Marketing Idea for White Chocolate Lovers!

September 22^nd is National White Chocolate Day. Send your customers a certificate for a box of white chocolates when the make a purchase online or visit your business.

Some people love white chocolate. My mother enjoys it but I’m a milk chocolate gal. I do like a rice crispy treat dipped in white chocolate on one end and milk chocolate on the other made at a local sweet shop. Yummy.

If you run a candy store have a special promotion to celebrate National White Chocolate Day. Post signs in your store windows to get customers coming in. Offer gift baskets filled with a variety of white chocolates and related items.

Yes I know white chocolate isn’t officially chocolate but it’s delicious and if your customers love it get them in your store with it.

Rock Around the Clock Marketing

The radio show “American Top 40 Countdown” was first hosted July 4^th 1970 by Casey Kasem. It’s still heard across the U.S.A. and in several countries around the world.

Have you noticed if your customers buy more when certain songs are playing? I know if I hear songs I like I’ll stay in the store longer and likely buy more. But if I hate the music that’s playing I leave in a hurry – sometimes not even buying anything at all.

Research has shown that music can play an important part in the shopping experience for you customers. Enhance the shopping experience; keep them in the stores longer which gets them buying more. Music can also emphasize your brand to your target market.

Have a music themed promotion in July to get your customers bobbing to the beat while they shop. Send out music themed mailers with special discounts during July. Have customers participate in a “What are your favorite top 40 hits?” promotion and then play some of the songs they submit.

Keep your clients dancing to your tune with top marketing hits. What are your marketing plans for the rest of the summer? Need more marketing hints and tips then stay tuned to this blog.

Bring Home a Furry Bundle of Joy!

Want a furry, cuddly promotional marketing campaign for June? June is Adopt a Cat Month. If your business markets to pet owners run a special promotion on adopting a cat. Have your customers bring in photos of their newly adopted cat. Post a list of most popular cat names and offer special treats to owners with the most unusual cat name.

Encourage your clients to check out the local animal shelters. Animal shelters experience a surge in unwanted cats in the summer months. Send your best clients toys and treats as adoption kits. Offer special adoption gift baskets that customers can buy for friends who adopt a cat in June.

Did you know:

• Having a cat reduces your blood pressure and helps prevent heart disease
• Having a cat fights depression and loneliness
• Cats are entertaining to watch and fun to play with
• Cats provide companionship
• Cats will cuddle up with you on a cold evening
• Cats are independent and can be left alone while you’re at work

I remember all my childhood pet cats fondly. There was Missyfou (don’t know how I came up with that name but I was like 3 or 4 years old) a tough wild cat that had all white fur and beautiful blue eyes. Missyfou was no wimp. He got into fights with all the neighborhood dogs. I loved that cat wild temper and all.

Then there was Pepsi and Tiger. And on to Max, my favorite, she was gray and white and her fur looked like and elegant tuxedo. Then we had Fluffy, C-A-T and last was Vanilla who was more a beige orange color but we liked the name. I remember trailing colored yarn or string around the floor and watching my cat chase it. A simple pleasure but so delightful to watch.

If you are looking for gifts to send your customers check out www.petdreamers.com . Pet Dreamers products are all natural and make great gifts.

The She Factor – Marketing to Women

Are women your target market? Maybe they should be. Women make 85% of all buying decisions, head 40% of households and run 40% of companies in the United States.

If you think you can use generic marketing promotions to appeal to women you need to get out of the dark ages. Men and women do make their buying decisions differently. If you want to know the secrets of marketing to women check out this 3 day event hosted by Lorrie Morgan-Ferrero in Los Angeles during October.

You’ll learn hot places to find women willing to spend big money for what they want. And the biggest mistakes people make when selling to women. How female buyers are different from male buyers and many more tips you can’t afford to miss. For more details and how to sign up for the seminar visit: The She Factor

Market Your Business with Your Ringtone!

Do you grope for your cell phone every time you hear one ring? Now you can use your cell phone ringtones to add an extra element to your marketing. You can have your business jingle play every time your cell phone rings. How’s that for free advertising? I don’t have a jingle yet but I’m thinking of writing one so my ringtone will give a jaunty commercial for Direct Marketing Rx.

Or create a ringtone for your top clients so you know it’s vital to grab that ringing phone and not miss closing the deal. I’m going to work on creating a ringtone for my key clients.

Maybe you just want to be able to identify your ringing cell phone. Half the time I can’t hear my cell phone ringing above the din of office noise, radios, TVs or everyone else’s ringing phone. I miss a call I was waiting for and get stuck playing phone tag. Cut through the frustration of not being able to distinguish your phone ringtone from the masses of generic ringtones with PhoneZoo.

PhoneZoo.com offers free personalized ringtones. You sign in and select your phone carrier and model of phone to insure you can download ring tones. All you need is a microphone for your computer and you can record your own ring tones. Hmmm, I need to go buy a microphone for my pc if I had one I can’t find it now.

And for non-business calls – there are fun ring tones you can use to alert you to calls from specific family members or friends. I have You Are My Sunshine play when my Mom calls me. Cute, huh? She used to sing that to me on Saturday mornings when I was a teenager to get me out of bed. I would get up just so she would quit singing…I’m not a morning person and dearest Mom is one!

