Must Design

How To Have A Happy Holidays
Easy to get caught up in holiday planning and forget some simple tips to maximize customer engagement and sales. Here are 5 Holiday Website Design Tips NOT to let fall through the cracks:

Holiday Website Design Tip #1: Relevant Images
Make sure your heroes (largest image on any webpage is a "hero") project holiday spirit. Snow if you sell snowboards is a good thing less so if you sell surfboards. Remember PEOPLE sell more effectively than things, so be sure your images communicate holiday spirit and include engaged people (try to avoid canned photographs if possible). 

Holiday Website Design Tip 2: People In Images
Using people in your hero images can be tricky. If people are talking amongst themselves in your images the feeling can be off-putting. Here are my favorite ways to use people in images during the holidays:

* Looking out at viewers (promotes engagement, welcoming).
* Looking directly at a Call-To-Action (CTA - increases conversion).

* One looking out on left of two or more talking together. 

* Baby looking at a CTA. 

Babies can be TOUGH. We all MUST look at babies but they can be distracting too, so I like to have them looking at something that matters. Why all of this attention to where model's eyes are looking? Viewers’ eyes follow the path of where your models look, so make sure they are looking where you want your customers' eyes to go. 

Holiday Website Design Tip #3: Less Copy
During the holidays we made a sale with only 1.1 visits (on average). During the summer it took just over 3 visits to make a sale. The holidays are about getting 'er done so cut your copy, lower the number of clicks (to links that have tested well) and rock images. 

Holiday Website Design Tip #4: Vox Populi, Vox Dei
The voice of the people is the voice of God during the holidays. Curate great ideas and comments from your social channels to make sure all customers have a chance to hear them and LISTEN more than you talk this holidays. If your social plan doesn't leave about a third of the time for RESPONSE it is wrong and you should change it. Social is about PRESENCE and you win by showing up, listening and responding. 

Build LISTENING into your website design with customer quotes, a "social corner" where you curate great riffs from your social channels, polls, surveys, contests and games. 

Holiday Website Design Tip #5: Integration
Create an "umbrella theme" this holiday and support your theme with consistent visuals across all channels. The more consistent, cool and fun your Internet marketing is this holidays the more shoppers you convert to buyers. 

Make sure your umbrella is good for 8 to 12 weeks, used in your mobile, email and social sites and when in doubt open YOUR marketing up to THEM (create ways for customers to use those ever present cameras and smart phones).