SmallBizResource Blog -- Marketing

100 Tips On Marketing Your Business For The Upcoming Holidays

Posted by Gayle Kesten Tuesday, Sep 16, 2008, 04:53 PM ET

Here's a fact that's almost as scary as yesterday's financial headlines: There are less than 100 days until the holidays arrive. The question is, what are you doing now to prepare for your marketing efforts?

One idea to get your wheels in motion: Sign up for Campaigner's "100 Days to Grow Your Business" free e-mail marketing tips. Campaigner is an e-mail marketing service owned by Ottawa-based Protus, which provides software-as-a-service communication tools for small and midsize businesses.

Tips, both strategic and tactical in nature, began going out earlier this month and will continue to do so each day until mid-December. Advice has included how to map out your e-mail schedule (tip 89, as in 89 more days to go...) and why you should care more about the quality of your e-mail list rather than the quantity of names (tip 87). Naturally, Protus hopes to drive you to its Web site with the incentive of additional resources, such as retail marketing case studies, webinars and whitepapers, to complement each tip.

Big picture, consumers spent about $470 billion during last year's holiday season, according to National Retail Federation figures. Turns out that total was just a little higher than 2006's total and represents the lowest holiday season growth since 2002.

And with the economy going the way the economy is going, consulting firm Deloitte today said to expect spending increases this holiday season to be modest -- in the 2.5 percent and 3 percent range.

That means you have to be especially careful spending what's left of your ad budget. Done right, e-mail marketing can give you a nice bang for not so many bucks. "Coupled with the Direct Marketing Association’s findings that e-mail marketing in 2007 had an ROI of more than $48 for every dollar spent, marketers who initiate, fine-tune and enhance e-mail marketing programs for the upcoming holiday season have a lot to gain," said Luc Vezina, Campaigner’s head of marketing, in a statement.

Marketing