The festive period is in full swing. The high street shops are busting out the fairy lights and blasting out the Christmas tunes, and everyone who’s planning to celebrate this season is on the lookout for the perfect gift.
But with an estimated 70% of shoppers expected to carry out their preset buying online this year, your Christmas digital marketing strategy needs to pack a punch for your ecommerce sites. After all, you’re up against a world of competition your customers can choose over you at the click of a button.
So, just what can you do to ensure your ecommerce website is optimised for seasonal shoppers? Here are some tips from the Formation team, including SEO, graphic design, and User Experience (UX) tweaks you can make to be ready for the Christmas rush.
- SEO expert Olivia says: “Use Evergreen URLs.”
For your SEO strategies to be effective, the landing pages you have optimised must be:
- Recognised by Google as ranking for the keywords you’ve chosen, so the landing page is served up when users search for those keyword terms.
- Have authority and be seen by Google as a reliable, useful, and informative source that satisfies the keyword search terms input by the user.
And both these things take time to build. In fact, from the point of optimisation, it can take up to three months or sometimes longer for a landing page to rank for its intended keywords and be recognised as an authority by Google.
Seasonal landing pages can present a problem, particularly for ecommerce sites, because they are only ever used for a few months a year. Putting them up and then taking them down again like Christmas decorations means they never have time to deliver the full benefit of the optimisations you’ve made.
A way around this is to create Evergreen URLs as part of your digital marketing strategy; seasonal pages you can use year after year and simply update the content while keeping the same keywords and URL. The key to this is to keep the URL neutral; don’t use the year or date here. You can include mentions of ‘Christmas 2024’ in your page title or copy, but keep time sensitive details out of the URL.
By doing this, you can allow the page to mature, use internal links, secure backlinks from high-authority sites, and accrue the necessary kudos with Google to ensure it continues to rank and perform for you year on year.
- Copywriter Emily says: “Be creative with your content to make the most of seasonal keywords.”
There are SO MANY opportunities to make the most of your chosen seasonal keywords within an ecommerce site, so be sure to use them all to maximum effect!
Christmas shoppers are already primed to buy stuff; all you need to do is tip them over the edge. As part of your Christmas digital marketing strategy for your ecommerce site, make your product descriptions super detailed and be sure to include mentions of those all-important seasonal keywords wherever possible.
Use keyword research tools like Semrush and Ahrefs to find the best seasonal sells for your products. Then, weave them into some emotive copy that paints a picture of why your product is the perfect gift and for whom; the various uses the recipient will have for it, and how great the buyer will feel – and look – when they bestow it upon their loved one on Christmas Day.
“Red thermal bed socks”
Might become...
“Festive thermal bed socks, fleece lined to keep your loved one’s mistle-toes cosy this Christmas. Machine washable and with non-slip soles, these toasty bedtime stockings are the ideal gift for kids and grandparents alike.”
Remember: keywords must be relevant to buyers AND the product you’re selling in order to satisfy Google. Don’t overload your copy with keywords either; save the stuffing for the Christmas turkey.
- Social Media guru Su says: “Use your social channel as a festive outlet for your ecommerce store.”
More and more people aren’t just following brands on social media; they’re actually buying through social platforms like TikTok and Instagram. To this end, your social channels are an essential part of your seasonal digital marketing strategy and another vital outlet for your ecommerce sites. The bonus is they are super easy to make festive!
Focus on creating seasonal content that’s useful and informative but also captures that element that encourages users to share your posts. Competitions, Christmas giveaways, and exclusive social deals and discounts are also good ways to attract people to your website and get them to engage with your social platforms.
Make sure your online business profiles allow for sales posts and in-app purchases so users can checkout and pay for goods or they might just scroll on by!
- Video Production pro Ewa says: “Boost your online Christmas sales with product demos & UGC.”
One of the top ways to ramp up your digital marketing strategy for your ecommerce site during Christmas? Showcase your products with eye-catching demos, snippets, and tons of UGC (user-generated content)!
Let’s be real: your audience’s feed will be packed with brands vying for attention. You too, can play the game and bring your products front and centre, that's the best part about the internet- there's a market for everyone, and everything, and sometimes, getting your products out there requires very little effort on your part.
Create quick, punchy product demos or festive snippets that show your items in real-life settings—just enough to make your customers think, “I need that for Christmas!”. Keep them short, focus on what makes each product shine, and don’t forget a “Shop Now!” CTA. This can just be some nice pan-shots and on screen-copy describing your product's benefits, or a 20-second montage of the product in use – get creative to make it memorable!
User Generated Content (UGC) is a great way to prove your product's authenticity and adds realism to your business – so why not let your customers do some of the heavy lifting? Run a Christmas giveaway to encourage followers to share their own content with your product. For example:
- Holiday Hashtag Challenge: Invite users to post photos or videos using your product in festive ways, like “How I Use [Product] for the Holidays” with a branded hashtag. Select winners for the most creative posts!
- Giveaway Entries for UGC: Offer a prize entry for followers who post content featuring your product or tag friends who’d love it. This boosts engagement and gives you authentic, seasonal content to share.
Engaging with your audience through UGC and demo videos is the perfect way to drive excitement, especially during the holiday season. Make your brand a must-have!
- Web developer George says: “Optimise your ecommerce site to cope with increased holiday traffic.”
Carrying out an evaluation of speed and performance should be a key part of your Christmas digital marketing strategy for your ecommerce site. A smooth, slick, fast-loading website not only appeases busy shoppers who are likely to navigate away from a page that’s taking too long to load; it also gives them confidence in the overall quality of your customer service. Ideally, you’re aiming for a load speed of under 3 seconds.
