Show Them You Know Your Stuff

Providing a small chunk of expertise free to customers and prospects wets their appetites for more. Once they know that you know your stuff they are ready to become great customers.

Chicago Web Design firm 37 Signals has compiled a graphic list of customer intuition based best practices for Holiday E-commerce web sites. This special section, designed to promote their web design services, presents examples of features they feel customers want when in holiday shopping mode.

This site works on two levels.

-Provides a resource of ideas for those looking to enhance their holiday e-commerce sites.

-Demonstrates the expertise of this design firm. The site is a great example of educating your prospects about your point of view and expertise.

The extra sauce here is the timeliness of this information. The site includes a Christmas countdown measured in days to create urgency around making sure your site is ready.

I would add to their best practices a permission based email newsletter. Why not build a list of holiday shoppers who you can remind and re-invite to your site next year.

Is there a seasonal aspect of your business? Your client's business? Can you create a timely special report that can provide value to your customers and prospects.

You can use a timely report to build a permission email list for your opt in email marketing. Simply asking interested readers to register their email address before downloading your special report is an excellent way to begin a relationship with customers and prospects.