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If you were looking for a sector of the economy not as affected by the Christmas season as, say, toy stores, take a look at b2b marketing.

In fact, not only does the Christmas season have markedly less of an impact on b2b marketers, according to Sara Ezrin, senior director-strategic services at Experian CheetahMail, some choose to even ignore it.

Bah humbug, indeed. Scrooge would be proud.

Industry observer Karen J. Bannan spoke with Ezrin, writing that for b2b marketers, ignoring or downplaying the Christmas season could be a mistake. “It should be a time to put themselves in their customers' shoes and think about how, as a business, you can help them meet their end-of-year business goals,” Ezrin told Bannan, adding that “the holidays are a good time to engage with customers whether you are b2b or b-to-c.”

We’d note that there is, in fact, rarely a bad time to engage with customers, be they b2b or b2c. Nevertheless, as Bannan writes, it’s true that it’s a bit more of a challenge during Christmas. Ezrin told her that Experian CheetahMail’s email volume tracking showed “significant” increases around Christmas: “Last year, we saw a 20 percent increase week-over-week, and this year, we're already seeing additional incremental change in volume. This makes it even more challenging for b2b marketers to get through to their end users who are already seeing an influx of extra messages.”

Last month TMC (News - Alert) had the news that  Experian CheetahMail, a unit of Experian Marketing Services and provider of integrated email, social, mobile and display marketing, announced the release of its latest analysis illustrating how flash sale emails significantly outperform other types of offers in campaigns.

"The aim of this study is to provide our clients with actionable data they can use to develop more compelling and response-driven email campaigns this holiday season and beyond," said Rachel Bergman, general manager and senior vice president, Experian CheetahMail.

What to do? Ezrin has a few suggestions, including moving emailings to later in the day and altering the frequency of messaging -- “make sure customers and prospects have opted in to such a program, or get them to opt in.”

This is because, in the case of b2b, Ezrin tells Bannan, what makes sense is “to remind clients they can customize the emails they receive through your preference center and make sure you provide an opt-down option that, if it makes sense, can be a seasonal opt-down so they can select receiving just your weekly or monthly communications.”