‘Tis (Nearly) The Season To Be Jolly, So Sort Your Creative Out!

Ho. Ho. Ho.

Christmas is coming and the goose is becoming decidedly plump (and more than a tad worried).

This is the time of year that Uncle John Lewis and Auntie Dorothy Perkins compete to see who’s stores can most closely resemble National Lampoon’s with decorations fit for a king (or Simon Cowell). They do this with good reason. Christmas is a time for consumer financial abandon (yes, just like our banks), where the pressures of spending mount and the credit cards reach melting point. The ‘Christmas Feel’ adds to this pressure (don’t think it’s about adding ‘good cheer’ because it certainly isn’t), and the more the pressure mounts, the more Mrs Jones will spend on little Arnold’s NintendoStationBox.

So, how does this work in the online world? Well, very much the same, but there are other advantages to online retailers of adding a Christmas feel. Consumers will see that, with all its snow and holly, your website is current. They will see that you care that it’s Christmas and have bothered to show it. They will see that you have bothered to correctly place the Christmas  ‘hot items’ where they can be found within 1 click. These are all good signs and add to trust.

Last Christmas, as a little test, I was running an Adwords campaign and I had the traffic directed to 2 similar landing pages; one in the standard graphic format, and one with a few Christmas graphics added. Suffice to say that my client received 12% more sales when using the Yuletide flavour.

So, if you do nothing else over the next week, and you would like to see your conversion rates increasing (retail or not), pour yourself a Bailey’s Irish Cream, stoke the fire, and set about making your website feel like it hasn’t forgotten about Christmas.

Otherwise, you may receive a vist from the Ghost Of Christmas ‘Never Was’!  (Sorry, I couldn’t resist it)