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By fully understanding human nature and with organizational discipline, you can take full advantage of the spending frenzy and psychology for best Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales.

In order to make sure you’ll be celebrating your sales success, you must first create a happy buying environment. That means reviewing your store and Web site to attract prospects and to create happy customers.

If you’ve prepared your merchandise and cleaned your store, you’re half done in creating happy customers. Your Web site should be updated and optimized for higher sales.

For Black Friday and Cyber Monday success, here are eight tips:

1. Anticipate headaches

Thoroughly check your Web site for problems. Prospects don’t like bad links, slow-loading pages, and inaccurate map and contact information.

Be on good terms with the folks at your hosting company. Prepare by getting their phone numbers just in case you need support.

If there are headaches, stay calm and poised with your customers and your support staff.

2. Make sure your channels are up-to-date

Not only must your site be ready to sell products.

Increasingly, consumers are using their smartphones for shopping so make sure you develop the best mobile Web Site). The above rules apply to your mobile site, too.

3. Talk with your prospects early

As the Black Friday and Cyber Monday events approach, Bing Ads and Google AdWords costs-per-clicks exponentially increase.

So an up-to-date email list is a cost-saving and productive tool.

The cheapest and easiest tools are Constant Contact and MailChimp.

MailChimp is one of my recommendations for free tools to market your business. Also consider Constant Contact.

Start early with consumers – sneak-pique their interest. Preview your top products and their discounts.

In addition to emails, post your offers on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.

For the most-popular products, mention they sell out very fast. So create a sense of urgency and tell your customers upfront.

Offer your prospects ways to sign up for deal alerts such as in texting or emails.

4. Maximize potential for your average-order value

The primary concept to remember in order to boost your average-order value (AOV) is to plan your discounts so that in the minds of your customers you create more savings.

Create tiered offers. Once a purchase level is reached, the discount is increased. That’s why successful retailers offer 10 percent off orders of $100 or more, 15 percent off orders of $200 or more, etc.

For perceived value, discount higher-priced products more.

Be sure to check your pricing; however, so that you can maintain a healthy profit with your AOVs.

Also, remember consumers really like coupons in this economy. Create a coupon page.

Ideally, to stand out against your competitors, a landing page that lists your coupons is even better with tiered offers. Your coupons will be redeemed at a much higher rate than newspaper coupons.

For profits, don’t use daily deal sites (here’s why).

5. Two ways to create a sense of urgency

Consumers hate…hate…hate missing out on a good deal. Take full advantage of the time limits of Black Friday and Cyber Monday by creating a sense of urgency.

The three keys to success: Decreasing discounts, timers and scarcity.

Decrease your discounts as time progresses.

In other words and for example, you can start with say a 40 percent discount and decrease it a percentage point every hour or two.

Be sure to announce your discount schedule to your prospects in your mailing list.

Publicize the high-demand products and how fast they’re selling out.

6. Options if you have sellouts

You don’t have to lose sales even if you run out of products. Proactively offer viable alternatives.

If the customer really wants a certain product and isn’t in a hurry, ask for the person’s e-mail address. Offer to be in touch if the product is going to be available in the future.

7. Keep score of your site’s successes

Regularly monitor your site’s visitors’ data.

Understand your visitors’ behavior and how they use your site: Including the pages they enter and exit, how long they stay, the keywords they use to find your site, and other details.

You can also get great complimentary information if you sign up for Google Analytics.

Just as importantly, you’ll learn how and where you need to improve your site for more sales revenue.

8. Make your efforts count for the long term

Keep records that are needed for improvement, and set up a suspense file or calendar to prepare for next year.

Implement improvements so you’re in a better position to implement strategies for maximum customer loyalty and profits.

From the Coach’s Corner, more related strategies:

Is Your Web Site Losing Visitors? Best Practices to Fix the Trend — If your site’s visitor numbers are falling, there are five possible reasons. 

Marketing – Have You Considered the Potential of e-Newsletters? — There are several benefits if you include e-Newsletters in your marketing mix. The most salient is that they’re a great way to achieve top-of-mind awareness with your customers. 

How Small Businesses Can Profit from Cyber Strategies — Yes, it’s become important for small businesses to capitalize on cyber strategies for profit. 

“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.”

-Benjamin Franklin

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Author Terry Corbell has written innumerable online business-enhancement articles, and is a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services. For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule him as a speaker, consultant or author, please contact Terry.