The holidays are upon us and the search for the perfect gift is in full
swing. Some analysts are predicting that, on this 10th anniversary of
online holiday shopping, this could be the Net's biggest shopping
season yet.
And odds are, it's not too late to get savvy with your holiday search
campaign. In 2005, according to a report by SG Cowen & Company, ad
pricing on retail keyword searches rose 9.4 percent in the weeks
following Thanksgiving. The average cost per click based on keywords
searched rose 5.8 percent overall.
In 2001, online shopping peaked at the beginning of December, as cyber
shoppers found themselves weary of gifts not getting to their
destinations on time. But in 2004, consumers hit online stores the
hardest just ten days before Christmas, and the search, find, and buy
craze remained strong the entire week before the big day. Here are
some simple ways your small business can take advantage of the late
holiday search marketing rush-without having to second mortgage the
store.
First of all it's time to change your ad copy. That generic " we have
what you want" message may hold its own during the off season, but it's
time to get creative and stand out from the crowd (and there will be
whole new crowd). Instead of "The Most Affordable Cleaning Money Can
Buy, Satisfaction Guaranteed," test "You Bring The Presents, We'll
Bring The Mops." It's the holidays and the general public is
searching with a different attitude. They are buying for someone else,
and they want the perfect gift. Keep this in mind as you write your ad
copy.
Next, go over your keywords, then go over them again. Take a good look
at how people MIGHT misspell your product or service. Use a keyword
suggestion tool such as the free edition of Good Keywords
[www.goodkeywords.com].
For unique products, use phrase and exact match options to allow
yourself more money to spend. By narrowing your keywords, you achieve
two important variables. You save those marketing dollars from being
wasted on window shoppers, and you create a more targeted click. You
are more likely to want to pay more for a click resulting from the
search "19 inch sony flat screen lcd tv", than you are for "sony tv."
Bid and create your keyword list accordingly.
Even with these changes, this is the time of year to WATCH YOUR BIDS
AND POSITION. That bid that had you in the top three positions will
most likely not hold its own this time of year. The marketers who are
proactively watching their search engine campaigns are putting more
cash into their efforts, driving the costs up, and driving the position
of those who are not watching, or can't afford it, down. Carefully
choose your most important keywords and, based on your budget, keep
them visible on the search pages. Keep in mind that the number one
position is not always the best place to be. The washing machine giant
can afford to pay ten dollars a click for that keyword and hold the
number one position, but if the searcher was interested in going to
that location, they probably know where to find it without clicking on
their ad. Test position two, as well as positions three and four if
your budget does not allow you to hold position one. Remember, it's
performance, not position that constitutes a successful search
marketing campaign.
Timing is also important to consider. Contrary to the physical world
where Saturday and Sundays produce the mad rush for bargains, Mondays
have proven to be the biggest online shopping days, with noon to 3 p.m.
proving to be the peak hours for business to business, and 6 p.m. to 9
p.m. showing high marks for consumers. You can maximize your marketing
dollars by structuring your bidding accordingly, using day of week and
day part bidding to push your keywords out at the times when the most
eyes are looking.
Choosing the right search engines can make a big difference, too. The
vast majority of businesses on the web have limited their search
marketing efforts to the giants at Google, Yahoo, and/or MSN. There are
many other good search engine alternatives out there in cyber-shopping
space. Go out there and find the best ones for your market. Ask.com
(formerly AskJeeves) is a viable addition to your search marketing
artillery. With blogs, maps, stocks, weather, and a myriad of other
"portal" style tools, Ask.com has a steady and growing audience.
You may not have heard of 7search.com, but they boast a fast-growing
1.5 billion searches per month, as well as a rising number of
affiliates and partners. Thirty-five percent of the top 150 search
engines use 7search results, so pushing some of your search dollars
this way could make a major difference in your visibility.
Another avenue to travel is the shopping engines. These hungry portals
are being visited more and more by savvy comparison shoppers and could
help raise your revenue in leaps and bounds. Submitting to these
engines is not difficult if you take the time to do your "formatting"
homework beforehand. Most of these engines, including shopping.com,
shopzilla.com, dealtime.com, and nextag.com, take a simple comma
delimited file that contains SKU numbers, product name, product
descriptions, price, shipping, size, etc. Once you get a good file
together it will take little effort to modify that file for the other
shopping engines that you choose.
Placing yourself in these additional search engines and shopping
engines serves an additional, possibly more important advantage. It
develops links from well ranked, well used sites to your own. This has
a great chance of raising your ranking at Google and moving your
business up in the natural rankings.
This is a time that actually defines the year for some small to medium
businesses. The Internet has leveled the playing field for all
retailers. With the right search marketing strategy, your business can
enjoy the gift of greater holiday revenue, too.
If you are not ready to get moving this year, make a real effort to
enter the online market next year. Your best option may be to find an
export. My personal recommendation is TruePresence.com at
www.truepresence.com. This is a rapidly up and coming online marketing
firm out with Baltimore Maryland with, currently, 11 local offices
spanning central and eastern United States. You are likely to find a
local representative ready to serve you in web site design,
development, search engine optimization and marketing, email marketing,
and affiliate programs.
