With the holidays right around the corner, and scores of festive promotions already underway, many newbie affiliates might find that they’re scrambling to put together a strategy to capitalize on the year’s most exciting season. Here are a few tricks of the trade to help you get ahead of the competition:
Keywords
An important first step in monetizing your site traffic over the holidays is to invest in some solid keyword research. Although promoting the right merchandise can go a long way towards ensuring you are able to make the most of this lucrative earning opportunity, optimizing your content to rank well for every product you sell in time to make a difference simply isn’t viable. Instead, prioritize. Once you have a better idea of which offers would best tie into the theme of the season, begin by brainstorming a list of popular holiday search terms. As a general rule of thumb, long-tail keywords work best in terms of targeting traffic and boosting conversions. For an added differentiator, you could try including less generic terms that are more gift or offer-specific; you could even consider optimizing content to include recipient-focused search terms (think: ‘Top 10 Xmas Gifts for Mom’).
Create a Sense of Urgency
With the competition for online shopping especially fierce this time of year, it’s easy to get lost in the mix. A great way of keeping your site out of the clutter is by offering special coupons, holiday bonus codes, free shipping, or other types of incentives geared at encouraging engagement. Use time-sensitive offers to create a sense of urgency around promotions. List final shipping and delivery dates to remind your audience that the window for last-minute online gift purchases is limited.
Amp Up Your Social Media Efforts
Develop a timeframe of promotions to follow. Post frequently and with original content to boost your chances of getting ranked for a larger variety of search terms. Ask questions, organize polls, and most importantly, get festive! Think themed profiles, holiday hashtags, exclusive contests and giveaways, ‘Top 10’ lists, etc.
Mobile
With smart phones and tablets forming an increasingly critical part of the online shopping experience, it goes without saying that by neglecting to accommodate these types of users, affiliates are missing out on a large chunk of potential revenue. Be prepared – ensure that your site is mobile-optimized. If possible, work on enriching and simplifying the purchase experience through a faster checkout process, shopping cart or wish list function and remember to outline return/exchange policies and estimated shipping and delivery dates.
What will you being doing to optimize your site for the holiday season? Have any marketing tips for the holidays to share? Let us know in the comments section below.