign. It can be attached anywhere on your website and customized however you want. The best part is that it’s free, so take advantage of this tool today!
2. SumoMe This plugin is a suite of tools that can help you increase sales and conversions. Not only does it offer pop-up opt-ins, but there’s also an analytics dashboard to see which tactics are performing best and what needs to be improved upon. Since it’s free, this is a great option for any online business owner.
3. OptinMonster This plugin isn’t just for creating pop-ups either. It also has exit intent technology that captures users at the very point where they’re about to leave your site. If you want to get new customers in through the digital door, this is an indispensable tool.
4. Optimonk This plugin offers several different types of opt-ins, including exit intent, scroll boxes, and sticky bars. The built-in analytics show you which pages are getting the most attention so that you can steer traffic in that direction. You’ll also get data on your social media campaigns to see how they’re impacting the bottom line.
3. Offer less choices in your online store
Higher selection often results in indecision on either side of the prospect and leads to loss of sales. If you provide a large range of products, consider structuring the site/product pages so as to offer a few choices as possible ‘ There is less chance of a visitor being overwhelmed by thousands of products. Remember the more choices your customer will have for a new product the more they will bounce and go elsewhere. Keep in mind that providing more choices means they will have more options to choose their own to meet their needs. This can by arranging your products within a narrower categorization or placing a lesser focus on individual products.
Specialization breeds exclusivity
When your goal is to get people to buy something, it’s important to make them feel like the product or service they receive will be special. You can do this by restricting who has access to certain items or services. For example, a boutique might only offer a limited number of products online and put a cap on how many people can attend an exclusive shopping event.
You aren’t Walmart, don’t try to be all things to all people. You’re desired customers will find your products if they’re looking for them. If a potential customer comes to your site and is unaware of what you sell because there’s too much variety, they’re going to get confused and go somewhere else. Sell product categories, not random products.
How does this work for online stores that dropship?
You can build your entire website around this idea. Even if you’re dropshipping, don’t show off every single item that’s available. Show less than half the products your dropshipper provides to keep people wanting more and coming back for more. When they see everything at once, they might be overwhelmed and turn away from a purchase altogether.
Building up brand awareness
It’s important to be aware of the messaging that you’re putting out into the marketplace. If you constantly share negative news and complaints about your product, people will begin looking at it differently. This is why content marketing is such a powerful tool – long before your company actually starts selling something, you need potential customers to start seeing you as a reputable business.
Brand awareness can be within a specialized product line, or it can be through social media channels. On Facebook or Twitter, for example, businesses can post content across each of their profiles and get the word out about what they do. Keep feeding positive information on your websites and social networks to keep driving interest in your company.
4. Invest in quality product images
Most good-quality meals actually taste better than poorly decorated dishes. Investing in quality product photography may have similar effects for people visiting your website. Include quality images of your products – no tiny thumbnails or poorly lit photos taken in your stock room. Please bring a wide variety of images, including pictures from every possible angle. Sometimes the person kicks the proverbial tires before buying, especially online especially in the UK. People also like seeing photos of your product at all angles. It may sound like you’re exaggerating the images that you capture of your pieces from all angles but try it!
How to capture a quality product image
If you can, shoot by natural light or use a softbox. If it’s possible, find some sort of white background and then take the photo from an oblique angle – try to make your product look like it would on a store shelf (don’t show any fingerprints). But not only that, give them more than one photo and if possible a 360 degree image so their viewing pleasure continues.
Newer smartphones can take good images, but if you have an old phone, don’t use that to capture your product images. Use a professional DSLR camera that you can use the settings you need to produce a high quality image.
Try to keep the focus on your product alone and not the backdrop. This can be done with newer iPhones in Portrait mode where the backdrop is slightly blurred and the product is in focus.
Optimize images for web viewing
Include images that are optimized for web viewing – make sure they aren’t too large. < 600 px wide is ideal as images larger than 700px tend to slow down page load speed significantly.
If you’re using WordPress, you can use several different plugins that will compress your images in bulk. People who visit your site will appreciate having their browsing experience improved.
Consider displaying your images in nextgen formats like webp or AVIF, these formats are 10x more compressed without losing any quality.
Did you know that most website visitors come from mobile devices? Images no longer need to be high resolution to display quality.
