The holiday season starts around Black Friday, and every year more people take their shopping online. Considering that over $123 billion was spent in 2018 on retail e-commerce, according to Statista, holiday marketing seems like the way to go.

Businesses need to know a few things if they want to amp up their content marketing before the holiday season. They’ll have to approach the issue early and give it a lot of thought. That’s why I am writing about this now, instead of closer to the holidays when it is too late to implement your strategy effectively.  Here’s how to get the most business out of holidays:

Start on Time (or early)

It takes time to gain traction with SEO. That’s why you need to start considering your search engine marketing strategy as early as possible. If you haven’t done SEO before, your planning stage will have to be extensive. And if you have, a content audit is in order so you could see what needs updating.

For an e-commerce website, preparing for the holiday season starts with planning the keywords you want to rank for.  However, you also need to create content for those keywords, as well as dedicated landing pages to convert customers. The early planning stage and analysis will show you which products can do better with more marketing.

Get the Content You Need

It’s essential to produce suitable content if you want your holiday marketing to be effective. Ideally, your content will cater to every stage of the buyer’s journey. Aiming for Google’s rich snippets in the search results with good keywords will get your business on the radar.

By providing informational content about your holiday offer, you’ll capture potential buyers at an early stage. Then you can capitalize on the interest by ensuring their search journey will lead them to your landing pages. Optimize them to convert and make them fast-loading and responsive.

Make It Easy for the Shopper

Once your content marketing strategies are in place, you should focus on the shoppers’ experience. Make it easy for them to buy from you. To accomplish this, you should keep your buying process as streamlined as possible. Have a guest checkout option and reduce the number of pages a customer has to go through to make a purchase.

Stick to Best SEO Practices

With content marketing and SEO, it’s essential to stick to some already established best practices. These might seem like unimportant details, but details add up and make your overall strategy stronger.

For example, look to external and internal linking as a way to build authority and help customers navigate your website. Your content will be useless if it doesn’t direct website visitors to places where they can explore your offer. Likewise, linking to reviews of your products can help potential buyers decide that they want to be your customers.

It usually takes business owners months before they see tangible results with SEO. That’s why it’s never too early to start planning your holiday marketing strategy.

If you wish to start enjoying good results for your website faster, don’t hesitate to contact me. I’d love to discuss your marketing strategy and help in any way I can.

Rob Dunford is a Marketing Consultant in the Great Toronto Area with over 20 years of experience in implementing marketing plans for small businesses.