Amitai Sasson
Vice president of marketing and development, OverstockArt.com
Offer and publicize promotions throughout the holiday season, starting in mid-October. The National Retail Federation considers November 1 the official start of the holiday shopping season—but remember, the early bird gets the worm. Start your promotions earlier—doing so may give you the advantage while people are still deciding what gifts to give this holiday season.
Ellen Peterson
Marketing manager, GENCO Marketplace: NoBetterDeal.com
Black Friday emails should be sent either Thursday afternoon or Friday after 2 p.m. There is a steep decrease in sends by competitors after 2 p.m. If you have a brick and mortar, send Thursday afternoon to reduce competition. But if you are looking for traffic to your ecommerce store, you’ll see more clicks and conversion Friday afternoon from the post-early bird shop crowd and from those who prefer to sleep in and shop online.
Scott Stone
Advertising and e-business manager, Cisco-Eagle Inc.
Take the time to review your paid search account. There are product categories you can focus on that are more popular during the holidays that will be worth extra budget, and new holiday-themed ads to change up your appearance on search engines. If you don’t typically use the content networks, consider adding them just for the holiday season, as there are some bargains out there.
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