Cam The Promo Guy

Enough with the Discounts

2010-11-08T17:53:00.001-08:00

It is time to stop giving discounts. All it does is de-value your product or service. All you end up doing is training consumers to wait for a discount or sale. And by the way, if you can afford to sell at a discount then you where overcharging me to begin with. Maybe you should charge a fair price to begin with and wow me with your service.

Okay, so you need to stimulate business, generate new business and sales and a discount is definitely not the way to go. So how about offering a gift with purchase or a complimentary item? Here is an opportunity to partner with a non-competing complimentary business. Trade gift certificates with them so they can offer the same to their clients. A gift with purchase does not devalue it adds value. In addition both businesses gain new traffic and new customers to wow.

Here are some ideas:
A Used Car Dealership can trade with a Tire Store
A Women's Clothing Boutique can trade with a Cosmetics Store or distributor.
A Website Designer can trade with a Computer Repairman or a Social Media Marketing Specialist.
A Children's Clothing store can trade with a specialty Children's Toy Store.

Remember the key is to provide something of value like a gift card or gift certificate. They should be able to take something of value away after using the gift card. A coupon or discount voucher has no value as the customer has to spend money in order to benefit.

Success Vs Failure

2010-10-25T12:35:00.000-07:00

Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.

Thomas A. Edison

This is so very true for marketing. Too many businesses try different marketing mediums for a short time and then give up because they don't see instant results. The key is to define your marketing plan and then execute it. Stick with it while making minor adjustments to the plan along the way.

SETH GODIN ON THE IMPORTANCE ON SOCIAL MEDIA IN BUSINESS

2010-10-07T12:09:00.000-07:00

SETH GODIN ON THE IMPORTANCE ON SOCIAL MEDIA IN BUSINESS

Time to put the Social back in Social Media

2010-08-19T15:20:00.001-07:00

It's time to put the Social back in Social Media.

Before you start to SPAM people with your marketing message how about taking the time to watch the conversations going on within the different social media platforms. Then engage in the conversation with the focus on helping others solve their problems, issues or challenges.

Once you do that then you will have gained a friend and friends tend to do business with other friends.

Did you know you cannot just run any old Facebook Contest?

2010-07-30T07:30:00.001-07:00

Facebook contests are a great way to build your followers but is recently became a lot harder to do it. So you cannot just run any old contest on Facebook other wise who knows, they may just shut you down.

To give just a few key points of the most recent rules:

1) You have to get written approval from an account representative.
2) It has to be visible only either, 1) on the canvas Page of an application on the Facebook Platform, or 2) On an application box in a tab on a Facebook Page.
3) Your application for the contest has to be made at least 7 days prior to the contest.

Facebook has provided a few examples to help you understand how to apply Section 3 of the Promotion Guidelines:

You cannot: Condition entry in the promotion upon a user providing content on Facebook, such as making a post on a profile or Page, status comment or photo upload.

You can: Use a third party application to condition entry to the promotion upon a user providing content. For example, you may administer a photo contest whereby a user uploads a photo through a third-party application to enter the contest.

You cannot: Administer a promotion that users automatically enter by becoming a fan of your Page.

You can: Only allow fans of your Page to access the tab that contains the third-party application for the promotion.

You cannot: Notify winners through Facebook, such as through Facebook messages, chat, or posts on profiles or Pages.

You can: Collect an address or email through the third-party application for the promotion in order to contact the winner by email or standard mail.

You cannot: Instruct people (in the rules or elsewhere) to sign up for a Facebook account before they enter the promotion.

You can: Instruct users to visit the third-party application to enter the promotion (as described in Section 3.4(i)). Since users must have a Facebook account in order to access an application on the Facebook Platform, if you give this instruction, they will be prompted to sign up for a Facebook account if they do not already have one.

The complete guidelines are here to reference in detail.

So how do you run a contest? Simply use a third party application and have someone who understands the guidelines and rules set it up for you.

3 Basic Steps to Use Social Media Effectively Step 3

2010-07-11T23:26:00.000-07:00

Step 3: Engage

Now that you have taken the time to monitor those you follow as in Step 2 it is now the time to engage them in conversation. Talk with them via blog responses, on-line forums, Facebook, or even face to face over coffee if they are near you geographically. Ask questions, become really interested in them and their concerns or problems. Remember the key is to focus is on them, not what you do. As you build a relationship through on-going communication then you will find that their interest in what you do and offer comes very naturally.

