What's your website doing for Christmas?

Have you considered what you're doing online this Christmas? If the answer is nothing - then maybe you should think about how you can use your website and online presence as an asset to your company this Christmas. It's easy to think of a website as just a brochure that all companies need to have - but that's not the case. A website, when set up, should be viewed as an investment. It should be able to work for you when you need it to and be an important factor in your marketing and promotion. Below are some ideas for businesses of all sizes and sectors to consider this Christmas: Christmas opening hours. Whether you're going to be closed over Christmas, open as usual, open for longer than usual, make sure visitors to your site know. For many, the first way of finding information is to put it in Google/visit a website. And at this time of year people are going to be aware that companies may not be trading as normal, so will be looking. Don't let a customer slip away because your website doesn't tell them that you're going to be open on Sundays during December. Offers and promotions. If you're running any offers - such as free delivery, or discounts, then make sure you tell the world (via your website!). If you've got an online shop and the facility to take discount vouchers, then submit your vouchers to voucher code websites to get more promotion that way. Be careful though - just incase you do get picked up in a big way, some of these sites get a lot of traffic, so be sure that your offer doesn't leave you short/you won't go bankrupt if the world and his brother does his Christmas shopping through you! At the same time though, don't assume that one 10% off voucher will make you your fortune... the web isn't that easy as there's a lot of competition. Discount code sites will be more interested in you if you've got an affiliate programme too - so they earn a cut when they send people your way. Affiliate programme. If you already have an affiliate programme set up, then jolly well make the most of it! Make sure all your affiliates know about your offers and promotions (inc. voucher codes if applicable - the world has gone voucher code crazy!), supply them with fresh creative (banners etc) and make sure your product feeds are up to date. Try and recruit more affiliates, get on the a4u forum and network, or ask your network (if you use one) to try and promote you to new web publishers via their newsletters and website. Consider some affiliate incentives for the Christmas period and supply people with info such as your best sellers. Send Christmas Greetings online. Create an account at 18amail and send a Christmas Greeting using your own design or one of our professional Christmas HTML email templates. Or give us a shout and we'll make one for you. You can send them for free withadvertising, or pay just a few pence to lose the mention of 18amail. Include links to your website in your email so people can quickly and easily click through and read about your latest work or services. End of year round up. Add an article to your site about what you've done in 2009, and what you aim to do in 2010. It really may be that you offer services your existing clients aren't aware of, or hadn't considered in relation to their business. Doing a little end-of-year showcase can jog their memory - put in a newsletter to your clients to lead them to it. Offer advice. Kinda like I'm doing now in fact! Whatever your business sector, add some Christmas related advice articles to your site. If you're an electrician, write something about Christmas lights. If you're a restaurant (of course make sure everyone know's your Christmas menu!) offer some festive recipes. Whatever you do - give it a Christmas spin. Some industries will suit this more than others of course - like ours of web design and development - but you might be surprised at what you come up with if you give it a few minutes thought! Be jolly! If you really really haven't got anything to say because your company is honestly not doing anything differently for Christmas what so ever, then just put a nice Christmas message on your site to make your visitors feel all warm and fuzzy inside! Wish them a Merry Christmas, show them you're bothered about keeping your site up to date, and show Google that your home page isn't a static page that never gets any attention. Do the classic of putting a piece of holly on your logo if nothing else! If you need a hand with any of the above... just get intouch.