WESTERVILLE — During the busiest shopping period of the year, Small Business Saturday reminds and encourages shoppers to support their local small businesses during the holiday season and beyond.

SMBs recognize how important it is for them to reach these shoppers and now is the time to start planning a strategy.

AudienceSCAN’s annual “Small Business Saturday Shoppers 2015” white paper clearly shows small and medium-sized businesses that planning for and participating in this national event can yield lucrative results. The paper contains fresh data from an annual survey of more than 14,000 consumers, revealing cutting-edge information in the hearts and minds of those most likely to be this year’s best customers.

The new data shows 26.7 percent of Small Business Saturday shoppers have household incomes of more than $100,000. That’s 69 percent more likely than the average U.S. adult. When selecting your inventory, it’s key to know that 75 percent of Small Business Saturday Shoppers are willing to pay more for higher quality on most products.

These are among the 12 data points about these consumers included in the white paper, which also shows that in preparation for the day, businesses need to utilize a multi-pronged blend of marketing strategies.

“The recommendation this year is for small business owners to harness as many digital portals as you can simultaneously”, says AudienceSCAN CEO C. Lee Smith. “Email blasts aren’t enough. You have to reach consumers via smartphones, social media, your website and send messages that both resonate and include a strong call to action. Most importantly, you have to start a minimum of two weeks before Small Business Saturday.”

Some other key highlights of the white paper include:

• Small Business Saturday Shoppers are 55 percent more likely than average to have taken action after seeing ads on mobile apps or text message ads in the past month.

• If all other things are similar, 64 percent of Small Business Saturday Shoppers will shop at a different store to support an important cause or charity.

The white paper also offers critical, important information and breakdowns of income brackets, social media portal utilization rates, as well as the most common charities/philanthropic organization types consumers are currently interested in.

The free white paper is available at http://www.audiencescan.com/free-small-business-saturday-whitepaper/ )