'I Think I Can Manage' is a weekly column by retailer Steven Bates, manager of Bookery Fantasy, a million dollar retail operation in Fairborn, Ohio.  This week, Bates shares  strategies for maximizing holiday sales, starting with advertising.  For part 2, on merchandising strategies, see 'The Season in the Store.'

'Black Friday' (the day after Thanksgiving, traditionally the kick-off of the Christmas shopping season) has come and gone, and the reports rolling in from retailers are a mixed bag.  While Friday itself did gang-busters for most stores, driving purchases up nearly 11% from a year ago, Saturday was just a bust, as sales dropped 6.5% from last year's totals.  Wal-Mart, which had projected 2-4% increases, whiffed one, ringing up a modest and embarrassing 0.7% gain (maybe everybody read my column on boycotting Wal-Mart, ya think?).  Analysts still predict a 4.5% rise in retail sales for December, but that's a 0.6% drop from holiday 2003 numbers.  On-line retailers will gain the most, in part because of convenience, though gasoline prices and lack of flu vaccines might be contributing to this year's wave of shopper agoraphobia.

So what's a poor specialty retailer to do?  How do we weather the storm (or would it be doldrums) this holiday season?  What do we bait the traps with?  How do we go about maximizing our potential for success?  First, begin by thinking like the enemy.  Scour the ads, absorbing the way the big box retailers merchandise their inventory.  Pay attention to TV commercials and radio spots, listening for buzzwords and price points.  Scout out the places you feel most in tune with, whether it's a book dealer, video store, shoe outlet, pet shop, or megalithic electronics vendor.  See what you respond to, what catches your eye (or ear), what works both on you and for you.  After doing a little recon work, go back to your store and brainstorm with your staff and trusted customers (a sound strategy any time of the year, actually).

If your advertising budget pales in comparison to JC Penney's, don't worry--you're not trying to reach the masses anyway.  Target your advertising to customers you already have or can potentially win over.  Direct mail works wonders, if you maintain an up-to-date mailing list.  For the money, it's one of the most effective sales tools available to small businesses, as you are 'preaching to the converted' and mostly just reminding them that you're there.  Whatever promotion you push on them is icing on the cake.  You don't need a special bulk rate mail permit to do this; in fact, sending postcards or First Class mail doesn't cost much more and requires none of the sorting and labeling that make bulk mail so tedious.  Not a whiz at Photoshop or Word?  Many print shops can format your ideas into professional flyers, even using your graphics, photos, or clip art to enhance it.  Remember to compare prices first, and don't rule out using the local guy versus the big chain print shop.

E-mail cheapens the direct mail option significantly.  If you're Internet-savvy, have an e-mail list, or can utilize your Website to get the word out, go for it.  This is the 21st  century, and snail-mail is crawling, literally, into the history books.  Keep up with the times AND the tech, and you'll be surprised at how cost effective it is as an advertising avenue.

Around the holidays, many smaller newspapers run specials (just like retailers) to bring in new advertisers.  If you have a community paper, or the metropolitan paper has regional inserts, investigate how much a small ad would cost.  Again, you won't get as good a response from generic local advertising as you will from more targeted methods, but some community papers are more suited than others.  In Dayton, we have a free alternative newspaper, which covers the local music and entertainment scene as well as offbeat coverage of political and social items of interest.  Your town probably has a similar paper or two.  Tailor your ad to the demographic reading the newspapers you choose; chances are your business will not be competing against other shops like yours, but will be up against major motion pictures, hot new CD and DVD releases, massage and tattoo parlors, and restaurants, bars, and coffee shops.

TV is often cost-prohibitive, but late night ads or commercials purchased on random 'rotators' are infinitely cheaper.  Most stations or cable companies will shoot and edit your commercial cheaply (or free), in exchange for an advertising contract.  Once a commercial is completed, it technically belongs to you, and you can always run it on other channels, but you'll get treated better if you form a relationship with one media partner.  Cable is usually a better deal, and offers more variety.  Don't be put off by running ads late at night, if it'll save you money.  Remember who your customers are; donuts to dollars they're up in the wee hours, watching Xena or Andromeda reruns while they cruise the Internet, paint miniatures, or bag their comics.  Your ad will be a breath of fresh air compared to the real estate and weight loss infomercials they're normally inundated with.  Radio offers many of the benefits of TV, usually at a fraction of the cost.  The big drawback is an obvious lack of visuals, but a clever copywriter and awesome on-air talent can go a long way towards painting pictures in the mind's eye of the listener.

You still have bag stuffers and in-store signage to consider.  If you're doing direct mail, you've got the graphics already, and that local printer would be more than happy to blow up a few pieces for your windows and walls.  My pal Chad calls it 'hunting where the ducks are.'  Your regulars are the easiest customers to target, and the ones most likely to respond to your pitch.  They're already supporting you, and would probably appreciate the savings.  In fact, if you call it 'Customer Appreciation Days,' you're killing multiple birds with one stone, and looking like a trooper doing it.  Word travels fast in the 'underground,' and those regulars will tell their friends, who will tell their friends, and so on and so on, until it finally gets back to Kevin Bacon, right?  By that point, you're cash should be flowing like water.