Men's Night Out

Here's a clever marketing idea:

An Oregon microbrewery is bringing in outside vendors who sell women's gift items for an event specifically aimed at men. Frosty mugs of beer and help with Christmas shopping for the better half, a full 3 weeks before Christmas. They have done this event before, and it is reported to have been very well done and very well received.

While this event is designed to help men with their Christmas shopping, this kind of event would also work well for Valentine's Day and Mother's Day shopping. The theme could even be turned around to help kids pick out a present for Mom for these holidays - The entry price would include a set price for gift and pizza or cookies, plus help with gift wrapping. 

Join us for Men's Night Out Wednesday, December 7, 2011 6pm-9pm Seven Brides $10 pre-sale, $12 at the door Gentlemen, join us in the Brewery for an evening of shopping, music and beer!  Seven Brides has taken the dreaded task of Christmas shopping for all those wonderful ladies in your life and turned it into something to look forward to. Come and get all your Christmas shopping done all while holding a beer in your hand!  We will have an array of great vendors on hand selling their fantastic products, music throughout the evening, a ton of great raffle prizes to win, food and of course frosty pints.  Admission is $10 pre-sale and $12 at the door and includes entrance into the event, entry into the raffle for tons of great prizes, and one drink of your choice (beer, wine, soda or coffee).  While the event is only for the gentlemen, the Tap Room will be open for normal business so all those wonderful ladies can tag along, grab a drink and some food, and socialize while the guys shop. To pre-purchase your tickets or for questions please call the Tap Room,  503-874-4677. Looking forward to seeing you all there!

Could you use this idea for your business? 


If you own a shop that sells gift items for women, could you invite a local brewer or pub to co-sponsor your event? You could even make it more of a block party with other shops in your vicinity. Or if you own a brewery, pub, sports bar, or restaurant, could you host this kind of event in your venue? Even a local Etsy Team could capitalize on this idea.


Regardless of your business, you might be able to think up a manly/girly combo; even if you are a financial planner, you could bring in some guy-themed refreshments and some vendors who sell gifts for the wife/girlfriend and put your financial security spin on the whole thing.


Of course, you would have help with advertising: not only would you advertise to your customers, but each vendor would be advertising to their customers, some of who are not familiar with your business. What a smooth way to bring in new customers!


Now that you've got the idea, how could you make this type of event work for you?

10 steps to conduct a Grand Re-Opening

A dear friend of mine has decided to revive her business and asked for help on how to get it up and running without too much headache. Hers is a service business where she does healing through Eastern medicinal type therapies. Sometimes she travels out of town, sometimes clients go to her.

The following is the email I sent her. It's a 10-step to-do list. If your own business has made a dramatic change or you've decided to breathe new life into it (or you're making the push to go full time,) you may find this to-do list helpful.

--------------------

A great way to get back in business is to create some buzz. You'll need to do some planning ahead of time to pull it off and have everything start at the same time, but it'll be worth it. Plan to have your Grand Re-Opening start with a bang and run for a month. You want people to take notice and see your name repeated in several places.

Here's your to-do list:

1. Decide on a business name. (See #4 as you finalize this.)
   
2. Get your logo and print it on letterhead and business cards. (Go to http://www.vistaprint.com/ for help. Low prices and some free items.) You'll need the logo to help establish your brand. If you can color-cordinate all your paperwork and workplace decor to your logo, that will help lock in your brand with your customers. I know this sounds silly, but it works psychologically to create an anchor for your brand that your customers can identify with. When you talked about flowing water (or something like that) for your biz name and then mentioned you would need to get a fountain, that's exactly what I'm talking about.
   
3. Set up your workspace, either in your home, an off-site office, or organize a professional looking travel kit if you will be making house calls. (I would suggest you have them come to you, wherever you are. If they put some effort into it they will be more likely to value what you do. If you make housecalls, there should be a surcharge. That way it's available, but they can't be lazy or cheap about it.) You need to keep your perceived value high and your workplace supports that. If you access info during your sessions, put it in plastic sheet protectors in a nice 3 ring binder with tabs instead of having a ratty bunch of papers held together at one corner.
   
4. Set up a website/blog with a unique URL. Your URL is your http://www.something.com/ and it's cheap = $10/year. I can help you get all of this set up and teach you how to manage it - it's really easy. Make sure your URL matches your business name and is easy to understand. If it's easy to remember, that's even better. If you do a radio interview you'll want to send people to your website. You need to be able to say your URL over the air and people instantly understand it without hyphens or funky spellings. An example: do not use your hard to spell last name. People will never find you online.
   
5. Create a database of all customers present and past. Add colleagues to this list. As you get new customers add them to this list. This list is the "Golden Goose" for your business.
   
6. Draft a letter (on your new letterhead) to everyone on this list, announcing your Grand Re-Opening. List the services you provide. Include reasons why now is more important than ever for people to address their personal problems that you can solve. Tell them about your special rates during your Grand Re-Opening. Include two business cards in each letter and invite them to share one of the cards with a friend.
   
