1. Micro Businesses Holiday Marketing Trends
Vistaprint
December 4, 2010
2. Overview
12/6/2010
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With the holiday season approaching, Vistaprint wanted to get a
sense for how micro businesses intended on marketing in the
upcoming months. The majority have already started implementing
marketing plans specific to the holiday season.
We examined time, money, methods and expectations of their efforts,
as well as campaign specific questions.
The survey was completed by over 600 true micro businesses (1-10
employees) over a one week span.
While customers of Vistaprint, respondents werent incentivized in
any way to take the survey.
Vistaprints customer base is 90% micro businesses, 60% that run
their business out of their homes.
The majority have an annual marketing spend of $500 and on average
less than 60 customers
3. Holiday Marketing Efforts Time and Money Spent
12/6/2010
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While micro businesses plan on taking as much (if not more) time
marketing this holiday season, nearly 80% plan on spending more or
the same amount of money that they did last year, despite the dip
in the economy.
4. Holiday Sales
12/6/2010
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While some micro businesses are relatively unaffected by the
holiday season in relation to sales, the majority DO expect to do
more business during the holiday season than they would
typically.Its clear that expectations are higher during the next
few months.
How will the holiday season affect your bottom line?
5. How shopping holidays affect micro businesses
12/6/2010
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While gaining coverage in the media and marketing campaigns, Black
Friday and Cyber Monday are not a big driver of revenue for micro
businesses.
6. Holiday Greeting Cards: Do micro businesses utilize
them?
12/6/2010
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The majority of micro businesses surveyed do intend on sending
holiday cards for their business and do find them to be an
effective marketing tool.Many said the holidays were a unique time
to market and reconnect with customers while others said they were
an effective marketing tool.
Do you plan on sending holiday cards to customers this
year?
7. Importance of referrals, WOMM in the MB space
12/6/2010
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We asked how important referrals and word of mouth marketing were
to micro businesses specifically around the holidays, but the
overwhelming conclusion is that referrals are THE driving force for
this group no matter what time of year.80% indicated referrals
played a large role or were the sole factor for success amongst
micro businesses.
8. Taking time to thank/reward customers
12/6/2010
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Micro businesses take the time during the holiday season to
specifically thank customers, but many also give gifts to high
value or long standing customers.Given they have so few customers,
its obvious they want to go out of their way to keep them.
Did You Know?
More than 90% of survey respondents indicated they would be
specifically thanking customers as part of their marketing efforts
during the holiday season
9. Utilizing Social Media in Holiday Campaigns
12/6/2010
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Social media continues to be an area micro businesses are exploring
to reach customers and market their business, specifically around
the holidays. Over 40% indicated they would be incorporating SM
into their marketing campaigns this season. Facebook is by far the
most popular platform used, capturing 85%.
What social networking platform will you use this holiday
season?
Did You Know?
When asked if they had ever dabbled in video creation for their
business, 82% of micro businesses said they had not.
10. Additional Findings
12/6/2010
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Micro businesses werent in a position to take a lot of time off
from their ventures during the holiday season.
11. 28% indicated they couldnt afford to take any time off
12. 31% said they were taking less than one week off
13. 56% indicated they would not be making an holiday related
changes to their websites due to the holiday season
14. Over 18% stated they didnt have a website for their
business
15. Just 8% said that the newly passed small business
legislation would help their business
16. 25% said it wouldnt help their business at all
17. 67% admitted they didnt know enough about the legislation
to answer either way