Provide many high quality images
It’s important to provide high-quality images of your product. Consumers who visit your website will appreciate seeing several different angles of the item they’re looking at and will be able to make a more informed decision on whether they want to purchase it or not.
If you can offer 360 degree views so people can get a better sense of how your product looks when in use. They may want to view it from every possible angle. For instance, Sony’s PSVR has a photo mode that lets you move the camera around and see what the game or movie you’re watching looks like in real time. You can even zoom in on objects (or people) allowing them to see the game, movie, or product up close and personal.
5. Ecommerce SEO Company that increase online sales
Ecommerce websites that follow these SEO practices will be found to be on the top of the Google results for all of the keywords targeted to a specific segment of our customers. The more keywords you can target the greater the number of customers will click on your products and in turn, increase your conversions. Please consult a marketing expert and talk about SEO services for E-commerce Sites. We know that sometimes you want to speak directly to the sources of the matter.
Online store optimization for search engines
Include keywords! Use your most important keywords in 3 places: page titles, meta descriptions, and the body. As for SEO best practices, include a link to another relevant article with a few choice keywords included in it with an appropriate anchor text so that search engines consider it a viable backlink.
It’s important to keep an eye on how Google, Bing, and Yahoo are ranking against each other so you can improve your site’s performance. After all, these 3 search engines account for most of the internet’s searches! Your conversion rate will increase as a result.
A lot of people can avoid sales by putting in keywords they don’t need. If you’re trying to sell “auto repair” but your meta description says “car repair,” that’s not relevant to my search and I’m going to leave the site when I see that.
Make sure your descriptions are simple, searchable, and helpful.
A title should be less than 55 characters and your meta description must be under 150 characters so the words show up in search engines with a link that takes people directly to your site.
Online visibility and what it means
It’s a good idea to check how many people are searching for your keywords and if there is room for improvement in the number of searches.
Keywords tell a search engine what a webpage is about. If you don’t have relevant keywords, you won’t show up when somebody searches for that topic or phrase.
Analytics also shows you what keywords are generating the most traffic to your site. You can then use that information to create more pages with these keywords in order to generate more interest in your brand.
Paid campaigns have analytics tools that allow you to keep an eye on how well your ads are performing so you can improve them when needed.
eCommerce platforms with great SEO potential
You don’t have to use a particular platform to make sales on Black Friday. However, some eCommerce platforms are search engine friendly out of the box.
Some platforms even include built-in analytics tools that can help you optimize your site for more conversions and improve your organic search results!
Shopify includes SEO best practices as part of their platform so you can take advantage of features such as high quality images and metadata.
If your goal is to sell more on Black Friday, you need a website that’s easy to navigate and well optimized to boost conversions. You also want a site that’s mobile friendly if people are buying from their smartphones and other devices.
WooCommerce is a great eCommerce platform that features complete control over your site’s design so you can customize it to fit your brand. WooCommerce is built on the open source platform of WordPress which offers limitless plugins that are great for SEO. You gain ultimate control over SEO with WooCommerce on WordPress!
BigCommerce includes SEO best practices to help you get started with proper categories, meta descriptions, and other tips. BigCommerce also has a variety of templates so you can have your site looking just right for your brand.
Magento is a popular open source platform that offers complete control over the design of your website because it’s built on HTML5 code. Similar to WooCommerce, you can use a multitude of plugins to improve your site’s SEO.
Wix has a built-in SEO tool that tells you what needs to be improved. You can edit meta descriptions and meta keywords straight from their platform and Wix is optimized for smartphones and tablets right out of the box.
The importance of on page optimization
Ensure you’re following all the search engine optimization best practices when you create or update your site. Some things to keep in mind are meta descriptions, meta keywords, and content relevance.
If somebody searches for a product you offer but there isn’t much information about it on your site, they might shop around until they find another retailer with more information.
The description is what appears under your link in the search results and meta keywords help you rank for specific keywords related to your business. Just make sure not to overdo it on the keywords because it can look like spam if there aren’t enough other words in your description or meta keywords field.
If somebody lands on one page of your website and it’s clear to them what your company does and how your products can help, they’re more likely to buy from you.
You don’t need a product description that goes into every last detail but listing features and including images will give people a better idea of what they’re buying. Even before somebody starts clicking around on your site, search engines need to know what your site is about.
