Holiday shopping can bring in as much as 30% of a business’ overall revenue for you the year. Are you and your business’ website prepared for the holiday shopping season?
Even if you have a brick and mortar store, nearly 80% of your customers are researching their purchase online before they step foot through your door. Creating a more festive online presence as well as having a strong sales strategy are key to ensuring your finish the year in the black.
If you’re not sure what you need to do to get your site up to snuff, don’t panic. We’re going to show you how to celebrate Christmas on your web page, boost sales, and bring a little holiday cheer to your business.
Christmas Colors
Holiday web design doesn’t have to be complicated. Sometimes just switching up your site colors can give your page a more festive feel.
Reds and greens are a no-brainer. The trick is to tailor those colors to your overall company’s impression.
For example, a more playful, laid-back business can use brighter greens and reds. If you are trying to seem more sophisticated, try adding a few rich jewel tones, like emerald and ruby, to you site.
Red and green might go against your marketing colors. Neutrals like silver and gold are classic Christmas colors as well.
White and red is another semi-neutral color scheme for you to incorporate, Frosty whites and silvers also set the stage for a winter wonderland online.
Holiday Logo
Another quick and easy way to represent Christmas on your website is to update your logo. Adding a touch of holiday cheer to your logo shows that you care even about the smallest details.
Try adding a Christmas tree to your logo. If you use a character, put them in a Santa hat or give them a present to hold.
Even adding a little bit of snow to your logo is an interesting and understated touch. Don’t forget to update your logo on printed holiday materials and your social media accounts, too.
Exclusive Holiday Merchandise
Consider creating seasonal merchandise to really boost holiday sales. It can be tricky to get right, so be smart about this Christmas strategy.
You don’t want to overproduce holiday merchandise because you might get stuck with too many leftovers. However, making products with limited edition holiday designs can excite your customers and bring in even more sales.
Consider using a Christmas tree SVG to print holiday images on your merchandise. Use seasonal-specific words and phrases, or even try playing around with them to make a new holiday saying.
Anticipate Big Sales
We’re not just talking about visualization. You need to prepare for the Christmas rush by making sure your site can handle more visitors than usual.
Don’t make shopping hard for your customers. Streamline the sales funnel from beginning to end.
Target marketing so that ads take customers to specific landing pages. Once there, make purchasing as simple as possible so that you don’t end up with a lot of abandoned shopping carts.
Once in your cart, set up autofills so that they don’t have to keep filling out information. Don’t push them to create an account; offer it as an option.
Purge your pages of things that slow down your load speed. Reduce image sizes and get rid of videos that clog up your site.
What Works and What Doesn’t
How were your sales last year? Did you over or under perform?
Do a deep dive into what worked for last year’s holiday rush. See what brought in the most sales and try to duplicate it or improve upon it.
If your customers are expecting a sale like the previous years’, give it to them. If you brought in the most traffic from a Facebook post or your email list, target those for an aggressive campaign this year.
Keep an Eye on the Competition
It’s always a smart idea to check out what your competition is up to. You need to be extra vigilant over the holidays.
What kind of sales or offers do they have? Are any of them too similar to what you have or undercut your own sales?
What about their keywords? How does their site rank next to yours on search engines?
Take a moment to comb through their website and write down what you like and what you don’t like. See if you need to adjust your own strategy in order to maintain a competitive edge.
Christmas Call to Action
Having a great call to action, or CTA, can make or break your sales. The right CTA can get your customer on your site, get them to click, and get them to buy from you.
Kick it up a notch during the holiday season by incorporating festive phrases and sayings in your CTAs. Make it a group effort and gather your employees to brainstorm some good ideas.
Pick your favorite Christmas carol and try to build a CTA around it, like saying “12 days of sales”. Be creative, have fun, and be genuine.
Tap into Emotions
Strong marketing starts with hitting your customers where it counts — right in the heart. Christmas can be a time of nostalgia, romance, warm feelings of being home, and more, so work it into your messages.
For example, if you go with Christmas being a stressful time with too much to do, offer your customers the solution. Show them how easy it can be to shop with you.
Tap into Christmas excitement with happy images, exciting graphics, and bold fonts. Sparkling graphics and bright colors can add to a merry mood.
How to Celebrate Christmas Online
There are two things to focus on this Christmas season: creativity and analytics. They’ll give you the keys as to how to celebrate Christmas on your website and get results.
Think of ways you can dress up your website for the holidays. Also make sure you’ve got a solid strategy to rack up sales and convert new customers.
Once you’ve got your site right for the holidays, you can start looking at more ways to improve your pages. Check out our other work and productivity articles for inspiration.