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Ahh, spring. After a long, cold winter with its all-too-familiar grays and browns, and one too many red cups from Starbucks, we’re ready for the first inklings of spring.
Subtle hints of green begin to waterfall over trees. The flowers bloom bright colors of pink, purple, yellow, and orange and fill the air with an aroma reminiscent of a Nicolas Sparks novel on steroids. Sweet and gentle. The sun is finally peeking out from behind the clouds to play with the earth. You get it, with or without this saccharine monologue.
That feeling of wanting to refresh everything in our lives is here and we’re here for it. Bring on the springtime deep-cleaning, bring on the bags of clothes from our closet going to Goodwill, and bring on the Marie Kondo-inspired minimalism.
But, you know, there’s more to clean than just your closet (and every other nook and cranny of your home). As the atmosphere around us changes, isn’t it a great time to follow suit and bring some spring cleaning energy to your e-commerce website? We think so.
Don’t worry and definitely don’t call Hoarders to film the process. We’re with you every step of the way and we’ve even put a few tips together to help facilitate all of this freshening.
- Take stock of what you’ve already got going on
Really good spring cleaning starts with taking inventory of what you’ve already got, whether it’s in your closet or your e-commerce website. Use sites like Google Manufacturer Center to see detailed performance analytics, like views, conversions, and data comparing your products to others in a similar or identical category. See which products are performing well and which are a bit more slow-moving, then try refreshing them with new visuals and fresh product descriptions. Also, slide on over to the next tip.
- Have a spring cleaning sale
After you identify which products aren’t doing as well as they could be, it might be time to throw them in the metaphorical donate pile. By that, we mean think about hosting a flash sale, offering item-specific discounts or promos, like buy-one-get-one. If you want to get extra crafty with it, try bundling slower-moving items with more popular items. Remember, you don’t have to be aggressive, but even offering 15% off is better than nothing.
- Breathe new life into your website content
Why refresh something if it’s already good, you ask? Pulitzer Prize-winner Colson Whitehead could have written your current content, but the truth is that it will still diminish in value over time and drive less traffic. According to Digital Commerce 360, 94% of consumers say that they’ll give up on a website if they don’t find the product information that they need. Content refreshes often aren’t prioritized enough and as a result, certain products remain listed poorly with lower conversion rates.
So, like we take stock of inventory, now’s the time to take it to another level and identify which of your content is performing and which isn’t. Then, as almost every spring DIY will tell you to do, spice it up. Freshening up your website content by doing things like replacing older images with fresh visuals, updating core pages, or rewriting product descriptions with more color can make a big impression on a product’s conversion rate.
- Review and refresh your SEO strategies
Arguably one of the most important parts of spring cleaning is revitalizing your SEO strategies. Even if it isn’t spring, they should be looked after and updated from time to time (think every six months) to make sure they’re still effective. And there are a couple of essential things you can do to optimize your strategies.
- Use keyword optimization tools to find the keywords shoppers are presently using to search for products similar to the ones you’re selling. Just sprinkle the most popular keywords throughout your site like spring rain showers.
- This one kind of ties into the last tip, but do a content performance check. Take a look at analytics like traffic, clicks, and conversions to determine what is and isn’t engaging viewers. Then you can determine what you need to do to improve your SEO.
- Don’t forget to check for and remove corrupt links. Not only can they lower your search rankings, but they’re just not fun for anyone to deal with.
- Diversify your e-commerce strategy and watch it bloom
If it’s in your capacity, offer your products not just on your website, but through social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest. It’s not as much about optimizing your for mobile use as it is about providing product information whenever and wherever the customer needs it. It’ll help bring customers closer to a sale. And, needless to say, we are in a pandemic where 50% of us are in pajamas all day. A lot of the purchases customers make may come from a place of comfort, so make your brand and its purchase options easily accessible.
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I hope this inspires you to not only bring out your entire closet of cleaning supplies for a Monica-Geller-like deep clean but also this arsenal of tips. Let them bring a little springtime zest to your business.