You can set this up by creating one page that includes information about every product you have then use that page’s URL as the website title or meta description.
The home page of your website should also feature a clear CTA, such as “shop now” or “check out our deals,” with a prominent link to your product page. This will tell people what you want them to do and where they should go. You can include descriptive text at the bottom of your homepage about your products and services if you want, but the CTA is most important and shouldn’t be overlooked.
##Off page optimization for ecommerce and marketing strategy that slays the competition
If you want to stay ahead of the competition, it’s time to rethink your off page optimization strategy. If the first thing that comes to mind is link building then you’re already on the right track! Link building can be a great way to appear higher up on the search engine results page and establish more authority for your brand if done properly.
Start by looking at your competitors’ backlink profiles. If they have links from sources that you don’t then get in touch with those sites to see if they might be interested in creating a link to your site.
Content marketing is another way to drive traffic to your site and rank higher. This entails publishing well-written, informative blog posts that are useful to your target audience. Create strong titles that entice readers to click through then use social media to share each piece you publish.
When someone shares your content on social media you’ll gain exposure for yourself as the publisher of original, interesting material.
Don’t forget to include links in your blog posts that direct readers to the corresponding pages on your site. This will help you build more internal links, which can improve search engine rankings.
If you’re struggling with generating traffic for your content marketing efforts it could be because people are having trouble finding your website when they search for keywords related to your brand.
To improve the visibility of your website, you’ll need to start building backlinks from other relevant sites. You can do this by writing guest posts or publishing news items for other websites in your industry.
If you want to maximize the effect these backlinks have on your search engine rankings, try building them around popular keywords related to your business. This helps draw traffic to your site because you’re ranking for terms related to what people are looking for.
Customer experience within your ecommerce store
If you want your customers to come back time and again, it’s important to provide them with a good customer experience. By making the most of the resources you have available — namely your website, email marketing platform, social media accounts, and call center — you can improve your chances of retaining business.
Customer service is about more than just responding to complaints. When people email you, they want their questions answered quickly and accurately. One great way to get ahead of the competition is by using chatbots to answer frequently asked customer questions about your products or services. You can create a list of frequently asked questions in advance then use live chat software to field them while you focus on selling.
Done for you ecommerce seo services
If you’ve made it this far, you likely are getting a little overwhelmed at the work ahead of you. That is why Bauertech is offering “done for you” eCommerce SEO services. You don’t have to learn a whole new complex strategy to stay in business, let us do that. Engage today and gain a free Site Audit!
BONUS TIP: Leverage social media for greater visibility
Social media is another great way to engage with customers, so it’s well worth setting up accounts on Facebook and other platforms. Engage with people by promoting your content and responding to complaints, questions, and mentions of your brand.
When people complain online it’s important that you respond quickly and helpfully rather than ignore or downplay the problem. Apologize for the inconvenience then offer a solution that will help resolve the issue. If you do this successfully, your customers are sure to return to your brand time and again.
Give away as much as you can for free
One of the best things you can do to bring customers into your eCommerce store is to give away free stuff. Free samples are one popular feature on many websites, but there are other ways to offer freebies that might suit your business better.
For example, if you’re selling beauty products, why not include a free lip balm with a customer’s purchase? You could also run a competition to give away a gift voucher worth $50 or an item from your store.
By giving something away for free, you’re introducing people to what you have to offer without expecting anything in return. This can help bring them back time and again as they wait for the next opportunity to receive another freebie.
Think of it like paying for a very effective ad campaign while building loyal customers.
Answer every question and address every objection in your copy
If your customers want to buy from you but they have a problem with it — such as not enough information or concerns about the quality of your products — it can be hard for them to make a decision. When this happens, it’s time to give them an answer that makes sense and eases their doubts.
This is where customer service copywriting comes in. By using the right words, you can explain to potential customers what makes your products or services appealing and why they should buy from you. You don’t have to go into great detail about every possible objection — just address the ones that are most likely so you can answer all of them.
It’s also important not to leave anything out. By going to great lengths to explain everything, you can give people a reason to return again and again.
Conclusion
As you can see, there are some tried-and-true tips any retailer can use to increase sales on Black Friday, but there are also things you may not have thought about that could help boost your bottom line.
Happy selling!
