How-to Use Holiday Events For Extra Promotion
By Pamela Heywood
Expert Author
Article Date: 2000-03-06
If you run an ecommerce site especially, then just as the stores do, you should do something different to attract shoppers each time there is a major (and minor) holiday event.
March 17, St Patrick's Day, Patron Saint of the Emerald Isle itself is almost as big in America (read: most of the Internet) as it is back in Ireland and is one of the next big holiday events that you should be making preparations to get the most out of. There's also Carnaval (Mardi Gras to some), Pancake Day (just give me the pancakes) and Easter all coming up and of course, many other events throughout the year that offer a multitude of opportunities that can be adapted from this theme.
What you need to do for each event is to make a special page, optimise the META tags for the holiday in question and submit it to the search engines. How many thousands of people are going to be looking for special stuff on the day or just before?
I was reading the front page of http://www.lindacaroll.com/ (a personal favourite of mine) and Linda makes the point that the stores decorate. Do you? You should: every one of these occasions offers you an ideal and relatively easy opportunity to add something topical, new and different to keep your site fresh and get an additional promotional boost.
In a similar vein, Boogie Jack http://www.boogiejack.com suggests writing a news item, uploading a page and submitting that to the search engines whenever there is something really big happening.
I have chosen to do this How-To feature on St. Patrick's Day as I am doing such a page myself through my penpal site that you can look at as an example (my grandmother was brought up in southern Ireland) and because I already have a list of very topical ideas for you for St Patrick's day and considerable traffic boosters at that.
Offering both free and sponsorship versions, is Sharon Rothe's "Lucky Irish Lotto". I should think that just about any site, no matter what the usual subject could benefit from offering visitors the chance to win that pot of gold.
Lucky Irish Lotto is probably the lowest priced online sponsorship you can buy - as well as being the most fun. You get guaranteed minimum hits or cash back if it falls below. In St Patrick's week, is this likely to happen? I think not. Sponsorship for this occasion is likely to be a very sound, topical, low-budget investment in promotion.
Don't forget that players are going to be visiting your site on their rounds. Don't for a minute think that they'll just play the ticket and leave. If your offer is good and attractive enough, they will stay and check it out too. It is up to you to make the most of the opportunity.
Don't hide the Lotto banner right down the bottom of long slow-loading banner-farm page with a multitude of miscellaneous offers hoping that one will be of interest. Too much and visitors certainly will just skip it all looking for the Lotto and nothing else. And don't forget the CONTENT!
In addition to some actual text, item of interest and value about the event, which you can research easily on the net - start at Holidays on the Net http://www.holidays.net/ or your favourite search engine, offer one really good temptation - a topical freebie or a discounted product - and make sure you take email addresses.
One of my favourite affiliate schemes at, http://www.wotch.com/ has a Shamrock mini-browser you can give away (its in the Lucky section). You'll get 10 cents for each one activated, plus your link in it. They are useful as well as decorative little programs and there is one for every occasion.
You could also add eCards, which visitors can send free and this promotes your site to others. 123Greetings offers their Interface Program http://www.123greetings.com There's Echelon Cardshop http://web.eesite.com/cards or All-Yours Digital Postcards http://www.all-yours.net/postcard/
Keep the page targeted on the matter in hand. Of course have your regular site logo, header and at least a link to your home page, even proudly announce that "This is a XYZ Special brought to you by Acme Widgets ..." but keep it simple, or you'll spoil the Irish Stew (broth didn't quite work here).
Have your newsletter sign-up box in a prominent position or combine this with win a computer at ComputerDrawing.com http://www.computerdrawing.com/contest.htm?A=2922
You can probably be reasonably confident that someone who is playing the lottery might also register to win a computer and the beauty of this system is that it is a lead generator: you are sent a copy of all the user's details, name, location, even their interests, so you will be able to target offers to them later. They do have the option to say no to further information, which you must respect, but it will collect a good number of email addresses from this traffic boost. Then it is up to you.
As well as promoting externally to get new visitors, you have something topical to promote to your current contacts, your mailing list and in your newsletter, which gives them a reason to come back to your site.
All of the programs mentioned above and more are featured and in use on my St Patrick's Day Special (along with a recipe!): http://tucats.virtualave.net/party/stpatrick.html I offer it here as an example, but don't forget to play the Lotto while you are there. You might win!
Skip that and just go for the Lotto Sponsorship: Order Your Traffic Slams Now: http://www.luckyirish.com/stp.htm
Need a quick, FREE, GREEN template for a page? http://www.tucats-design.com/st/template4.html
About the Author:
Copyright © 2003 Pamela Heywood
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