First of all, I’m not a big fan of early holiday promotions… I get totally annoyed when stores set out their Christmas displays before Halloween is over. As you can see, I waited till December, the proper holiday season to write this article.
Of course if you’re an eCommerce shop and you waited till now to do anything about the holidays, well you’re up the creek without a paddle. Cyber Monday was two days ago, and online shopping is in full gear. But you already know that. I’m not talking about eCommerce sites today. I’m talking about everybody else. Even if you aren’t in your high-holiday selling season, you should still be planning to spruce up your website for the holidays.
Why?
Well, think of it this way… if you have clients visit your physical office, do you decorate for the holidays? Or at least provide seasonal decorations to cheery up the joint? Have you noticed that places of business that NEVER change their décor are usually depressing, uninspiring and more often than not, devoid of other customers? Seasonal decorating should be considered part of the marketing process, and your website is certainly no different. If you haven’t updated your look in a while, go to your website and take a hard look. Then visit the websites of your favorite competitors… are they fresher than yours? Do you look stale and dusty compared to other sites out there? Well then, it’s time to haul out the holly!
Keeping your website (especially your homepage) seasonally fresh forces you to look at your website with a critical eye and see what can be done to spruce it up. Adding a little seasonal flair is another way to subtly say to visitors, “We’re here! Season’s Greetings! We’re up with the times and ready for your business.” Compare that with dusty, stale sites that make you wonder if these people are still in business at all!
Adding seasonal interest also helps you to find new ways to update your site with fresh content (and keep the Search Engine spiders fed and happy at the same time). While your adding your “Season’s Greetings” text to your homepage, take a look at the rest of your content and make sure it still is current… see what you can add to it, update it for the current conditions in your business area.
I just started decking out my website with some seasonal/holiday elements. I added some graphic elements, updated some text, and this article will also add some new seasonal content. Plus as we get nearer to the holidays, I’ll spruce it up some more. Then there’s New Years, and Winter themes to offer… well, you get the point.
If you need some ideas of holiday or winter art for your website, there’s a lot of great stock art available for every budget. I’ve mentioned iStockPhoto.com before, and I use them all the time. They have an impressive collection of every kind of Photo, Illustration, even Flash and Videos, and their prices are terrific. I’ve put together a quick lightbox of holiday images. You can see it here. This is just a sampling! I’m sure you can find the perfect art to bedeck your website and give it that holiday sparkle!
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