According to a report of fifth annual Small Business Holiday Outlook Survey from constant contact, 52% of the SMBs expect holiday sales to increase over last year (less than 1/3rd were optimistic in the last survey conducted). More than 35% of the survey’s respondents were optimistic about the state of the overall economy (up from 25 percent last year).
Small Businesses Increase Online Marketing
The results also showed considerable increase in the useage of web based marketing strategies by SMBs when compared to the survey reports of February in this year.
Substantially 89% of small businesses plan to use holiday-related email marketing this year (compared to 60% last year) and 43 percent expect an increase in online holiday sales (compared to 38% in 2008).
There is a remarkable shift since February, with more small businesses using the following digital platforms to market their products and services. According to order of popularity: marketing through email, advertising online and social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, blogs, LinkedIn, and YouTube. My Space is the tool which is being used less than in February.