It doesn’t really matter if you love it or hate it; Black Friday – the biggest shopping day of the year – is just a few days away. While most “brick and mortar” business owners are stressing out about how to bring as many customers to their big 72 hour sales marathon at the local mall as they can, all of us digital folks are thinking about a whole different kind of traffic.
According to Infolinks’ recent research infographic, last year saw an overall increase of more than 5% in online traffic during Cyber Monday, while Christmas Day saw a 21% drop in overall traffic. The research also showed that while Cyber Monday represented the sharpest increase in ad engagement, advertisers surprisingly spent most of their budgets on New Year’s Eve rather than Christmas Day.
So how do you prepare for Black Friday:
IT:
Don’t assume your servers will handle the influx of holiday traffic. Expect heavier online traffic this time of year, and make preparations for the increase. Slow loading times are one of the most frustrating experiences for visitors, especially those on the go. Be proactive by using analytics to test your site’s current performance and taking its suggestions to make improvements. You can also switch to a CDN (content delivery network) to speed up your site by dispersing traffic across several servers.
Social:
According to Mashable, 65% of shoppers tap social media looking for the perfect gift. Among the numbers, 92% of consumers trust earned media over all other forms of advertising, and two out of three shoppers purchased a gift they found via social media. Meaning that you’re Facebook, Pintrest, Instagram and Twitter accounts all need to in tune and ready to push your products and content. Most businesses on Facebook are using Facebook ads, at least on occasion. If you’re still on the fence about Facebook ads, the holiday season is a perfect time to jump in.
Mobile:
As we have discussed several times, making sure your site is mobile friendly and visible on all devices. This is especially crucial during the shopping season, as research shows that nearly 70% of smartphone users will use their devices for find and purchasing their gifts this holiday season. Sites that are optimized for mobile show that you speak the language of your audience, regardless of format or device, so be sure your site is ready for mobile!
Infolinks:
Be sure you monetize all this high quality and high volume traffic you will get during the season by optimizing your Infolinks account, customizing your ad units design and most importantly by turning on more products! Also you can choose from one of these Christmas color schemes and implement them on your site’s Infolinks ads units, links styles and overall design.
We highly recommend you contact our Support Team at support@infolinks.com for more personal advice on you can prepare your own site to black Friday and the holiday shopping season! Want to stay up to date with everything new in the digital marketing world? Be sure to follow Infolinks on Facebook and Twitter.