Things that negatively affect the performance of your site and make it sluggish include large image and video files, so look to resize and compress these where possible. Posting videos to your social channels rather than uploading them to your website allows you to share engaging content without slowing down your load times.
Removing any un-required third-party scripts or services will also help your webserver cater for increased holiday traffic more efficiently, preventing virtual checkout queues and crashing.
In the UK, 60% of all online purchases are made on mobile devices, so be sure to check your ecommerce site is performing at its best for all users as one of the first steps of your festive digital marketing strategy, no matter how they choose to access it.
- UX expert Chris says: “Create an in-site search function and smooth checkout process.”
Online Christmas shoppers are busy; they have a mission to accomplish. If they’re on their mobile, on their lunch break, waiting at the dentists, or squeezing in some last-minute present buying in the bathroom, they may only have limited time to spend on your site – and they don’t want to waste it scrolling through endless product pages.
Help them out by making sure you have an in-site search function enabled on your ecommerce site. Most ecommerce platforms already have this ability with a built-in Site Search tool.
Site Search tools use the same keyword principle as Google to find relevant products within your website, so make sure your product descriptions include all the information your shopper might search for – colour, size, age range, price, intended recipient, etc – and test these to make sure they’re working properly.
Some Site Search tools also come with the ability to filter results; these are helpful for narrowing down your customers’ options so they can find what they want quickly and easily.
Remember: the more straightforward the customer journey, the more likely they are to spend money with you.
To the same end, make sure your checkout process is smooth, easy to navigate using clear buttons, and gives the user plenty of positive feedback during the purchasing process. This is vital to ensure your online customers are confident they’ve taken the right steps, made the right choices, and their purchase has been successful. An automated confirmation of purchase email is the ideal final step in the process.
- Marketing Executive Ellie, says: “Employ a personalised email strategy to build customer relations this Christmas.”
It’s true not everyone wants their inbox inundated with digital marketing emails at Christmas, but this digital marketing strategy can work wonders for your ecommerce sites when you harness the power of customer data.
Creating targeted emails that are personalised to your customers’ purchase history and on-site browsing interests is not only more effective at generating sales; it also helps builds customer relations beyond the festive season.
Use what you know about your customers to extend bespoke limited offers via email; speak to their buying habits and show them you care by curating email content that showcases their ideal digital gift list and favourite online items.
Include festive product images to incite their interest and links to your website so they can click through to buy your products.
Whether your emails inspire them to shop with you for their loved ones – or for themselves – you'll benefit from their repeat business now and into the New Year.
- Digital Design wizard Willem says: “You don’t have to compromise your brand visuals for Christmas’ sake!”
When I was first briefed on this article, I was told my focus should be: “how to do Christmas and not look ****” I cannot say that word in print…
But the point is a valid one!
Christmas, from a brand perspective, is very easy to do badly.
It’s easy to get lost in Christmas’s rich cultural and visual history and before you know it, you’re throwing in pics of Christmas trees, Christmas lights, sleighs, presents, baubles, bells, Santa Clause, Mrs Clause, that army of elf slaves that they keep, snowflakes, angels, Jesus, the donkey, snowmen, snow-women, Rudolf and the racist reindeer that bullied him because his nose was different to theirs…
The point I am concisely making, is that Christmas has the potential, visually, to become very messy, or even worse, tacky…
So, unless this is your ecommerce store’s MO, keep it subtle.
Just a fraction of the wellspring of Christmas imagery.
The Christmas colour palette is about as iconic as iconography gets.
Red, green, gold white.
Brilliant.
This gives us a lot of scope for that subtlety. There’s no brand that can’t incorporate a little touch of that vibrant Christmas red into its campaigns. Or how about a bit of glittery gold? Ummm, sophisticated! Around Christmas time, lot of fashion brands such as Zara or M&S often opt for a little bit of silvery/gold glitter, as if the very snowflakes that fall at Christmas are imbued with class.
There are ways you can incorporate Christmas into your brand, without compromising it. There are ways to confidently say “This is our brand doing Christmas!” without saying “Christmas has taken over our brand!”
This requires that subtlety I was talking about earlier.
Don’t go the full Pollock. Don’t include every Christmas colour. Perhaps just try red first. Don’t use red, green, gold, blue, silver, ice, etc. Begin with one additional Christmas colour incorporated into your existing brand and see where you go from there.
I reeled off the whole Christmas list of imagery at your disposal a bit earlier. I think I covered about 10% of the total number of Christmas-related iconography you can draw from when designing for the Christmas season…
When incorporating Christmas imagery into your seasonal brand campaigns, again, it is very tempting to try and cram everything in.
My advice to anyone staring down the barrel of the Christmas imagery dilemma is the same advice I give to anyone staring down the barrel of the Christmas colour dilemma: keep it subtle.
Make sure your designs stay limited to one Christmas motif at a time. If you’re using a big old pic of St Nick, don’t throw in a couple of Gingerbread houses and a whole Nativity scene for good measure.
People already know that a Reindeer, or a pine tree, or a present signal: Christmas, Christmas, Christmas! You don’t need to over egg the nog, to make that point any clearer.
The Formation 2022 Christmas card graphic. Notice how it sticks to one motif at a time.
Christmas can be a bit on the red nose. Do try not to be.
When considering your ecommerce store branding this holiday season, forget about that generous spirit of giving for a second, and remember Scrooge! Would Scrooge put a whole bunch of unnecessary Christmas themed bells and whistles on his ecommerce store?
Bah, Humbug!
Still struggling for ideas – or perhaps you’ve yet to launch your ecommerce store? Here at Formation, we specialise in creating user-friendly ecommerce websites that appeal to customers and boost your online sales revenue – for Christmas and the whole year through. Speak to a member of the Formation team and get the baubles rolling on your brand-new ecommerce store today!
