If they aren’t already doing it, businesses hoping for a successful holiday shopping season should consider using SEO to appeal to consumers, according to Experian Marketing Services.
The market research group found that consumers begin scanning the web for potential discounts on Black Friday and Cyber Monday weeks prior to the Thanksgiving holiday. Ecommerce websites have seen annual growth during the holidays in recent years. While this will likely increase, it’s critical that they leverage SEO campaigns to alert as many customers as possible to their offers.
Beyond search marketing, businesses can target shoppers in the weeks leading up to Black Friday by leveraging email and social media marketing as well.
According to Experian, email volume during Peak Week increased 26 percent in 2010 compared to the previous year, and the company expects the trend to continue this year.
“For many years, the assumption had been that Peak Week online traffic was researched-based … ,” Bill Tancer, general manager of global research at Experian Marketing Services, said in a release. “However,[Experian’s data] paints a very different picture comparing email campaigns’ transaction rate versus the volume of emails sent during the holiday season.”
Moreover, social media marketing campaigns can help businesses expand their reach and drive greater traffic to their website. This will help with both SEO and the bottom line, as 9 percent of socially engaged consumers convert compared to 5.2 percent of the general web population, Brafton reported.
