These are interesting times to those who make our living getting messages to customers to influence purchases. With the banks collapsed, the auto industry collapsed, the U.S. Dollar essentially worthless and unemployment at the highest rate since the early 80s, this is a tough economical climate to weather.

Add to that the post-holiday financial lull that most everyone feels. You just exhausted all of your savings to keep your family happy, you’ve racked up huge credit debt to get those perfect gifts and now what? Now, we all struggle.

So what can a smart business do to make some quick sales before the end of the calendar year? Here are a few tips:

• Sell Essentials. This might seem like a given, but in a climate with little cash flow, the options get left at the store. If you carry a variety of products, be sure to promote the ones that are most likely to sell because they are more essential than the rest of your line. Food, medicine and basic human comfort never go out of style. Find things in your product line that people can’t live without and promote them first.
• Bundle inventory to move low-velocity items. If you sell lots of shaving cream but not a lot of razors, have a special where they get a free razor if they buy 5 bottles of shaving cream. Take a good look at your profit margins on items like this and see where you can mix and match to move inventory.
• Sell Gift Cards. There’s a statistic I recently heard that said 22% of all gift cards are never used. This is a case of apathy leading to profit. Also, most gift cards are used 2-3 weeks after purchase. That means that you may not have to declare this income until 2009, and thus can stretch your bottom line for 2008 a little bit.
• Adjust your methods to your target demographic. If your ideal customer used to be white males in their 30s with an income of 70-90k and these same customers now make 30-40k, or are unemployed, you must re-examine both your strategy and your market.
• Look at how your competition is fairing, or failing. In a downturn market like this, you’ll see a lot of companies who seemed strong on the surface fall to shambles. Look at Linens N Things, or The Sharper Image. A year ago, these companies were well liked, respected, profitable. Now, shambles. How about your industry? Which players are surviving? Which are going under? What are they doing wrong?
• Cut Costs. This should have been the first point, but I’m saving it for last because it’s probably also the most difficult. No one wants to let their staff go during the holidays, or cut store hours, or change their operations. Unfortunately, it’s a part of doing business. Cut the fat from your operations and you’ll need less sales to keep the doors open.

I hope these tips help. Looking forward to your comments on how your business is working during this time and how you’ve managed to stay in business. Until next time, keep marketing!