After the July 4th long weekend, many retailers turn their thoughts to the Back-to-School season. And Back-to-School is big business. According to a NRF study, last year’s Back-to-School holiday spending total was $47.5 billion, second only to Winter Holiday spending category.

Over at the Google Retail Blog they have posted some interesting statistics on when consumers begin their Back-to-School shopping research.  Approximately 50% of those who research Back-to-School purchases will do so in the time period between now and the end of July. 

 

 

 

Furthermore the Google Retail blog has recently said that Back-to-School searches are up 15% over this same time last year. 

These data points provide a good indication that now is the time to ensure you make it easy for customers to think of you for the Back-to-School season.

While SEO is really an iterative and longer-term project, overcoming basic stumbling blocks such improperly tagged content can drive some quick wins. Note that indexing of updates can take a few weeks. Obviously any major issues that require dev time, while worthy of pursuing in their own right, will not likely make any impact for Back-to-School time.

Really at this point, a thorough review of your SEM is probably the best use of your time and resources.  Here are some tips on what you can do now to impact your Back-to-School season:

- Mine your data. Review last summer’s analytics to determine the most popular search terms. Use these keywords in your PPC campaigns.

- Go ahead, snoop on your competition! There are many keyword analysis tools out there that will give you an historical view of your competitors’ PPC campaigns. These tools can provide you with a view on what keywords your competitor has bet on historically, and some can provide you with an indication of their success.

- Use seasonal keyword variations such as ‘back to school sales’ and ‘back to school discounts’ in PPCs. As you can see by chart below, search traffic involving the ‘back to school’ phrase really does increase starting now.

 

 

- If you’re selling in more than one country, geographic targeting of your ads can help ensure you target the right audience with the right offer at the right time. Displaying Back-to-School ads in Australia right now won’t be effective ;)

- Reformat your PPC landing pages to reflect the seasonality of your offer. A targeted landing page can help your quality score and even lower your PPC costs. In addition a Back-to-School feel can imply a limited time offer that can help improve conversion rates.

And for those businesses on our SharePoint based e-commerce solution CommerceLive, it’s even easier to go one step further and launch a specialized e-commerce microsite for the Back-to-School season.  We’ve written extensively here about the value of e-commerce microsites, as we really do see microsites as a great way to easily launch a brand relevant yet extremely targetted e-commerce site. By clicking on your Back-to-School themed PPCs, your customers are telling you what they’re interested in – listen to them! Offer them a relevant landing page or better yet a specifically-themed microsite to make the experience more enjoyable for them, and more profitable for you.

Social Media

Social Media is another great way to drive traffic for your Back-to-School campaign. Allow your customers to share details of their purchases or their wish list items. According to a recent eMarketer report, 35% of online retailers have already implemented the Facebook ‘Like’ functionality on their websites. Many retailers have had success with social media campaigns last summer.  JCPenney will increase their use of social media this season by leveraging the fairly new trend of ‘haul’ videos whereby young shoppers tape their shopping excursions and then upload the video to YouTube. The retailer has selected a group of ‘haulers’ aged 14-18 who will shop online and in stores and post their shopping experiences on YouTube.

For more information on other Back-to-School tactics retailers can use, stay tuned. We’ll be publishing a refreshed version of our Back-to-School whitepaper shortly which will cover other social media initiatives as well as other basics to help you have a successful season.