Customers love seeing companies get into the Christmas spirit. However, it is essential that your seasonal branding is meaningful, engaging and – most importantly – in keeping with your brand. Below are Reflect Digital‘s top 12 tips on how to bring some seasonal flair to your brand, just in time for Christmas!
1. Festive banners
It has long been the tradition to decorate our Christmas trees to within an inch of their lives, so why not do the same to your website? (Maybe just not as extreme).
Festive banners are an easy way to instantly add some festivity to your website. Try to aim for warm, cosy scenes or snowy settings when choosing your imagery.
2. Let it snow
Everyone loves a white Christmas, so transform your site into a winter wonderland using snowy plug-ins. Adding elements such as this to your website or landing page will really set you apart from your competitors.
3. Make your logo more “Christmassy”
Show some personality and restyle your logo to have a Christmassy touch. Adding a Santa hat or snow are simple, yet effective ways of doing this.
4. Gift-wrap your promotions
Add to the gift wrapping season with some stylish ribbons on your products and promotions. They really draw the user’s eye to key information on the page. Snowflakes or baubles can also work really well.
5. Create an interactive advent calendar
You don’t need an advent calendar to be reminded that Christmas is just around the corner, but opening little numbered doors to reveal a prize is a concept that everyone can get behind. This tool is a great way to entice users with exclusive offers or content and is a great opportunity to increase social media engagement, data capture, and drive traffic to your website.
Reflect Digital offers a completely customisable advent calendar that can be content manageable and entirely bespoke. Click here to see our own interactive advent calendar in action, and play #Quizmas.
6. Email marketing
During the Christmas season, the volume at which we receive promotional emails increases drastically. It is therefore extremely important to have a strong design and message in order to get noticed.
Depending on the industry you are in, the dates on which you start your email campaigns will vary, for example:
Charities and not for profit
Christmas is the time for giving and the spirit of goodwill. September is the ideal time to begin your campaign.
Travel and leisure
When planning a holiday, people tend to start making plans months before they are going away in order to get the cheapest deal. It is a good idea to start running your campaigns just after the Christmas break.
Try to avoid subject lines such as “Best Christmas Deals” or “Free Christmas Delivery”, as these are extremely common and will not get you noticed. Having an interesting subject line will make your recipients want to open and read your email. Playing around with the words or using puns is a good way of achieving this.
When designing the email you don’t want to stray too far from your current branding, as customers still need to recognise who they are receiving the email from. However, it does need to have an identifiable Christmas theme. Using colour pallets such as warm reds and greens, whites and soft blues, will accomplish this.
Animated GIFs associated with the festive season are also a great way of adding a Christmas touch. These could include sleighs, snow, baubles, and holly wreaths, etc.
To learn more about how you can make your emails stand out from the crowd, check out this article.
7. Countdown to Christmas
Adding a Christmas countdown to your website creates urgency and increases the likelihood that a customer will engage with your website or product. Countdowns are extremely versatile and can be skinned however you like.
8. Landing page
If you run an eCommerce website, landing pages are a great way to focus your customer’s attention on a particular product or offer. Keep the page informative, with some visual elements that link to your content. Designing the page to have a festive feel and including several call to actions will not only get your customers in the Christmas spirit, but will also increase conversion rates.
9. Christmas competitions
Competitions are a great way of attracting more traffic to your website. To ensure its success, be sure to promote it across all possible social media platforms. Everyone loves an early Christmas present, so make sure you add a prize!
10. Call to actions
The Christmas period allows you to have more fun with the wording of your call to actions. Rather than just “Buy Now” or “Click Here”, you could use “Add to your Christmas List” or “Add to Santa’s Sleigh”.
11. Videos
Statistics show that 43 per cent of people want to see more video content from marketers. This might be because it is an enormously effective way of attracting users’ attention and communicating with them.
Videos can be utilised when explaining a process, advertising a product or simply adding a visual element to your website. Branding your promotional video with festive elements and colours will get your customers in the Christmas spirit and encourage purchase.
12. Let us do the hard work for you
Let Reflect Digital take care of all your digital Christmas worries!
You’ve got enough on your plate thinking about what to get Auntie Susan for Christmas. Not to mention all of the decorating and cooking!
So get in touch and we will help you make the most of the Christmas season.