It has been said before, you will become successful when you in turn help others become successful. Use what you do so well to help the right people to become successful in what they do and you will have a great Win/Win relationship for a very long time.

So the 3 simple steps again are:

1) Connect
2) Monitor
3) Respond

3 Basic Steps to Use Social Media Effectively Step 2

2010-07-05T14:03:00.000-07:00

So in the last post we looked at the first step and now let's look at the second step.

2) Monitor - If you are strategic in the people you follow on different social media platforms like explained in Step 1 then it is time to sit back and watch the conversations unfold. Please fight the urge to SPAM everyone with posts and tweets that are all about you and your product. Instead take the Dale Carnegie approach from How To Win Friends and Influence People and focus on the other person.

This means watching and reading their conversations on Facebook, on a blog, in their tweets or in forums. As they discuss areas that are within your field of expertise then you gain true insight to their needs.

3 Basic Steps to Use Social Media Effectively

2010-07-05T14:01:00.001-07:00

There are 3 basic steps to effectively use Social Media like Twitter, Facebook, blogs, web site forums, etc. They are:

1) Connect
2) Monitor
3) Respond

Utilizing these 3 basic steps you will develop a deeper relationship with those in your sphere of influence. Let's look at them in more detail step by step.

1) Connect - when you are choosing to follow someone on Twitter, requesting them to be a friend on Facebook, grab their RSS feed of their blog make sure you are doing this with people and businesses that would potentially be your customers. Be selective and make sure they fit your customer demographic. Once you have connected with them on these social media platforms then it is time to fight the urge to tell everyone about what you do and sit back for a while.

Why would you sit back for a while and not tell everyone about your business? That is discussed in the next step.

It's Not All About You

2010-06-19T21:35:00.000-07:00

If you have been Tweeting for any length of time you will most likely to have found people or companies who follow you and when you check out their tweets they are all about their products with links to their product sites.

If you check out the blog-sphere you will have found that there are companies and individuals who blog only about their product or expound on the virtues of themselves and their companies. Someone at some point should say to them IT IS NOT ALL ABOUT YOU.

When it comes to social media like Twitter, or Facebook, a company blog or whatever it is that you are using to connect with people remember that it is all about them. When you are writing or planning to send out a message to them think about what it is that they want to know. How can you change their lives for the better? How can you make them happier than they where a moment before? How can you remove pain from their lives? How can you enrich their lives? When you start to focus on these things then you have begun to move in the right direction.

Think about the person you meet at a party that doesn't ask one thing about you but goes on to tell you all about themselves. How long is it before you want to run away screaming? What about that person you meet that asks you interesting questions about yourself? You could spend hours with them right? The same basic rules apply for social media. Talk in terms of the interest of the people on the other side of the communication, then they will start paying attention and will spend their valuable time interacting with you.

After all it is called social media.

Does your business need Social Media?

2010-06-18T08:02:00.000-07:00

Even if you are not a fan of social media like Facebook, Twitter, e-newsetters. My Space, LinkedIn, etc the reality is that millions of people are using these social platforms as a place to connect. So if you want to connect with more people people then you need to go to where they are.

Organizations and businesses today must use social media like Facebook, Twitter, blogs, newsletters and more to build their relationships with customers and supporters. It provides the opportunity to really connect with your customers and supporters, deal with negative situations and experiences and it gives you a very real idea of your image in the marketplace. In some cases a business or organization may have no presence in the marketplace and you can't survive if no one knows who you are and what you do.

Many small organizations and businesses don't know where to start or if they have social media setup do not have the time to manage all of it along with dealing with the daily operations.

So how do you deal with it? Contact Cam The Promo Guy to tell me your thoughts, successes and struggles.

Quest for Compassion for Kids

2010-06-15T23:28:00.000-07:00

Have you seen the Quest for Compassion site for kids? It can be found here and kids can create a travel buddy and explore the globe.

This is a great idea to engage kids and educate them about global poverty and it has tools also for parents and teachers.

