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Overview

3/22/2011 2

With the holiday season approaching, Vistaprint wanted to geta sense for how micro businesses intended on marketing inthe upcoming months. The majority have already startedimplementing marketing plans specific to the holiday season.o We examined time, money, methods and expectations of their

efforts, as well as campaign specific questions. The survey was completed by over 600 true micro businesses

(1-10 employees) over a one week span.o While customers of Vistaprint, respondents werent incentivized

in any way to take the survey.

Vistaprints customer base is 90% micro businesses, 60% thatrun their business out of their homes.o The majority have an annual marketing spend of $500 and on

average less than 60 customers


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Holiday Marketing Efforts Time and Money Spent

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While micro businesses plan on taking as much (if not more) time marketing this

holiday season, nearly 80% plan on spending more or the same amount of moneythat they did last year, despite the dip in the economy.

44.47%

44.04%

11.49%

Time Spent on HolidayMarketing

More thanlast year

The same

amount aslast year

Less thanlast year

30.82

47.53

21.65

Money Spent onHoliday Marketing

More thanlast year

The sameamountas lastyear


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Holiday Sales

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While some micro businesses are relatively unaffected by the holiday season

in relation to sales, the majority DO expect to do more business during theholiday season than they would typically. Its clear that expectations are

higher during the next few months.

54%21%

25%

More business during the holiday season

Less business during the holiday season

Not affected by the holiday season

How will the holiday season affect your bottom line?


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How shopping holidays affect micro businesses

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While gaining coverage in the media and marketing campaigns, Black Friday andCyber Monday are not a big driver of revenue for micro businesses.

5%

95%

Do You Depend on "BlackFriday" or "Cyber Monday" For

Sales?

Yes

No


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Holiday Greeting Cards: Do micro businesses utilize them?

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The majority of micro businesses surveyed do intend on sending holiday cards for their business

and do find them to be an effective marketing tool. Many said the holidays were a unique time tomarket and reconnect with customers while others said they were an effective marketing tool.

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

YesNo

Do you plan on sendingholiday cards to customers

this year? An extremely

effectivemarketingtool23%

A somewhateffective as a

marketing

tool14%

Not sure howeffective they

are formarketing

13%

I sendholiday cardsas a personalgreeting, not

to market

15%

The holidayseason is agreat reasonto reach outto customers

35%

Are holiday cards aneffective marketing tool?


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Importance of referrals, WOMM in the MBspace

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We asked how important referrals and word of mouth marketing were to micro

businesses specifically around the holidays, but the overwhelming conclusion isthat referrals are THE driving force for this group no matter what time of year.80% indicated referrals played a large role or were the sole factor for successamongst micro businesses.

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

My business relies soley onreferrals

Referrals play the largest role in the

success of my business

Referrals play a small role in thesuccess of my business

Referrals do not play an importantrole in my business


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Taking time to thank/reward customers

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Micro businesses take the time during the holiday season to specifically

thank customers, but many also give gifts to high value or long standingcustomers. Given they have so few customers, its obvious they want to go

out of their way to keep them.

58%

42%

Will you send a small gift to

loyal customers as a "ThankYou" for their business?

Yes No

Did You Know?

More than 90% ofsurvey

respondentsindicated they

would bespecifically

thankingcustomers as partof their marketingefforts during theholiday season


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Utilizing Social Media in Holiday Campaigns

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Social media continues to be an area micro businesses are exploring to reach

customers and market their business, specifically around the holidays. Over 40%indicated they would be incorporating SM into their marketing campaigns this season.Facebook is by far the most popular platform used, capturing 85%.

0 20 40 60 80 100

Twitter

Facebook

YouTube

Yelp

Groupon

MySpace

Other

What social networking platform will you

use this holiday season? Did You Know?

When asked if theyhad ever dabbled invideo creation for

their business, 82%of micro businessessaid they had not.


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Additional Findings

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Micro businesses werent in a position to take a lot of time off fromtheir ventures during the holiday season.

28% indicated they couldnt afford to take any time off

31% said they were taking less than one week off

56% indicated they would not be making an holiday related changes

to their websites due to the holiday season Over 18% stated they didnt have a website for their business

Just 8% said that the newly passed small business legislation wouldhelp their business

25% said it wouldnt help their business at all

67% admitted they didnt know enough about the legislation to

answer either way


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Questions, comments?

Contact us [email protected]

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