Work at home: Creating out of season sales

Yesterday, I bought myself a digital camera for Christmas. I don’t usually buy myself a present during the holidays because to be honest, everyone else comes first and then I may manage to scrounge up enough couch change for boxing week, when things are a little cheaper. This year, I was a little kinder to myself and wiser too. Instead of waiting, I started shopping during summer. If I saw something a friend might like I just picked it up; this helped me save a bit for myself to buy myself a nice expensive gift.

It’s great if you’re a site that sells general items, things that people can use all year long. It makes it great for people like me who like to shop earlier, but what if you are a seasonal shop? How do you promote yourself once your season has passed?

Here are three examples and possible ideas

1. Swimsuit website: Suppose you sell swimsuits and other fun-in-the-sun merchandise. You’re loved when April comes around but no one wants to hop on summer site when they have snow falling out their window right?

Wrong. If you own a website that focuses on summer goods, you can still sell a bundle when the weather gets cool, because holiday travelers need your wear. You can spin your promotion to target people who are going to warmer climates for the holidays. Surely, they can’t be caught in last year’s bathing suit. You can also offer great deals and even run contests.

Another target is people who shop out of season. Someone like myself, waits till the season is over to buy, because things are usually cheaper. By targeting your ads to hit us cheapos you can continue to make profits throughout the year.

2. Winter gear: During the winter months, you can drive traffic like crazy, but what happens when the snow melts?

You keep driving traffic. People may not want to think about winter when they are laying in their hammock, but it will return.

By publishing an ezine, to remind people of how to get ready for winter you can keep your traffic from ceasing all together. So let’s say you wrote an ebook on snowboarding tips, you can publish another about how to care for the equipment during summer, best places to store it during out of season months, as well as selling merchandise at great deals.

3. Holiday website: When everybody has Christmas, Thanksgiving, or even Easter on the brain, you’re their go-to site. But just because the holiday ends doesn’t mean your sales have to.

Find the root meaning of the holiday, so for Christmas it’s family. Don’t people celebrate families various times of the year? There are birthdays, anniversaries, and appreciation parties people throw and need stuff for.

If you’re going to pick a seasonal niche, create a strong list by publishing an ezine. This way you have people to send out offers to even when you are not in the lime light. Also, try looking for as many complimenting products and services as possible. So a summer site can include travel affiliate programs, weight loss programs ect. And a holiday site can pair up with event planning and stress reduction sites.

3 simple ways to increase holiday sales

It’s the season for selling, but with the state of the economy it may not be the season for buying. With layoffs at all time highs, and paychecks at extreme lows people just don’t want to spend their money. However, you can’t afford to let them keep their hands in their pocket. Thus, here are some ways to get your customers to buy from your website this holiday season.

1. Update your website. Many companies leave old content up expecting it to serve the same purpose it did last year. Every three months you need to go through your website to make sure the content is still relevant. Another big mistake webmasters make is leaving old pictures and links. It’s the holiday season, meaning it’s time to decorate your site with pictures and links that relate to the time of year. Change your banners to holiday related ones, spice up your site with winter and seasonal pictures, and put up content that meets the needs of the season. The more up to date your site looks the more likely you are to get your customers to buy.

2. Play up seasonal benefits. Now is the time to drop general campaigns. If your front-page looks like it could read for any time of the year, rewrite it. The reason for this is there is a different shopping attitude during the holiday season. People are looking for gifts, deals on gadgets, creative ideas. They don’t mind splurging, but it has to be the right item and give them the desired reaction from family and friends. Your campaigns should target not only the right consumer but meet the seasonal needs of that consumer.

Example: If you are selling GPS guides then your campaign can let consumers know, “they’ll be able to find their way to family and friends this holiday season by buying your GPS guide.”

Now more than ever, you need to hit the emotional cords. Go from “The is will help you lose weight” to “This will help you look like the most attractive person at your company Christmas party so the cute intern will finally pay attention to you.”

Playing up seasonal benefits will help prospective customers get in the mood to shop for the holidays.

3. Create urgency. People do this all the time, but the holiday season is the one time when it really works. Everyone shops around the holidays because they can get their hands on deals they may not otherwise get. If your customer thinks they only have 48 hours to get hold of the offer they will whip out their credit card. Once you’ve told them the time limit of the deal, follow through. Create the sales page with the original price. This way those who were rolling their eyes will pay attention to the next you hold a sale.