Holiday Forecast Looks Bright for Marketers

Forget the Halloween candy right now consumers want Christmas goodies instead. With a little more than 3 weeks until Halloween, marketers are predicting a good holiday season – based on consumer wants.

by Kristina Knight

According to BizRate’s eHoliday Mood Survey about 35% of shoppers will begin holiday shopping before Halloween. Meanwhile four in ten multi-channel retailers are responding by beginning holiday advertising earlier. About 62% plan to market beginning November 4.

Holiday promotions like free shipping – the most common incentive offered in the 2005 buying season – are expected to be very popular again this year. One new trend is that more marketers are gearing up their blogs and plogs to entice customers.

The study also shows this year more retailers will use RSS feeds to promote sales, specials and promotions to potential customers. By including an RSS feed, users get targeted information from stores by signing up first. Unlike bulk emails – which are regularly directed to spam or bulk folders and never seen - users view these feeds through an aggregate service. They log in to a service like Bloglines, and when ready to shop can check the feeds to find sales, promotions and other incentives from shops.

With more search platforms offering desktop campaign management for paid search campaigns and pay-per-click opportunities, the chance to get your products or services in front of a larger client base is waiting.