7. Create a pricing menu. Because what you offer is a little unfamiliar to many people, you may want to offer set prices for certain services. This will help people feel more confident to do business with you. Too many unknowns can scare people away. Having set prices for services will also make it easier to discount for promotions and gives people a more concrete idea what kind of a bargin this is for them.
   
8. Offer a Grand Re-Opening special. You decide what will work with you, but keep in mind, people don't buy with percentages, they buy with dollars because dollars are more tangible than %. Offer dollars off, not percentages off. You see sales that are 30% off etc, but would you be more willing to buy a $20 item with a 30% off coupon or would you be more likely to buy a $20 item with a $6 off coupon? **At the bottom of this I've included some tips and offers to keep in mind when crafting your Grand Re-Opening special.
   
9. Contact the media: local and regional newspapers, regional womens' magazine (if you have one), radio stations, tv (is there a local morning show?) and let them know you are available for interviews. Contact local clubs and schedule giving a talk or better yet give a demo. Write a brief but interesting intro to who you are and what you do that makes them want to contact you for more info. Write a press release announcing your Grand Re-Opening. Copy a lot of the info in your letter (above) but keep it fact based and not sales based so it's not discarded as blatant advertising. Newspapers always have space to fill and are often looking for something interesting to publish.
   
10. Host a Grand Re-Opening open house. This is optional, but can be done on a budget if you collaborate with some joint venture partners. Is there a catering company that is just getting started and needs to get their name out there? If you have office space near any other similar wholistic providers, talk to them about sharing the expense of hosting an open house. Tell the media about the open house and mention it in your letter (#6.) Offer something free to all who attend - free consultation, free session for a child, free class to improve a specific function (dyslexia, headaches, joint movement, etc.) The free service or class can be scheduled for a later date, but give them their free ticket at this event. Whatever you give away, set a price for it so everyone knows the dollar value of what you're giving them. (Also advertise the class at full price to have paying customers there with the free customers.)
    

** Grand Re-Opening special: Make your special not just good but irresistable. Almost ridiculous. Look at how they advertise items on tv and copy that technique. TV product ads have advertised their prices this way for 30+ years because it works. Here's an example:

+This service is regularly $100 for a 1 hr session.

+To celebrate our Grand Re-Opening, we're offering $25 off your first session.

+Schedule now and we'll give you a second follow up session for half off. (Half is more tangible than 50%.) ~OR~ You could switch it and say you're offering the first session at half price and $25 off the follow up.

+Schedule your appointment for any time in February and we'll also give you our free guide to ... (fill in the blank)
Write up a free guide that ties in with your services or explains something that your customers always want to know more about. How about writing a booklet on any topic that supports what you will cover in their first session - maybe some at-home exercises or a step by step instruction on something, or a top ten simple things you can do to improve your wellness. Keep this book as your free gift in future promotions.

Whenever you have a chance to write another book, write it and use it in similar promotions: Grand Re-Opening, Anniversary, National Wholistic Health Month (I made that up) Summer Specials (market to vacationers) etc.

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Marketing Tips from the Etsy Forums

Have you had enough great marketing ideas to set your business on fire?

No?

Ok. Today I'd like to take a little break from the huge list of ideas and share a few links with you to check out:

Etsy's ChristianHaylie created this post:
25 Marketing tips to get your products moving!
and also
More Marketing tips to get your products moving!

FluffyFlowers shares:
1 little tiny Marketing tip

soapdeli says:
Are you new to selling online? Marketing tips to get you started.

mrsdstahl tells a great story about her advertising experience to help you understand where to focus your marketing energy and advertising dollars:
More Great Marketing Tips Revealed

FlyingButtons make a very good point with this forum post:
Just hit my 100th sale in 8 weeks, thought I'd pass on my key marketing tip

You have to check this one out... so easy.
contrariwise says:
Marketing Tip: how to drive more people to your Etsy shop from your blog
Here's a link to the blog post she mentions in the forum. Great tutorial.
And please observe how she has her blog laid out. She doesn't mention it, but basically her blog posts are nestled between two columns of her own creations so you can't help but be amazed at her items. And yes - they're all clickable links to the Etsy listing.
Smart.

Designsbyreese says:
BLOG LOCAL!

DBlankPrints brings up the topic of URL tagging:
(Don't overlook this simple trick.)
Have a simple marketing tip? I'll suggest the first one...

saratams gets into the nuts and bolts of creating and establishing an online presence:
Marketing Tips

Because outdoor market season is upon us, Neogami talks about her experience:
First time selling at market ends in 100's...want tips?


On Monday 5/25/09 I'll post the next category from the huge list of marketing ideas...

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Inspiration from a restroom

Today I'd like to point out how you can get inspiration from a shopping mall restroom.Business inspiration. Every time I visit a local mall, there are fresh flowers in the wall urns. Lovely.
Restroom flowers, originally uploaded by passitonplates.

