Holidays are the best time of the year. People connect with friends and families and buy gifts for each other, which means business owners have the opportunity to capture leads. The holiday season is a wonderful time for businesses too, as they can connect with audiences and turn them into customers.
Though the perfect time to increase sales, attracting seasonal visitors to your website during the holiday season isn’t easy. With shoppers looking down every possible avenue to tick off items from their shopping lists, small business owners can capitalize on this opportunity and capture audiences to their stores. How? By making their website holiday ready.
This article discusses a few ways to make your website less gloomy and more cheerful, so you may generate more sales this holiday season.
#1 Give Your Site a Festive Facelift
Whether it’s Halloween, New Year’s Eve, or Valentine’s Day, the world around us echoes the festive spirit due to the decor. Retail stores are no exception, so why should the virtual world be? You can follow something of the same nature on your website.
No, we aren’t asking you to change the entire theme of your business site for a given holiday. Instead, adding a little zing to your website will do the trick.
You can update your site’s main banner or logo such that they are in accordance with the holiday season. By doing so, captivating your target audience will become easy. Attach a seasonal tag or category to the header, as your audience will probably click on them and stay on your site longer than anticipated.
If you’re on a tight budget and cannot afford a web or graphic designer, we’ve got a solution: try a holiday website template. These days, many website builders offer more than 300 responsive templates at affordable rates.
GLASS puts down that website templates optimize images automatically for SEO. You don’t need any extra plug-ins. Also, it helps you save a good chunk of money and, of course, your time.
Coca-Cola deserves mention in this regard, as it keeps updating its site during the holiday season.
Pro Tip: Add a coupon code on your site’s header to allure people to purchase.
#2 Refine Your Website Navigation
Hear us out, everyone: your website’s navigation can make or break your customers. If your target audience lands on your site but is unable to find what they are searching for, they’ll exit.
During the holiday season, refining your website navigation should be your priority. After all, around 94% of consumers believe that a business website must be easy to navigate. When people get what they seek without hassle, you will likely improve your business’s bottom line.
Adding a new holiday category to your site’s mega menu can simplify things. For instance, if you’re running a Black Friday sale, include that in the mega menu. This way, your visitors won’t miss out on the deal. Do the same thing when you run New Year specials or Christmas campaigns.
Using clickable pictures and banners on the homepage will also keep visitors hooked to your site.
#3 Be a Little More Santa and a Little Less Scrooge
Every business owner devises marketing strategies to increase sales as the holiday season approaches. But is the holiday season all about improving your brand’s bottom line? Definitely, not!
Customers purchase products from brands as an act of love for their near and dear ones. Show them you’re on the same page by donating a portion of your holiday sales to a non-profit organization or charity.
You don’t have to dedicate 10 or 15 percent of your holiday sales to charity. A small amount, like one or two percent, would make a difference in others’ lives.
Let customers know that a part of their purchase is dedicated to a good cause. It will distinguish you from your competitors and convince your audience to purchase from your business instead of the competition.
#4 Update Website Speed, Efficiency, and Load Time
No one’s got the patience it takes to use a slow website. That’s why checking your website’s speed and load time is important. Ideally, your site should load in less than two to three seconds. If the site load time exceeds the two-to-three seconds mark, bounce rates will increase.
Improving bounce rates is crucial in the holiday season, as that’s when you get the opportunity to make new customers. As the first impression is usually the last, you wouldn’t want to break your customers because your website loads slower than others.
Here are a few ways to improve your website speed:
- Compress images and optimize them
- Limit the number of plug-ins on your site
- Turn on browser caching
- Avoid redirects
Get Your Website Holiday Season Ready
Holiday stress is real for business owners. But you can take the stress out of your holidays by making your website holiday-season-ready with these few tips.
When shoppers search for ideal presents for their friends and families, they browse across all websites. If you add a festive touch to your website during the holiday season, audiences will likely shop from your business.
Make your website easy to navigate, so shoppers purchase from you. When in doubt, reach out to an expert.
