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Happy Holidays!

Let’s face it.  We all want to think we had our holiday ducks in a row back in September, but we were probably still panting from the back-to-school rush and getting our fall programs off the ground.

Now it’s November, and the Christmas missile is coming like that train in Denzel’s new movie.In accordance with our philosophy of keeping things simple, clear, and focused on results, here’s Paramore’sHoliday Hotlist of things you can do - right now - to get the most out of your digital marketing this season.  Nothing fancypants.  Just real stuff, as recommended by @hannahparamore and @k8gallagher.  Every day this week you can look to the Paramore blog for a new post directly related to online marketing during the holiday season.

The Paramore Holiday Hotlist falls into five familiar areas:

• website
• email
• search
• social
• mobile

Use of mobile is really on the rise. We’ll save that for last.

Holiday Harbingers.

There is no dearth of stats and crystal ball predictions about holiday spending for 2010. They run the gamut from glum to great balls of fire. We are not glumsters, so here are some positive predictions we believe will happen:

According to eMarketer, Q4 2010 online sales are expected to increase 12.7% over 2009 to $162.4 billion, with holiday sales grabbing an estimated 23.7% of online retail sales for the entire year.

According to the 2010 ChannelAdvisor Annual E-Commerce Consumer Survey, 58% of consumers are very likely to purchase their holiday gifts online this year, a vast majority over the second runner-up, brick-and-mortar stores.

Biggest shopping days by visits to online retail sites from Christmases past to ponder as you get ready this year:

• Cyber Monday (the Monday after Thanksgiving) Cyber Monday was the busiest day for retail email in terms of volume last year, with 71% of the retailers sending at least one promotional email.
• Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving) Close behind Cyber Monday, Black Friday represented 69% of sending messages on that day.
• Cyber Sunday Last year there was a substantial uptick in the number of people marketing on the Sunday following Thanskgiving rather than [Cyber] Monday.
• Thanksgiving Day Online-only one-day sales will dominate inboxes the day before Thanksgiving and early Thanksgiving Day, but by Thanksgiving afternoon they’ll give way to “early bird” promotions of Black Friday sales.

Tomorrow check back with the Hotlist to find out about how email marketing is still working like crazy.

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