I’m not sure exactly how it happened, but October is here. Walk into any store and you’re greeted with pumpkins, mums, and heaps of Halloween candy. In another month or so, shops will be covered in fake snow and sparkly snowflakes and will be packed with trees up to the rafters.

In a brick-and-mortar store, holiday decorations draw attention to the seasonal items for sale. They also give the store a fresh look that might entice customers who would otherwise just pass by the store.

How can you do the same in a web environment? Let’s look at some tips.

1) What holidays, if any, should you “decorate” for? Think about what your site sells and the content it presents. If you sell golf clubs, you might consider winter themes for holiday shoppers, or perhaps some Father’s Day features. Halloween decorations, on the other hand, probably don’t make a lot of sense. If your blog contains craft tips and recipes, a large number of holiday schemes may be appropriate. The point is that you’re not decorating just for fun; you’re trying to get visitors excited about your offerings.

At marthastewart.com, Halloween is on display both in the content and in the overall look and feel.

2) How far should you take it? For a site with only a tangential relation to a holiday, use subtle touches, like a fall color scheme in the background or a tiny pumpkin in a corner. A site with lots of seasonal products can do more. A lot more! Get users excited about the holiday by refreshing the promotional graphics, the copy, and maybe even the logo. Perhaps a ghost could peek out from behind your logo or some spooky glowing eyes could appear in your navigation rollovers. Heavily promote items relevant to the occasion, and create special content that will keep users on your site longer. For example, you might post a recipe alongside the warm fall teas you sell.

Small and subtle seasonal icons may be all you need to make your site fresh and current.

3) How do you preserve your brand’s identity when making seasonal design changes? This is an important question. When applying seasonal “décor”, it’s essential that you not undermine the value of your brand. If your branding is color-specific (think CNN or MasterCard), don’t alter your color scheme. Relegate holiday features to promotional content areas. If your branding is not color-specific, feel free to use a seasonal or holiday palette, but keep logos clear and consistent and stick with your usual layout. Too many changes will create confusion.

4) How do you time a seasonal scheme? Online shops must think way ahead here. You’ll want to begin your seasonal makeover at least a month before the holiday — longer for the Hanukkah/Christmas/Kwanzaa season. Blogs and other such sites don’t need to plan so far in advance. In fact, any changes made more than a week before the holiday will probably only dampen the overall effect. Also, always pull your scheme right on time. Unless you have big post-holiday sales, get that heart off your site on February 15th and ditch the turkeys the day after Thanksgiving.

5) What’s appropriate when you’re dealing with patriotic or religious holidays? Though many car dealerships and mattress stores may take advantage of Memorial Day, Veteran’s Day, and other memorial holidays, this tactic is generally not appropriate for a commercial website. You don’t want to take advantage of somber emotions when seeking to boost your readership or sales, so save the patriotic features for celebratory holidays, like Independence Day. Some religious holidays, such as Christmas, Hanukkah, and Easter, offer many promotional and decorative opportunities, but be sure to approach them with care, so as not to exclude or offend members of your audience. Take cues from what you see in brick-and-mortar environments. Retailers have vast experience in this area, and more often than not, their methods are tried-and-true.

The most important things to remember when updating your site for a holiday are to keep it appropriate to your site’s overall design and intent, keep your branding intact, and use holidays as an opportunity to re-invigorate your audience about your products and offerings.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 10th, 2007 at 12:58 pm and is filed under Marketing, Web Design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.