Finding a great gift is a challenge for many people. How does one pick something perfect among a large variety of options? Would the recipient love or hate the present? On top of that, lack of time is an unavoidable obstacle in today’s fast-paced world. When December approaches, some people start to feel gift-giving anxiety.
You, as a marketer, can make your customers’ lives easier by helping them find the perfect gifts for their loved ones. While you are at it, you can use interactivity to ensure your visitors are fully engaged!
A holiday gift guide is an online experience that guides your visitors toward the best-matching gifts. As nearly 50% of shoppers need inspiration for their holiday gifts, you can increase top-of-mind awareness significantly with a virtual gift guide.
Nonetheless, creating a gift guide requires some time and effort. You might ask yourself: is it worth it? In the next section, we elaborate on one of the most common questions regarding this tool.
Do gift guides increase sales?
The short answer is yes, a holiday gift guide does increase sales. Think of it as a sales assistant who talks to your store visitors, shows them different products, and advises them on what to buy. But it is all online, happening in no time! A digital tool that guides your audience toward the products that would make a perfect gift, will increase orders and, thus, sales.
Nonetheless, the success of your gift guide depends on its features, design, responsiveness, and, of course, product suggestions. The more accurate and user-friendly you make your holiday gift guide, the more revenue you generate.
What should be included in a gift guide?
You should include the following elements in a holiday gift guide:
- Catchy and clear headline
- A short introduction to the guide
- Elements to organize your guide: age, category, personality, budget, etc.
- Product photos, brief descriptions, and prices
- Add to cart button to make it easy for visitors to purchase the items
To reduce drop-out rates, you need to create a compelling landing page with a clear title and description of the guide. Then, you should visualize your guide. Remember to organize it by age group, gender, and product categories.
If you ask questions, they should be straightforward enough to narrow down the items you can suggest. Some essential information you require is the personality traits of the gift recipient, the product category, and the gift buyer’s budget. Lastly, accurate product suggestions with high-quality pictures, short descriptions, and an add-to-cart button are the perfect finish for your holiday gift guide.
Pro tip: Once you display the suggested gifts, you can offer discount codes on the corresponding items. This way, you will increase the chances of users purchasing products from you.
How to create a holiday gift guide?
Before jumping into the holiday gift guide examples, let’s go through the steps you need to follow for a successful result.
1. Define the general idea
The first step is to define your general idea: how should your gift guide look like, how many questions would it contain, and what your goal is. For example, you can use videos, blog posts, filters, categorized product lists, and Gift Finders to help your customers find the best present.
A Gift Finder is an Interactive Experience where people answer questions to get product recommendations that would make for a great present. Gift Finders are a proven method to increase time on page, customer engagement, and conversion rates due to their interactive nature. Therefore, a Gift Finder is a tool that can take user experience to the next level.
Further in this blog post, we have included 11 holiday gift guide examples to inspire your creativity.
Pro tip: Avoid perceiving your holiday gift guide as an individual, one-time campaign. Instead, make sure the general idea ties to the entire customer journey.
2. Categorize your products
Next, categorize the products you want to suggest. For instance, you can classify them based on gender, personal preferences, and budget. This will help you craft meaningful questions if you go for a Gift Finder. However, remember to stock on the items you include in this experience. As you will face an influx of orders, make sure you will have enough products in your warehouse.
Pro tip: You can use an Interactive Product Catalog to inspire your shoppers before they access your guide.
3. Come up with relevant questions
Of course, you can create a static gift guide where visitors must go through the filter options and pick a present based on category. Nonetheless, you will increase engagement significantly by replacing a static holiday gift guide with an interactive one where users answer questions, watch a video, or interact with your website.
Once you have selected the products you want to promote, it is time to identify the questions. Remember, people engaging with the experience are buying for someone else. Therefore, you need to ask relevant questions to help narrow down the items that match the other person’s preferences.
Pro tip: Keep it simple. The shorter the questionnaire, the better the user experience.
4. Design your holiday gift guide
The design of your guide is crucial for ensuring a smooth user experience. Furthermore, building a responsive guide is more important than ever. As people could use both their computers and mobile devices, they deserve an equally user-friendly experience.
You can either create and design the gift guide from scratch or use an Interactive Content platform like Dot.vu.
