Creating Holiday-Themed Landing Pages

It’s never too early to start thinking about the holidays. If you are planning to offer website visitors seasonally-themed promotions or just want to add a festive landing page, now is the time to start.

The goal of a holiday landing page for your organization or business website is typically to convert. This is even more important for eCommerce sites. To boost your conversions, start with a focus for a holiday landing page that aligns with popular search terms for the season that fit the context of what you do. Use that page to help drive conversions that match your goals.

Not sure how to turn that idea into a great landing page for the holidays? We at Design Shack have a few tips to help you get started and make the most of the upcoming season.

1. Put emphasis on what’s new or special

 Goal-oriented landing pages make it easy to put emphasis on a holiday theme. This might include a special offer on a product or service or content that’s created just for the winter season. Don’t give users too many things to think about when it comes to a landing page. It should help direct traffic toward one specific item or action. Think about the design as a choice between this, your goal conversion, or that, abandoning the page. This will help focus visitors and provide insight into whether your concept is working through clicked buttons, forms, or goal conversions or not, which leads to bounces.

Furthermore, a holiday-themed landing page should focus on something with a seasonal feel. For eCommerce websites, that’s typically a special offer or coupon. For other websites, that might include signing up for an email list or interacting with content that has a holiday theme, such as reading a story or getting information about an event. Create a sense of urgency for this timely item. Consider design elements such as animation, countdown (i.e. Just 4 Shopping Days Left!), or limited time for an offer or content.

2. Use holiday-themed imagery

From snowflakes to jolly Santas, the right images can put website visitors in the holiday mood. Just don’t go overboard. Using holiday-themed imagery is a great tool when used well. Try one of these options:

• Photos with holiday themes as part of the scene
• Animated snowflakes or holiday icons
• Holiday-themed background image
• People dressed for winter or even wearing trendy ugly holiday sweaters
• Bows or presents; consider adding one to your logo

3. Use holiday language and colors

This one is almost a no-brainer: Use holiday language and colors on your landing page. But again, don’t go overboard. Try a few red or green accents. Silver, gold, and blue offer a more subtle palette as well. Use holiday-themed messaging in the headline to connect the visuals of the landing page to the content. It’s appropriate to sprinkle in a few other holiday phrases here and there, but too many puns or ho-ho-hos will turn off users in a hurry. Practice that line between seasonally delightful and over-the-top annoying. Stay away from the latter unless that is more of your brand personality and intent.

4. Connect navigation and relevant content

 When creating a landing page for the holidays, build it inside your website theme or shell to maintain overall branding. Furthermore, this will link the landing page to the rest of the website, should visitors want more or different information.  Consider that not everyone will be enamored by a holiday theme. Try to maintain your normal website header and navigation as well as your footer. This can help establish a sense of place online for more loyal visitors and new users.

Now here’s the caveat that comes with this tip, since you might find it in contrast to the first tip. Not all landing pages benefit from additional header and footer links or options. It’s worth testing your landing page content to see if this style of landing page works best for you. It’s often preferred for ecommerce, whereas a landing page with only one click element is preferred when asking users to sign up for something such as an email or beta invite.

5. Link social media and ads 

Landing page design is more than incorporating a page into your website framework and marketing plan. You must figure out how you will drive traffic to that page so people actually see it. This is as important as creating the page itself. Use social media and ads to link other online platforms and drive visitors to your holiday-themed page. Use the same techniques from the page design in other campaigns to establish a visual connection and carry the theme. Holiday language or content teasers make great ads that link to themed landing pages. And don’t forget to optimize it all for social sharing with buttons or links on the landing page itself so that fans and followers can share it for you!

6. Speeding up your landing page

A landing page can be a great marketing tool for several reasons. It can be a direct way to connect visitors to a particular goal. In addition to visual and content design, a solid landing page is fast, secure, and reliable. Whether you are creating a landing page within your domain or using a subdomain, these technical concerns can be just as important as marketing. Learn more about high-performance hosting for WordPress, WooCommerce, and more.

This was the fourth installment of our Black Friday series. Eager for more tips on optimizing your eCommerce performance? Stay tuned for more posts just like this one featuring industry experts and some of our technical partners. Learn how to improve your website design, conversions, online marketing, and more.