Get Your Website Prepared for Holidays and Events Early

This is an entry in our daily Internet Marketing Advent Calendar series. Each day your favorite marketing elves will focus on a new topic to get your internet marketing in order before the start of the new year.

Photo credit: Riptheskull

Here in Maine right at Thanksgiving we have a radio station (or two) that change from their regular programming to all Christmas music, all the time. For many, thinking about Christmas while they still digest their Turkey is a little much, but for many others this holiday switch has become a tradition for them and their families.

People get in the holiday spirit on their own time (my internal Christmas clock is a little behind this year). When they get there though, they know there is a radio station waiting to join them in their holiday cheer.

Be there and be there early

As I mentioned, my Christmas spirit is behind this year. Whether or not you, your company, your e-commerce store or your event are ready for the holidays, they still come and we need to be prepared. We need to be prepared early. Internet shopping is becoming more popular every year but online shoppers come early. They have to factor in major things like shipping. They come in droves but they come early.

The National Retail Federations released survey results from shoppers and it said:

According to the survey, people who will shop online will spend 24.6 percent more than average adults ($858.49 for online shoppers vs. $688.87 for all adults). The group is also more likely to start shopping early (42.6% will start shopping before Halloween) and make non-gift purchases for themselves (61.4% of online shoppers vs. 57.1% of adults).

Halloween!! So if you have a case of the bah-humbugs and didn’t feel the holiday spirit until now, you may have missed out on some serious online shoppers. This goes for any kind of holiday or event that is coming up, we need to have our websites prepared for them early. Planning a conference, e-commerce special or another event of some kind, have information about it available on your site EARLY. In the B2B space especially, internet research is a major piece of the buying cycle. If the information isn’t there until last minute, you may have missed your biggest surge in traffic that have already come and gone looking for information.

The internet is great for getting us in touch with businesses and retailers that are not in our back yard. We just need to plan for an internet visitor differently than we would a walk-in to our store or a last minute planner. Have content about one-time events up early, whether or not you are in the holiday, conference, special or event spirit.

So like the radio station I mentioned, maybe retailers and businesses need to flip a switch at Thanksgiving too, to start planning and executing their holiday shopping strategy. It is a must if you want to capitalize on the online shopping trend. Whether or not you have a case of the Bah Humbugs!

Read the rest of the Internet Marketing Advent Calendar