If you place banner ads and promotional notices all over your website, but skip the search results, you’re missing a lucrative showcase for your holiday marketing efforts. Many online shoppers don’t browse retail sites using navigation – their shopping expeditions start with site search. So they’ll never see your promos if they’re only placed on product pages, unless you also add them to search results.
This “searchandising” strategy should be a key part of your holiday marketing efforts. Here’s how to make the most of searchandising to promote popular and best-selling products.
- Keyword-specific banners: Link banner ads to popular keywords so that the banners are displayed on the same page as relevant search results. This way, shoppers see your special offers or promotions at the same time they are searching for relevant products.
- Include promotions in search results: Encourage shoppers to click through on results by including relevant promotions right inside of search results themselves. For instance, highlight sales and discounts within results – and if makes sense, place these results at the top of the list.
- Promote similar products: Connect the most popular search terms with similar top sellers, broadening the range of products a shopper can view. This improves the chances that customers will find the product they need, even if they haven’t entered the exact search term.
- Cross-sell: While you have a shopper’s attention on the search results page, take the opportunity to suggest other products that they may like, in a similar vein to the product they have searched for. Your search results could include a “you might like this also” section. For example, if someone searches for flannel sheets, your search results can include flannel robes or bed pillows.
