How can you prepare for Black Friday / Cyber Monday? Here's a checklist:
1. 'Seed the sale' by telling customers to expect deals. "Promote sales, promote sales, promote sales," said Sucharita Kodali, principal analyst of e-business and channel strategy at Forrester. "It's the number one thing that shoppers look for during the holidays." (Source: Retail Dive)
You can do this via posts on Bridge and social media.
2. Craft an irresistible offer.
3. Organize your upcoming sales / discounts. You can do this on your Bridge Discounts page.
4. Plan ads and ad copy. What is your holiday theme?
5. Create banners and 'hero images' to advertise holiday sales. You can do this this via your Bridge by creating holiday slides and adding promotions via the Promotions tool.
6. Build suspense and buzz around your upcoming sale. You can do this via in-store and online channels.
7. Use Bridge's abandoned cart emails. Bridge has built-in, ready-to-go abandoned cart emails. Take advantage of these.
8. Think mobile first. "In 2018, mobile delivered 58.3% of traffic to websites, a nearly 20% year-over-year increase." (Source: Retail Dive)
Bridge is mobile friendly. Do a test purchase on your mobile site.
9. Test your site and get feedback. Ask friends and family to test your site.
10. Place tracking pixels. These are to help you track ad leads from platforms with which you advertise (i.e. Facebook, etc.)
11. Retarget past visitors and customers. You can use your Bridge view past customers' emails.
12. Begin pitching to blogs and gift guides.
13. Start your email marketing campaigns. You will want to choose a third party email program, such as MailChimp.
14. Reward loyal customers. You can use your Bridge view past customers and their spending amounts.
15. Build in scarcity where possible (i.e. tell customers about sale end dates).
16. Ensure you have quick and courteous responses.
17. Offer easy and hassle-free returns. "This year, it is projected that 77% of consumers expect to return at least a portion of the presents they receive, according to a study by Oracle Retail. " (Source: Retail Dive)
18. Set up Google Analytics. You can input your Analytics code in to your Bridge. Please visit the Your Account page.