Pro tip: Remember to make your brand recognizable. As you make your customers’ lives easier, it would be great if they immediately associated the experience with your brand.
5. Embed
Next, embed your holiday gift guide where it makes sense for the user. For example, you can place it on your landing page, product category page, or dedicated feature page.
6. Promote
Promoting your holiday gift guide will help you reach larger audiences and increase website traffic. You can boost its visibility through interactive social media posts or paid advertising.
When is the best time to create and promote your guide? Research shows that approximately half of consumers start their holiday shopping before November. Therefore, spreading awareness around your gift finders as early as late October or early November will make buyers choose you over competitors. However, promoting your gift guide in December will also help you cater to last-minute shoppers. For this reason, we recommend you plan your promotional strategy in such a way that you reach both early and late shoppers.
Related: How to promote your Interactive Content to boost results?
11 Holiday gift guide examples
This section contains 11 holiday gift examples that will inspire you. We have selected Interactive Experiences that will engage your customers fully.
All these are templates from our marketplace or built using one of our templates. Therefore, you can easily pick one of these and customize it to fit your general idea and brand guidelines. We hope you find the perfect holiday gift guide template for your needs!
1. Favorite Gift Finder
This gift guide experience contains three simple questions about the recipient’s gender, the buyer’s budget, and the product type. Participants get a present recommendation in no time.
This Favorite Gift Finder is a fantastic way to replace static product catalogs and, thus, save time for your online buyers.
2. Birthday Gift Finder
After answering three questions, your visitors get a cosmetic product recommendation that would make a perfect birthday gift for their loved ones.
3. Christmas Wishlist Flipbook
This Interactive Flipbook template allows your customers to add items from the flipbook to their wish list. As the experience has an embedded Gift Finder, your visitors can use it to find presents for their loved ones. Therefore, it is an excellent Christmas marketing idea.
The Christmas Wishlist Flipbook is a digital version of the good old product catalogs. Online catalogues take your customers on a digital journey that engages them on a deeper level.
4. Ideal Gift Finder
In this experience, your visitors answer the questions by clicking on images. As a result, the user gets three product recommendations. The Ideal Gift Finder is a perfect choice for marketers who want to have as little text as possible.
5. Perfect Gift Finder
This interactive gift guide suggests perfumes in the end. It has four questions. In the end, the user gets a carousel with several products matching their requirements.
6. Chatbot Gift Finder
With this template, you can build your own chatbot that will suggest the right gifts to your visitors. This experience can help you increase sales as 60% of shoppers would buy from a website that has a chatbot. Moreover, it can enhance the user experience as you create a virtual assistant for your potential customers.
7. Product Swiper
This is one of the most exciting gift guide examples. Instead of answering three questions, visitors pick the gender of the person they are buying a gift for. Then, they swipe left or right on images to reveal the gift recipient’s preferences.
Swiping is captivating because it is easy and natural. That’s why millennials love it. So, why not use it to improve the user experience on your website?
8. Father’s Day Personalized Offer
Apart from suggesting Christmas presents, you can use interactive gift guides to recommend gifts for any occasion, such as birthdays, Mother’s Day, and Father’s Day. We created this example easily using the Dot.vu editor. You can also customize the template to fit any occasion.
9. Shoppable Video
As previously mentioned, you can use videos to guide your customers toward the best gifts. While you are at it, you can add interactivity to your videos and make them far more engaging. A Shoppable Video allows you to create an online store walk-through experience for your customers. You can suggest different products and help your customers pick the best present in the video.
10. Simple Gift Finder
This Simple Gift Finder has an elegant design and three questions that will lead your audience towards the best presents for their loved ones. You can upload a CSV with your product information when customizing the template.
11. 3 Question Gift Finder
This is a holiday gift guide template with three questions and a product recommendation result. This experience suggests one item only.
Apply one of these holiday gift guide examples and boost sales!
Creating a holiday gift guide will help you re-engage with current customers and attract new ones. Guide your visitors toward the perfect gift for their loved ones to strengthen relationships and enhance your seasonal marketing!
You can create a free account and try to customize any template from our marketplace. Following the steps from this blog post, you will build a successful gift guide for any occasion: Christmas, birthdays, and other holidays. Book a meeting with us if you want to discuss your project with an Interactive Content expert!
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