February 11, 2008

Valentine's Day Is Important for Small Businesses: 46% Are Optimistic

I look forward to Valentine's Day as its a great time to express love to my wife and children. All the local CVS's are filled with Valentine's themed items - chocolate, love dice, bears and more.

For millions of small businesses, according to a study by Constant Contact Valentine's Day is also an important holiday for them as they expect an increase in sales.

Nearly half of U.S. small businesses (46 percent) anticipate strong holidays sales according to Constant Contact’s 3rd Annual Small Business Valentine’s Day Outlook survey.

Nearly half (44 percent) of respondents consider Valentine’s Day an important holiday for their businesses and are relying on cost-effective marketing methods to get their promotions out. Email marketing (42 percent) was identified as the primary marketing method, followed by online marketing, including paid search and banner ads (20 percent). These methods far exceed other more costly traditional methods such as direct mail (nine percent) and print advertising (seven percent). Forty-two percent of respondents also credit email marketing as having the greatest impact on driving sales, an increase from 38 percent in 2007.

Read more results from this survey here.

tags: contstant contact , general , marketing | 0 comments