Kefta's CEO provides tips for pulling new customers out of seasonal traffic spikes.
Superbowl Sunday, Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Christmas all drive significant increases in internet traffic that retailers rely upon year after year. Sure, additional sales are around the corner, but are you getting the most from the increased traffic? Are you leveraging that traffic to its fullest? If you are like many marketers, the answer, unfortunately, is no. Marketers tend to primarily rely upon promotion and merchandising strategies, in a constant debate over what tactics are best for their broad audience. Far too many marketers are missing out on another level of activity.
There are two competing forces that can blur the reality of what is happening during seasonal events that bring periods of "spiked" traffic.
- Site visitors are coming with an increased drive to complete a transaction -- a force that helps increase conversion from site visitor to customer.
- Site visitors are coming with an increased breadth of needs and expectations -- a force that typically reduces conversion of site visitor to customer.
This is an interesting dynamic that is not recognized by most marketers. Problem is, ignoring the fact that you will be faced with an even more complex mix of site visitors than usual means leaving a lot of potential business -- and opportunity to convert site visitors into customers -- on the table.
Consider the diversity of visitor profiles possible and the differences in needs to be fulfilled. You may find that your seasonal shoppers are extremely price sensitive, with a need to find very specific items in a time sensitive manner. They will have very different needs than your daily or weekly browser who wants to keep up on the latest.
Who is going to be more willing to provide an email address for information on future offers? Which visitor is going to rank speed plus cost of shipping higher? Who is going to be more interested in subscribing to your newsletter? Who will find a seasonal shopping or wish list, complete with reminders and alerts, useful?
A consumer's drive to complete seasonal transactions coupled with an increased breadth of needs and expectations presents unique opportunities that should not be undervalued or underestimated.
To maximize the resulting impact of added site traffic, marketers need to:
- Identify and understand the needs that visitors come to the site to solve
- Leverage all knowledge of each visitor, with the vision of developing long-term relationships
- Maximize the customer lifetime value when the season or event is over
Identify and understand the needs visitor come to your site to solve
It can be quite difficult to know what a visitor is looking for if you don't have a way to listen to them or the means to translate that communication into customer success.
Want to understand what customers want? Start by considering one simple question: how did they reach the site?
Were they searching for cheap furniture or silk shirts? Were they looking for size 11 women's shoes or Belgian chocolates?
Knowing the search keywords chosen can help identify the qualities valued by online shoppers. Are they cost conscious, or is quality more important? Are they looking for a very specific product or service?
Banner ads can also provide a wealth of information. Which ads lead them to your site? Are they ads offering free shipping or pre-orders on the latest technology? What sites are they coming from, domains known for reviews and ratings, or an automotive magazine?
Bottom line: If you know what attracts visitors to your site, you are miles ahead of the competition in terms of understanding who they are and what they are looking for, and being able to deliver.
Leverage all knowledge of each visitor, with the vision of developing long-term relationships
Generations ago, direct marketers learned that testing different messages, delivery mechanisms and offers could greatly affect success when targeted at specific groups. What they didn't know back then was that there would someday be an environment that could foster real-time testing for the delivery of a personalized experience. Unfortunately, while the internet has evolved into a rich environment for delivering quality one-to-one relationships, most online businesses are still thinking in terms of mass-market delivery.
Leveraging knowledge of site visitors will enable you take steps toward improving conversion rates, and developing a long-term relationship, through improved relevance in your communication. Some call this personalization. Whatever you call it, improvements to the site experience start with the development of systems that allow you to differentiate content based on specific customer profiles. In this context, the use of tools like segmented multivariate testing will enable you to communicate the best message for a specific visitor type.
Let's say someone reached your site through your linen banner ad offering free shipping. Why not make free shipping prominent throughout their shopping experience? Alternately, if you have a return visitor who initially searched for shower tiles and is now searching for sink fixtures, they might find remodeling tips helpful.
Look at this process as offering a dialogue with a virtual sales person; a person who takes the initiative to learn the visitor's needs and goals and then speaks directly to those points. Such highly relevant communication delivers conversion and customer satisfaction improvements that are far in excess of the typical "mass market" approach.
Shifting from an online mass-marketing approach to a customer-centric strategy, in addition to developing and leveraging your understanding of new visitors, repeat visitors, new customers and repeat customers, can translate into double-digit sales growth and a dramatic reduction of opt-out and dissatisfaction.
Maximize the customer lifetime value when the season or event is over
Need to minimize the dollars left on the table and potential customers left behind? Want to maximize the amount of revenue generated? Do you really want to make the most of seasonal shopping habits and the resulting traffic spikes? Then think beyond the holiday season.
Make sure you have the necessary mechanisms in place to learn about and understand your site visitors.
Take what you've learned about a visitor's seasonal shopping behavior, and leverage that knowledge during the rest of the year, whether communicating with them through your site or by email.
Give them what they are looking for, as well as what they need, to complete your call to action.
Take the necessary steps to understand your site visitors and deliver what they want and you will be able to truly maximize your conversion rates, sales and margin… not just traffic!
Philippe Suchet is CEO of Kefta, Inc., which he co-founded six years ago. Mr. Suchet has more than 10 years of experience in sales and marketing and has helped leading corporations in the retail, telecommunication and financial services industries to develop and implement marketing strategies and tactics. As an expert in the field of online marketing, Mr. Suchet has spoken nationally and internationally at conferences by Direct Marketing Association, TechnologyVentures and National Center for Database Marketing, among others.
Prior to Kefta, Mr. Suchet worked for KeeBoo, Abuzz, Goldman Sachs Internationa, and the Boston Consulting Group. He is a graduate of the Harvard Business School, and holds master's degrees from the Hautes Etudes Commerciales and ENSAE, leading French business and statistics schools.