Newsletter Marketing

2010-04-22T09:15:00.000-07:00

One of the best ways to continually communicate with your members, clients, or whoever it is that you want to maintain relationships with is a monthly newsletter. Recently I came across a provider that has a great product and even better pricing system.

Mail Chimp allows you to sign up for free and have up to 500 subscribers and send up to 3000 emails per month for FREE. This is awesome if you are starting a subscriber list and don't want to have to pay as you build. Kudos to Mail Chimp for creating a quality, well priced service.

Now what do you put in that newsletter? We will tackle that in the next few posts.

How Do You Market to Women?

2010-04-05T13:40:00.000-07:00

I came across a great question in Linked In which was also a very broad question. The question was "How Do You Market to Women?"

The first thing I always recommend is to know your target. Where do they live, shop, hang out, where do their kids go to school, what social media do they engage in and whatever other lifestyle components you can discover about their lives. This is deeper than basic demographics and please don't get me wrong understanding their demographics are great but you need to drill that down to understand their lifestyles and then connect with them where they are.

Once you understand their lifestyles, etc you can then find effective ways to connect with them like buying ads on FaceBook, ads on radio stations that speak to women and families, in specialty magazines, etc. Depending on your marketing budget you may have to get really creative and do things like give product away, do lifestyle interviews on radio and TV, provide product for school auctions. There are lot's of ways to connect once you know exactly what your target market looks like.

The Math Is Magical Re-post

2010-04-03T09:24:00.000-07:00

Here is a great post from Seth Godin.

"The math is magical: you can pile up lots of failures and still keep rolling, but you only need one juicy success to build a career.

The killer is the category called 'neither'. If you spend your days avoiding failure by doing not much worth criticizing, you'll never have a shot at success. Avoiding the thing that's easy to survive keeps you from encountering the very thing you're after.

And yet we market and work and connect and create as if just one failure might be the end of us."

MIni Golf Course Radio Promotional Idea

2010-02-26T13:05:00.001-08:00

Fathers Day Classic

Here is a Fathers Day idea for a venue that has mini-golf facilities utilizing a radio live on location.

Utilizing a Live On Location broadcast the radio station invites listeners to bring their dads and families to the mini-golf course. The families play a round of minigolf and then submit their score card as a ballot to enter to win a large prize package.

The prize package could be:

A family golf vacation from a travel company.

A leather recliner or massage chair with big screen tv to watch the golf channel in comfort.

Wii game system with the EA Sports Tiger Woods 2010 golf game.

Always remember that people are busy so to motivate them to participate the bigger the prize the more people are motivated to come out.

To add to the excitement bring a local celebrity for a 1 hour period and challenge people to a putting contest. Give the winners a certificate for a free round of mini-golf. This also gives you return traffic to your venue.

Always Be Giving Something Away For Free

2009-06-20T23:36:00.001-07:00

Always Be Giving Something Away For Free

If you don't think you can afford advertising like radio or print then create a promotional partnership with a radio station or magazine and provide them with inventory items or gift cards that they can give away for you.

It gives you lot's of name or product branding with the additional benefit of driving traffic to your business. Gift cards always work best because to the person who has it, it is like cash in their pockets & they have to visit you to redeem it.

By the odd chance that they don't redeem it you still benefit from the media exposure.

Fun promo idea

2009-06-19T20:48:00.001-07:00

If you Twitter give people a reason to follow you. Try giving a prize away each week on different days & times so that people following you will keep an eye on your tweets.

Tweet the prize and have them email you with the secret word or better yet visit your web site to enter to win. The key is to have fun and give your followers a valuable reason to keep following & paying attention.

Win Your Time Back Contest

2009-03-04T22:11:00.000-08:00

Here is a great contest with a local publication Calgary's Child Magazine and 88.9 Shine FM called WIN YOUR TIME BACK.

Listeners and readers can enter their name & email address for a chance to win gift cerificates from Servpro Cleaning for maid service, Bubbles Car Wash for interior & exterior car wash for 2 vehicles. As well Advance Cleaning will provide window washing for the winners home and additional maid service.

A home organizer is providing 1 hour of consultation and 6 hours of organizing time and Dashing Dishes is providing 6 prepared meals.

This is all put together so that busy families can get back valuable time to spend with their families.