While the state of the economy will most likely lead to lower spending this holiday season it also means many people will spend more time online doing more research to find the best deals and those hard to find items. Yes, good content and top notch SEO work is the way to go but if you didn’t start that months ago it won’t likely have much impact now with less than a week to Thanksgiving and the Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping that follows. So here are some thoughts on what you can do to still help yourself and even others this holiday season.
Facebook Ads
If your website or product is tailored to a specific target audience and you can define them fairly easily then Facebook can provide a lot of eyes in a short period of time. Search for groups and pages that attract the audience you are after and join in the conversation. Once your comfortable click on the Ads and Pages button on the bottom left of the page and take a look at their ad network. It’s pretty cool, once you create a campaign you start with the entire Facebook population available and as you define your target that number adjusts to the number of people that meet those requirements. I would suggest creating a page for your product or company first and then promoting that page with the ads. That way people can become fans and respond easily to your posts, pictures and videos and even share your coupons with their friends.
While you are on Facebook, think about signing up for a new account with the Visa Business network and get a free $75 ad credit on Yahoo. They used to give out a $100 ad credit for Facebook but I think that promotion may have ended. If anyone is aware of other promotions please share!
T-Shirts
This guy came up with this idea to wear whatever t-shirt people sent him for one day and blog about it for a fee based on what day of the year it is. So January 1st for example only cost someone $1 and likewise December 31st cost someone $365. Well, it worked and he’s booked through late 2010 now but that doesn’t prevent you and your friends from doing the same thing to promote you site and products. If you don’t have someplace local you can find numerous companies that will print low volume runs of T-shirts and if you aren’t the artist type Google can help you there too. Then get your friends to wear the shirts wherever your customers hang out.
Triple Your Rewards
Don’t forget the more money you save, the more you have to invest in yourself and your ideas. When buying a product online there are three primary ways to save yourself money.
- Entry way – if you click through to your destination from a particular site you can save money or earn rewards. If you’re a Delta Frequent Flier start your shopping at SkymilesShopping.com and you’ll earn points towards a free trip. If you prefer American Airlines try AAdvantageEShopping.com. And they work with 100’s of stores you already shop at like Macy’s, Barnes and Noble and so on. If flying isn’t your thing you can also join a free shopping network that will give you an average of 1% to 3% back in cash at those same stores. So if you estimate a single frequent flier mile is worth 2 cents it works out to about the same value.
- Coupons/Promotion Codes – Once you are at the actual store website, select your items and are ready to check out you are facing savings method #2. Most stores have a place to enter a promotion or coupon code. If you don’t have one fire up Google and enter in the name of the store and ‘coupon’ or ‘promotion code’ and you’ll be suprised how often you’ll find a working code that can save you a few dollars or provide free shipping. You can also try the name of the specific product you want as there may be a manufacturers coupon available. Just remember most sites only allow one code per order so use the best one you find or split up your order if it makes sense.
- Payment Method – Finally it’s time to pay and you get one last chance to earn a little something. Use your reward credit or debit card or look for promotions to use Google Checkout or similar services. And while I wouldn’t recommend signing up for a new credit card for that merchant just to get a discount, if your making a large purchase and are able to pay it off it may well be worth the effort.
And remember it’s the holidays and a time of giving. So visit your favorite websites whether it be for a company you like or a favorite charity and look for shopping links to your favorite stores. Chances are if you click through their link they’ll either receive a few cents for the visit or a percentage of whatever you buy and it won’t cost you anything extra.
Happy Holidays and may your family be blessed with good health and happiness.
