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Cyber Monday is just around the corner for online marketers and retailers alike. Just like Black Friday (the Friday after Thanksgiving) is the ritualistic kick-off of the holiday shopping season, Cyber Monday signifies the busy day for online retailers. 

How influential is Cyber Monday?  Well, 2007’s Cyber Monday spending indicated an 84% jump from the average daily online spending total during the preceding four weeks (@comscore).

So, is it time to jump on the Cyber Monday band wagon? Most likely yes, but you’re not alone.  Last year there were 132 million more promotional emails sent on Cyber Monday compared to usual email behavior (@experian).

What’s a retailer to do?  Plan a campaign based on research about your customers, and if you haven’t started planning or testing, now is the time to start – the floodgates open Thanksgiving Day.

Why not try a targeted Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaign?  Never done PPC before?  Cyber Monday is as good a time as any.  Here’s how:

• Start your campaign now with a small budget (adwords.google.com)
• Learn in the next week about the customers that are early shopping.  What keywords are returning the highest conversion rate?
• Is it the blackberry pearl or the LG force that they’re really buying (www.bluegrasscellular.com)?
• What keyword ads are working?
• Is it “$25 off” or “25% off”?

• Then, take those findings and apply them on a higher budget campaign starting Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday.

Don’t forget your:

• Conversion pixel
• Custom landing page
• Welcome trigger email

And while we’re talkin’ about email, why not send an email promoting your best selling products pre-Thanksgiving? Observe which links your subscribers are clicking on and come Cyber Monday, send custom emails to your subscribers based on their clicks on the content within the pre-Thanksgiving email.

What are you Cyber Monday promotional plans? Any success stories from the past?

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