Deck the Halls, and Your Website, for the Holidays

Christmas may be two months away, but the holiday season is upon us. Between November 1 and Christmas, spending is expected to exceed $143 billion. It is the most wonderful time of the year to be marketing yourself to potential customers. 

In order to demonstrate readiness for the holiday season, you need to decorate your website. A festive web design will provide the perfect backdrop for holiday deals and shopping. Here are a few tips for creating a compelling holiday look with your web design.

Promote your holiday deals.

You do have holiday deals, right? Because if there is one thing that makes the holiday shopping season merry and bright, it is a good deal on great gifts. 

Once you decide what deals to offer customers, you need to promote them on your website. Make them a part of your hero image. Include them in your slider. You can even add them to the menu on your navigation bar. As long as they are visible, customers will know you intend to do the holidays right: With great deals for shoppers. 

Promote your gift guides.

You know what people want when they land on your site during the holiday season: Gifts. And, they want them fast. Pressed for time, they need great gifts without a lot of searching. 

That is where the gift guide comes in. Replete with gift ideas and organized by type, it is the perfect way to help customers find what they need quickly. The best gift guides are searchable, making it even simpler for users to find what they need. 

Use this gift guide to good effect on your website. Post a link to it on your homepage. Place it on your navigation bar. Make sure customers know just how easy it is to find the right gifts on your website. 

Infuse your web design with holiday colors. 

The holiday season overflows with food, music, family, friends, events, and color. The season boasts browns, oranges, and gold around Halloween and Thanksgiving. Red, green, silver, and gold dominate throughout December.

You can give your website a holiday feel by infusing it with these holiday colors. Subtle changes, such as the use of red in call-to-action buttons, can remind visitors of the holidays without interfering with your brand. 

Some colors, like red are particularly good choices because they are both holiday colors and good marketing colors in general. Red, for instance, conveys a sense of urgency that gets people to make purchasing decisions more quickly. 

Just make sure not to go overboard. Unless you are Santa's workshop, you don't need to cover every square inch of your web design with festive colors. Quiet touches of color can be a tasteful way to celebrate the season with your customers. 

Festoon your logo with a holiday look. 

Your logo is an immediately recognizable symbol of your brand. You don't mess with it. Unless it is the holidays and you want to give your web design a festive look.

In that case, you can definitely add some tiny touches of holiday cheer. A Santa's hat hanging off a letter, or a snowflake or two, can turn an everyday logo into a holiday logo.

When creating a holiday look for your logo, keep your branding and overall look the same. You just want to add a touch or two of holiday cheer to acknowledge the season. 

Update your images. 

When decorating your web design for the holidays, do not forget about your images. Images that were compelling last month may look bland and boring in the middle of the holidays. 

You do not have to update all your images. However, you should create enough holiday-focused images to give your website a festive appearance.

For example, homepage images definitely need a facelift. Consider adding fun touches, like Christmas lights, across your header. Acknowledge the season visually while, as always, maintaining a classy and subtle look.

Update your product images.

While you are updating your other website images for the holidays, try updating your product images as well. People will be spending a lot of time looking at those images. Creating festive ways of presenting those products gives them a relevant, and cheerful, feeling.

One of the best ways to add a little holiday cheer to your product images is to show them being used in a holiday setting. For example, dinnerware can adorn a Thanksgiving table. A shovel can be put to work in a winter wonderland. Flowers can adorn a Christmas table. A little creativity can go a long way toward helping you showcase your products in a holiday-focused way. 

The holidays are here. It is time for your website to reflect that fact with thoughtful and creative touches. If you need help adding the right touches for the season, reach out to Distinct Web Design. We offer web design and refresh services, as well as digital marketing services, to make your holiday season as productive, and as profitable, as possible.