Thanks to a combination of religious and secular holidays, eCommerce sites have always seen a bump in traffic at the end of the year. With an ongoing global pandemic and continued social distancing, 2020 is gearing up to be the biggest year for online shopping. Now is the time to make sure you’re ready to get the most out of this holiday shopping season with these free tools.
Social Media
If your business isn’t on social media yet, what are you waiting for? With more than 2.7 billion active monthly users, Facebook is one of the best ways to reach a wide variety of customers, but many social media platforms cater to niche groups as well. Companies that focus on B2B business should have a solid LinkedIn profile while visual or product-oriented businesses can find success on Pinterest or Instagram. Social media is a great way to stay in front of previous customers and gain exposure to new ones. Many social platforms also allow for product sales directly through the platform making this a great way to encourage a seamless in-the-moment sales process.
Social Media Tip
If social media isn’t your thing, it may be a good idea to invest in managed social media services. With posting options available in English or Spanish on multiple platforms, you’ll create a solid brand presence and improve your overall internet reputation.
Canva
There’s a lot of interesting scientific facts to support the importance of good design for business and also a lot of funny ways design can go wrong. When it comes to your business, it’s smart to establish a brand and work to stay consistent with it. For your website, that means hiring a WordPress website designer who can help you create the style you want with the function you need, but your website is only one part of your business. Use Canva to easily create beautiful, on-brand marketing material like social media graphics or blog elements like infographics or featured images. Canva makes graphic design easy for even the most uncreative folks and in addition to creating items for the digital space, you can also design business cards or other printed materials.
Remove.bg
Computer intelligence is helping to solve one of the biggest issues for product marketers and eCommerce site owners: removing background in product photos. Not long ago, if you wanted an image of just your product by itself, you would need to take a photo then use a complicated (and often expensive) photo editing tool to erase the background. Thanks to computer-assisted free tools like Remove.bg, you can quickly and easily remove the background of your product photos allowing for different marketing opportunities and placements.
YouTube
YouTube is a cross between social media and search engine that deserves its own consideration for your holiday marketing strategy. YouTube is the world’s second most popular search engine (bested only by Google) and shows users more than 1 billion hours of videos per DAY. YouTube is a great way to reach new audiences and deliver more information to existing customers. Product unboxings, tutorials, and testimonials all great ways to showcase your company on YouTube. Make sure to use links and on-screen call-to-action buttons in your videos to transition your viewers to your website as YouTube does not have any built-in selling functions.
Sendinblue
Communication and follow-up is key when it comes to eCommerce. The vast majority of people who come to your website will not purchase during their first visit so it’s important to have a plan to capture and nurture these leads. Make sure there’s a form or chatbot on your website to collect visitor emails and make it easy for potential customers to contact you. Sendinblue makes it easy for business owners to communicate with their past and future clients with a variety of free tools including personalized mass email sending, SMS texting, and website chatbot all for free.
In addition to adding these new systems to your business website toolbox, it’s a good idea to take a good look at how your current site is looking and functioning. There’s still time to fix any outstanding bugs or slowness, add new product pages or images, and ensure your lead and sales processes are working correctly. Have an idea you’d like to try? Contact us for a quote today!
