Rose Clark of Cabot Mall, http://www.cabotmall.com helps all her mall merchants do this. She offers free ezine advertising to each of her merchants, generating more traffic and brand name awareness for each of them. Additionally, Rose's mall does a superb job of categorizing.

3. Market to your visitors

Think of all your advertising and marketing efforts on a Return On Investment basis. It costs far more to get a customer than it does to keep one.

You should be obtaining contact information from every one who visits your web site. Email addresses. Phone numbers. Snail mail addresses. Keep marketing to these people. Tell them about new products, sales, specials, etc. Remind them why they surfed into your site in first place and invite them back. Contests are great ways to do this. If you can give away one $5.00 widget a month and obtain 500 new contacts for every widget given away, that is a high return on investment. Some of people who register to win your widget will buy one if they don't win. And they will come back monthly to re-register. Especially if you send a reminder to them to do so.

Cyndi Steinmetz of CDK Enterprises is very efficient in this department. When you shop at her site, register for her contest, or simply visit and supply your email address you enter her mailing list for life. Monthly reminders from CDK tell me about new children's gifts. And with four children in my home, scarecely a month goes by that I'm not looking for something for them! Cyndi is always on my mind because she reminds me to think about her regularly by sending me emails. Her reminders of products keep me thinking of new ways to shop with her all time.

This is especially useful if you sell collectibles that are released and retired on a regular basis. If you collect Beanie Babies, you want to know when each one is retiring and make sure that you have it. If you collect Longaberger Baskets, you want to be reminded when Mother's Day Basket is sold each year to be sure that you add it to your collection.

4. Mail, mail, and mail some more

Email specifically. Email is cheapest form of advertising known to mankind - except for word of mouth. If you aren't sending emails to customers, leads, contacts, etc., on a regular basis you are missing out on a very powerful form of advertising. Its fast. Its easy. And its free. Case in point. When Success Promotions has a small lull and is in search of customers, I can obtain far more with far less effort by contact past customers. They know what I do. They know it works. And they may have been planning to start marketing with me again, but just haven't gotten around to ordering. Susie Glennan, of The Busy Woman's Daily Planner, http:/www.thebusywoman.com, knows this works. She monthly sends reminders to people who haven't ordered in past 12 months. Her products are consumed, if you will, on an annual basis. She generates more sales by reminding customers to come back and re-order.

Think about life cycle of your products and do same. Perhaps you have a birthday product. You know one year later, gift giver will be shopping again. Send them an email inviting them to come back and shop with you.

5. Plan ahead for seasonal sales

Of course Christmas applies here. But what about Valentines Day, Easter, Channucka, Flag Day, Voting Day, and hundreds of others? If you have gifts that apply to all occaisions generically or to specific holidays you have to plan in advance to get your marketing message in front of consumers at appropriate time.

It might be hard to think about Santa Clause, cold weather, reindeer, and jingle bells in July; but that is when you need to start planning. Especially if you will be running special discount campaigns. Don't wait til last minute this year. Right now, get out your calendar and make note of every holiday that will effect your business. Back track anywhere from two weeks to six months in your calendar and make a notation to begin planning and implementing campaigns for these holidays.

6. Campaign

Politics or not, we all must group and categorize our advertising in some manner. If you develop entire campaigns for products and occaisions, then you are ready to roll each time with ad copy, brochures, sales messages, etc. Don't short change yourself here. This is where it is at for every business. And gift shops aren't any different. If you plan to roll out six new necklaces this year, one every two months, then you really should find some sort of campaign method to link and organize yourself. Market them in a uniform and pre-planned manner. And by all means, have a campaign for every new product. Don't just clandestinely add it to your site and hope that someone notices. Add it with a bang, and a campaign.

And when you are running a special, don't forget to advertise on sites that compile savings information. My favorite is http://www.clearancecrazy.com But there are tons of them.

11. Utilize Every Contact as a Potential Marketing Contact

One category of products that I sell is gourmet coffee, tea, and snacks. It has absolutally nothing to do with my primary business, http://www.SuccessPromotions.com. However, it is very successful in its own right. Http://www.coffeeteaetc.com gets more hits regularly than Success Promotions. Why? Because I tell everyone about it. For example, every time I get a free cup of coffee somewhere, I leave a couple business cards and web cards. (see www.mothersdayout.com/ for web cards) I participate in marketing material exchanges through Mom Pack mentioned earlier. When I meet someone who sells any type of home party product whether it be food/kitchen oriented like TupperWare or completely different like PartyLite Candles or House of Lloyd, I tell them about my business. It is easy to recruit for and easy to promote. Almost everyone I know drinks coffee or tea. I give away samples. I invite neighbors over for gourmet coffee. Everyone I talk to is a suspected buyer or reseller until they prove themselves otherwise.

You should assume same.

Wear clothes that you sell or jewelry. Drive car that you sell. Drink coffee that you sell. And be prepared to share them with anyone who even casually asks.

Along same lines, encourage your own customers to do same.

I have purchased many shirts from Sirr Max, http://www.sirrmax.com Their positive logoed apparel fits my personality and I enjoy sharing their messages of hope with anyone who takes time to read my clothing. At least twice a day, when wearing Sirr Max apparel, someone will comment on how much they like my shirt or admire message on my tote bag. I'm always prepared to give a business card to them. Ordering from this online giftwear site is easy. But potential customers have to get to site to order. So I help Pamela Jordan of Sirr Max by advertising for her every time I wear her clothing.

If you sell anything besides underwear, then your customers' friends are going to eventually see it. Make sure they are prepared to tell their friends how they can get some too.

12. Network

The dreaded "N" word. This has nothing to do with multi level marketing. It is all about who you know and what you know.

When you network, you invariably make potential business/client contacts. So do it wholeheartedly. Don't just join a group like Digital Women http://www.digital-woman.com or The Network for Women http://www.thenetworkforwomen.com, but participate in them. Join email lists. Advertise. Donate time, products, services, etc. Make yourself visible enough within group that your networking is accomplishing something. The contacts will be invaluable. And you neve know who you will meet who either is just now looking for gifts like you sell or knows someone who is.

Its a new year and all of is are ready for a fresh, new start. Make an effort to utilize these suggestions in way most appropriate for your business. Sell more gifts by working to sell more gifts.

And remember, Success Promotions, http://www.successpromotions.com is always just a quick browser surf away with tons more tips, tools, and tricks.