For nearly every retailer, the holiday shopping season is the most wonderful and profitable time of year. If your product or service can be given as a gift, now is the time to take advantage of the huge increase in online traffic as consumers search for the best holiday deals. Whether you have a brick-and-mortar business, an ecommerce-only enterprise, or a combination of both, a well-planned holiday voucher code (i.e., coupon) strategy can help you make the most of the season. Here are a few tips to help get you started:

• Set Your Price for Maximum Conversion – Retailers should start their holiday voucher code campaign by determining the level of discount or other incentive to offer. The offer needs to be shallow enough to leave the retailer with a profit, but deep enough to gain interest and ultimately, a conversion. More seasoned retailers can take a short cut by looking to the results of previous offers that have worked in the past. After launching the offer, retailers can ensure success by tracking results and optimizing their offer until they find what works best.

• Make the Most of Cross-selling and Up-selling – There are a number of lucrative cross-selling and up-selling opportunities for retailers using voucher codes. One of the most successful is on the shopping cart checkout page or campaign landing page. Retailers should highlight a voucher code that can be used to save on the consumer’s next purchase or, based on what the consumer has previously purchased, a voucher code that can be used to save on a particular item of interest. Amazon has had great success with recommending other items that might interest their customers. Most retailers could benefit from sharing similar offers, especially during the holidays.

• Find a Balance – While it is important to cross-sell and up-sell with voucher codes, it is equally important to not overdo it. Rather than throwing a variety of random offers at the consumer, take the time to research specific offers geared towards particular customers and the items similar consumers commonly purchase. Tracking results will help retailers refine cross-selling and up-selling offers.

Refining offers by analyzing results is critical to the success of holiday voucher code campaigns. Each year what is popular during the holiday season changes and has the potential to further change repeatedly throughout the season. No matter how experienced they may be at anticipating trends, retailers need to track results to see what offers and ad creatives are working so campaign ad placement and messaging can be optimized accordingly.

In Part 2 of this post, appearing tomorrow, we’ll show you some sure-fire ways for retailers to grab consumer attention through holiday voucher code ads.