I’d love to hear your business ring tone. Let me know how you like PhoneZoo.com.

Even Protest Groups Market Their Message Online!

Are you in the Stone Age with your marketing efforts? A protest group in England used an innovative way to get people thinking about the dangers of a coal fired power plant.

Instead of the usual picket line they posted a video as an April Fools prank that still gets people thinking about environmentally friendly power over coal burning.

How can you use video to get the word out about your business? Check out this nifty video that’s thought provoking and funny to help you think up some ideas. Watch the video: Drink Ev Eon

Is Your Marketing Message Being Upstaged By a Talking Stain?

I love the new Tide commercial with the job interviewee blathering on while the prospective employer just stairs at the shirt stain. The stain babbles nonsense while the employer stares mesmerized. He’s not listening to the interview prospect outlining his skill set and potential value to the company. The oblivious job applicant rambles on unaware of his talking shirt stain.
If your marketing media isn’t performing the way it should as the following questions. Is there a talking stain upstaging my Marketing message? Is it spelling errors, bad design and layout or a poorly worded message? If prospects are focusing on the mistakes and not on the benefits of your product or service then your marketing needs cleaning up. Remove the talking stain and get customers focused on buying from you. .

Let me know what talking stain has been hiding your marketing message. If you haven’t seen the commercial visit www.mytalkingstain.com and check it out. Send me a photo of your worst shirt stain!

Are You Risking a Marketing Short Circuit?

Are you doing the same thing over and over without the best results but it kinda works so you keep using it? Well here’s a story of what happened to me a week ago that I hope you can use.

I cook for the week on Sunday afternoons. My kitchen is tiny so space is at a premium. For weeks I’ve been moving my can opener and using it on the stove top because my slow cooker took up too much space. (I was too lazy to figure out a new spot for the slow cooker.) So I’m opening up some cans so I can prepare a stew and all is going well.

Then I remember oh, yeah let’s get the brown rice started because it takes longer to cook than white rice. So I turn the oven knob to on. A minute or so later I’m busy putting away dishes when I here a pop and see sparks coming from my can opener which is still sitting on the back burner. Yikes! I’m trying not to freak out as I quickly turn off the burner and lift the can opener up.

Now I smell a nasty electrical burn and I’m worried my smoke alarm is going to start shrieking. I look at my poor can opener which has the bottom melted on parts and the power cord is charred black and I’m thinking I’m not gonna be able to use this thing again it’s a goner. I toss my the thing in the trash and run to open the front door so the burning stink won’t stay in my place all day and night.

Back in the kitchen I try to turn on the overhead fan and light but nothing happens. I popped the circuit breaker! So now I have to figure out which switch to pull in the fuse box. Crum! I hate this stuff.

Oh yeah did I mention my kitchen wall outlets also stopped working? Well, I went to read the labels and pull the switch that I think connects to the kitchen outlets. Then I head back to the kitchen and switch on the fan and oven light. Nothing happens.

Back I go to peer into the fuse box while hoping I don’t have to call my property manager and tell him what stupid thing I did. This time I make sure both switches pull back and forth and hooray my outlets work! I can finish cooking and fortunately the rest of my cans have pull up tabs. But I added buy new can opener to my list of things to get done before cooking again.

Looking back I knew it wasn’t the best or safest place for my can opener but since I’d done it several times before I figured nothing bad will happen this time. Oh, Murphy’s Law is my life! Sunday was the day bad stuff happened! I could’ve caught my kitchen on fire and burned up my apartment. A friend told me I could’ve electrocuted myself! I hadn’t even thought about that but now an image of me with singed hair and smoke coming from my ears is running through my mind. WAAA!

To make sure I didn’t do that again I immediately moved my wretched slow cooker and made space for a new can opener.

Is it time to rethink your current marketing plan? Are you burning up your marketing dollars on a mildly effective marketing campaign that isn’t targeting your niche?

Do the safe thing for your business now and shift your marketing around so you can make the most of your customer niche and have growing sales not burning ashes of a failed marketing plan.

Four Keys to a Successful Direct Mail Marketing Campaign

You want your direct marketing mailers to:

1. Get delivered – Make sure they meet postal regulations
2. Get opened – Does it catch your prospects eye?
3. Get read – Once its opened is your offer compelling so the prospect reads to the end?
4. Get responses – Ok it got read. Are people buying what you’re selling?

If you answer is no to any of these questions don’t send out the mailer. Fix the problem so you can answer yes to all four points and prepare to rake in big bucks!

Have Towering Sales

The Eiffel Tower was completed on March 31, 1889. It was built for the Paris Exhibition and since its opening over 200 million people have visited it. Named after its architect, Alexandre Gustave the Eiffel Tower has come to symbolize Paris.

It’s been a few years but I remember the awe inspiring experience of sitting in the park with my travel pal eating dry Cheerios and sipping Coca Cola – hey we were hungry, it was affordable and portable.

You could have a Paris themed sale or marketing promotion. Miniature Eiffel Towers to catch the eye of passersby. I have a pair of Eiffel Tower earrings that are a good conversation piece whenever I wear them.

Apply Lake Effect to your Picture WaveMyPic.com