Now that October is here, the Halloween decorations are barely on the shelves in retail stores while the Christmas items are already starting to crowd them out. Yes, that’s right – the big holiday shopping season is just around the corner. What can you do to optimize your local internet marketing efforts and capture the maximum amount of sales? Here’s a few ideas to get you started.

The important thing is to get started right away. If you are just starting to think about holiday promotions, you’ve got no time to lose – but there are still things you can do to promote your holiday sales through local internet marketing.

1. Graphics

If you’ve got a graphics artist on your staff, have them design a special image that can be used for your PPC campaign, on your website, in your print ads, on flyers, and in email marketing. If you don’t have the capability of creating graphics, contact us and we can help you out.

2. List Building

Make a concerted effort to build your database. Consider starting a Facebook advertising campaign – even a small one – to gain as many online fans as possible. It’s vital that you have a large list to which promote your holiday specials. Don’t forget to encourage sharing, either, with social media and social bookmarking buttons attached to every piece of content on your website or in your advertising.

If you have a large enough database, send out at least weekly – or even daily – email messages to remind them to do their holiday shopping at your online store. Include a link to your opt-in form in every message so that it gets shared. You can do this for free with a program like Constant Contact or pay for an account if you've got lots of subscribers and plan on sending more frequent messages.

3. Decide What to Offer

Decide what items or services you will offer as a special holiday loss leader. This is what Wal-Mart does; they offer something at an incredibly low price, even losing profits on it, in order to get shoppers into their stores. Once there, the odds of someone walking out with only one item are pretty slim. The same strategy applies online – especially if you offer related items and special deals at checkout through your shopping cart software.

Think about something you can offer as the “one size fits all” or a package deal gift option. Be more creative than just promoting a gift certificate and try to come up with customizable options that will get you future business from the gift recipients.

4. ‘Tis the Season to Give

The holidays are about more than just selling, they’re for giving, too. Start thinking about items or services you might already have that can be repackaged as gifts for your best clients. If you’ve got something that costs you nothing to deliver, such as a virtual greeting card, consider giving it to every customer who places an online order. This is just another incentive for a consumer to do their holiday shopping with you instead of the competition.

Stay tuned for the next blog installment when I’ll share even more ways small business owners can capitalize on the hugely profitable holiday shopping eason. Don’t forget to like our Facebook page at and follow us on Twitter to get even more valuable information.