In retail advertising, the saying goes, "feed the fires." This Chirstmas, when your sales are at their highest, you want to feed that fire with advertising. The wrong approach is to think that the sales are going to come anyway because it's your biggest season. It may be that you will have higher sales this time of year because it's the natural way of the holiday season, but you will have more impact on your market if you feed those sales with more advertising.

This is the time of year you increase your advertising. Time to call all your suppliers and vendors and ask about co-op dollars. Use them now, while the fire is still hot and burning.

'Tis the time of year for corporate holiday card ordering and mailing planning. And how do you plan from beginning to end the process of this excellent opportunity? You use our simple guide. I say opportunity because, the holidays are a great way to personally "touch" your customer. The whole idea behind the greeting card is to personally wish another a wonderful holiday season. So, you're riding the happy, warm wave of holiday wishes. No better wave to ride with your logo and a personal message.

First, you need cards. Don't go buying the standard cards you can find in a card store. You need something quality and professional and printed just for you. You don't want to send a second rate anything with your logo on it. Choose something nice and tasteful.

You want to keep your warm message generic and unless you are a religious oriented company, make sure you keep religion out of it. This is out of respect for your customer's beliefs. And try to keep t keep humor out of it. You may think you're being clever and inadvertently insult a client. Santa in an outhouse sounds funny, but doesn't look all that professional to a customer. And doesn't help your business image.

The next thing you need is a list. Who should be on that list? You want to reach your current customers, prospective customers, and old customers. Give everyone warm wishes. And make sure that list is accurate and up-to-date. What you do not want to have happen is to waste a bunch of money on return to senders. So, have someone verify your list. Make sure your list contains business addresses and not home addresses. Unless you have a home based business, then it's perfectly acceptable. At that point, you would still address it to the business.

A personal touch to the inside. That's right. You need to physically sign your name. And anyone you would like to send the card from needs to physically sign it. Do not print the signatures, everyone will know it was printed. Also, the proper etiquette is to write a hand written personal message. Something short and sweet. Do not include your business card or brochure. There are other mailings for that.

A personal touch to the envelope. You're not quite done yet. The right way is always the most manually intense way! You should never meter your holiday cards. Always use a generic holiday stamp. And then, yes.... hand write the address. And make sure you have the person with the best handwriting do it. The ones that get delivered and look like a 3rd grader did them, are not that impressive. But worse would be to print labels. Do not print your labels.

A time to send. Absolutely there is a wrong time to send. the wrong time is too early and too late. You want to send them by December 15th. The exceptions are if your sending out of the country and if your customer's offices will be closed for the holiday. You want to make sure anything send internationally leave around the 5th of December. If you're sending to a company that is closing early, make sure they receive it a week before their offices close.

May your holiday greeting go well. If you are interested in purchasing quality printed cards, click here. We will design a beautiful and appropriate card for you.

Have you ever asked yourself, does the time of day matter when sending out an email campaign? Or even the day of the week? You were right to ask, because apparently it does. When I was researching this issue for myself, I came across some pretty helpful information, which ultimately changed my behaviors as far as email marketing. I want to share them with you.

People's routines drive these stats, which I found extremely interesting.

When are people really focused on email?
Mornings between 8am and 9am for opens and click-throughs. This is when people are just getting into work and settling in for their day.

Afternoons 3pm to 8pm for opens & 3pm to 4pm for click-throughs. This is the after lunch time, when people are getting back into their afternoon routine.

Almost 40% of all messages are sent between 6am and noon, creating inbox clutter. This is where your message can get lost.

23.63% of all email opens occur within the first hour after delivery. The results drop by half within the second hour after delivery. Within the 3rd hour, they drop another 30%. 5 hours after delivery, the results drop more than 90%.

So you want to send your email to arrive at the recipients desk no later than 1 hour before top open times. Which are morning 8am to 9am and early afternoon 3pm to 4pm.

Most emails are in your inbox in the morning, so the ones that get sent in the afternoon have more of a chance at being noticed, opened and clicked.

Now, what day of the week for best effectiveness? Only Monday to Wednesday. Thursday and Friday are no go. You will not get the most out of your campaign.

Other facts:

5:00 pm, most people are on their way home
6:00 pm, most people are eating
7:00 pm, most people are bathing children
8:00 pm, people to start reading email again

So, don't send an email on Friday at 5pm. No one will hear it :)

I want to share an event coming up. Come join us in a relaxed, casual environment and talk about your business. The event will be held at Downtown Melbourne's Debauchery, on November 7, 2012 from 5pm to 8pm. You can visit www.brevardconnections.com to learn more or to participate and promote your own venture. We look forward to seeing you there.

The benefits of networking are huge. There is no better return on investment than a face to face meeting and exchange of information. You may give your card to someone that does not need your services, but they may meeting someone that does. They will then forward your card/info.

Networking does not mean you have to sign up with a group, although it does help. Networking is keeping your eyes and ears open to whats going on around you and meeting as many people as you can. Think the girl at the cash register is just a cashier? Well, she might be in college right now and will need your services in the future or she might have a boyfriend that owns a sign company. Keep your mind and ears open. And connect others when you see a fit. They will return the favor.

When you hear customer service, you always think about the consumer. The person from outside the company that buys or uses the products and services we offer. But internal customer service is just as important. It's how you treat your employees or co-workers within the organization. It effects everyone that is employed by the company. How you treat your employees or how they treat each other is considered internal customer service. The idea behind it is that the most important employee you have is probably the least paid. They are the people on the front lines taking care of your customers. They should be treated with just as much respect as the president or owner. And your executives, managers and assistant managers should be trained to do the same.

Think about it. You want the person on the front lines to be happy, so they are happy to customers. You want them to feel comfortable , so they are comfortable with your customers. If you treat that person badly or with disrespect, how do you think they will treat customers when you're not there.

It comes down to this, if your people are happy, they are going to treat your customers well and spread happy thoughts and comments, which will in turn produce more sales.

Know your competition
Something people seem to overlook is their business' competition. It's easy to get caught up in your own business, let alone try to figure out what's going on with your competition. The importance of knowing where your competition stands effects so many aspects of business. You want to know exactly what you're up against and how to gain your share of the market.

How do you get the information? You talk to people and ask questions. You physically go to see your competition. You take a look at their website and other pages to see how they represent themselves.

Know your market
Every market has a different personality. In order to really understand your market, you have to not only participate in it, you have to understand buyer's behaviors in your market. Why and when do people buy? Is it price, is it service, is it selection? All important questions that you need to know in order to succeed in that market.

Know your strengths/weaknesses
Once you know the competition's weaknesses, you'll be able to find your strengths. Also, a great way to find your strengths is by talking to your existing customers. They will tell you why they do business with you. They want to. And they like to give feedback.

You also need to know your weaknesses, because you'll want to try to eliminate those altogether. Those are good though, because they give you goals and things for your to do list.

Here is an example of using your strengths (true story) . There is a new company offering IT services. Their competition is a big box store that has a similar service. The big box charges twice as much as the new company. The big box store has the dollars to market the service better than the new IT business, however, they are charging retail prices. The new business will use this to their advantage. With advertising that starts with "Don't pay retail for IT." They are able to offer better service with more offerings for a much smaller price. That is the big store's weakness, price.

Basically, you are spotting a weakness and using it to your benefit by highlighting your strength. Other aspects that have just as much importance are quality merchandise, better service, selection, even turnaround times.