Week 3 - Blog 1: Is Target Preparing Online Customers for the Holidays?

Is Target online website prepared for the coming Holidays? According to the HubSpot Blog (2010), the time for companies to think about marketing and holiday shopping is now. A comScore report (2009), indicated that ecommerce sales reached $ 27 billion in 2009. To increase 2010 holiday sales revenue HubSpot provides four tips that companies should consider for online holiday sales preparation: Create blog posts that optimize holiday centric keywords, develop promotional landing pages gears towards holiday traffic, send holiday emails, and monitor/promote your brand and products in social media using keywords. The following is an analysis of Target website:

1.      Does Target have promotional landing page designed for Christmas holiday traffic? At this time, Target does have a “Daily Deals” page that is time sensitive and offers a discount and free shipping if purchased in the timeframe set by Target. In regards to holiday landing page, the Target Corporation does not have a holiday landing page. HubSpot (2010) suggests that organizations entice consumers by giving them time-sensitive pricing incentives.

2.      In regards to Target’s holiday emails, as part of the research an email sign up was completed for sales exclusives. This means the blog cannot determine if Target has started an email marketing campaign that is lead nurturing (HubSpot).

3.      Target Facebook page does not have any holiday postings or keywords. HubSpot (2010) suggest in tip four that companies use keywords in their social media.  

Recommendation: Target is missing the boat in regards to preparing online customers for the holidays. Target should be posting holiday incentives by offering a landing page geared towards holiday shopping and posting information on Facebook regarding holiday specials.