This is a prime example of a joint venture. Who ever thought that a florist and a mall would be able to strike up a nice joint venture arrangement?

The mall will not disclose the details to me, which leads me to believe they're paying full price for the flowers, but if this florist and mall worked together, they could work out a nice win-win agreement.

I'd like to see the florist provide the flowers at a deep discount or for free in exchange for a little free advertising such as a plaque by the flowers that states something like "Flowers provided by (name) Florist, (city or phone number)" The florist's cost to do this per month would be far less than their price to buy traditional advertising.

The mall gets a deal on flowers to impress their guests, the florist gets 'free' advertising. Bonus to the florist if they are located nearby the restroom. (In this case, they're across the walkway and ladies exiting the restroom look directly into the florist shop.)

What kind of joint venture can you imagine for your business?

Do you sell body care items such as liquid soaps and lotions? Why not partner up with a nice restaurant or women's clothing store to supply the items for their public restroom sink in exchange for a sign announcing that the products are provided by your business. Put the sign in a pretty frame and set it on the counter next to your products.

Are you a jewelry artist? Contact local clothing stores, bridal stores, and offer to loan your pieces for use in a fashion show. Do you have connections to any local celebrities? Give or loan them a piece of jewelry in exchange for them being seen wearing it in public and talking or blogging about your shop. Yes, loan them pieces. Just like some well-known figures have ever-changing wardrobes, they also need ever-changing jewelry to coordinate with their wardrobe.

Ditto if you make handbags, scarves, hats, or other garments.

Do you paint or create other wall art such as with stained glass or ceramic? Find a local business that shares your customer demographic and arrange to have your work hang on their walls. Make sure your business card hangs on the wall along with the piece, and don't forget to note the price or mention that the piece is for sale. This will help the business decorate their walls and will serve as a gallery for your work. Change out each pieces periodically to keep them fresh (and give the regular customers the impression that the pieces are selling.) Businesses to consider:

• restaurants, bistros, coffee houses, upscale cafes (make sure they're smoke-free so your work stays clean)
• medical office waiting rooms (specialties such as plastic surgery, ob-gyn... think women clientelle and/or elective medical procedures) - if your work is geared toward children, you will want to consider what kind of fingerprints and abuse it may receive at your local pediatrician's office.
• pediatrician - if your work is geared toward children
• legal office waiting rooms
• spa and massage therapist waiting room

These are just a few ideas to get you thinking. I'd love to see your comments about your own business and your joint venture ideas. If you're stuck, comment here, too. I'll brainstorm a couple things to get you started.

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Who is your JV partner?

Do you have a JV partner?
If not, you may want to consider starting a JV* with someone.

*Your JV partner is the person or business that you enter a Joint Venture agreement with for cross selling and cross advertising opportunities.

A great JV example would be a wedding gown store and a hair salon, since they have some overlap with their customer demographics. Or how about the wedding gown store doing a JV with a photographer and a bakery?

Take a minute and think about what they all have in common:
Their target demographic is women... but look further. Yes, the bakery, salon, and photographer have a wide variety of customers, and the bridal gown store generally sells to brides. In fact, brides are the one thing all of these businesses have in common, and when a bride-to-be shops at one of these kinds of businesses, she usually needs one or more of the other businesses.

A JV between any or all of these types of businesses would broaden each ones' customer base and increase sales.

What a JV can do for these particular businesses is:

• The hair salon, bakery, photographer, and wedding store can put their brochures at each others' businesses.
• The wedding store hosts a fashion show co-sponsored by the hair salon, bakery and photographer.
• The bakery writes up a "What's new in wedding cake design" article for the monthly newsletter sent out by the wedding store. (This establishes the bakery as an expert on current trends in wedding cakes.) This article could also be published on the photographer's blog when he delves in to subjects related to wedding photography.
• The photographer sends the gown store and bakery copies of their photos of brides wearing that gown shops dresses and/or cutting that bakery's cakes to be displayed in the respective shops - and the photographer's name is watermarked on the picture.
• The bakery provides free samples at the gown store - for customers to taste as they try on dresses.
• The wedding gown store hosts a wedding dress event and invites all the contacts of the bakery, salon and photographer. The photographer is in the store, photographing brides-to-be as they try on their future wedding dresses for the very first time. The photographer then offers copies of the photos to these young women for their wedding album. Of course, the photo prints have the photographer's watermark on the front and business card on the back.
• The bakery and the photographer work together to put together a portfolio of wedding cakes. The bakery gets the portfolio and recommends the photographer to customers who order their cakes.
• The salon and photographer work to put together a similar portfolio agreement.
• Get the hair salon involved and one of the stylists can do free style demos at the gown shop one Saturday a month. The salon can send an invitation to all their existing customers to attend the demo. (This gets the salon customers into the gown shop and introduces all the gown customers to the salon stylist.)
• The gown store offers a discount to any bride who orders her cake from that bakery. The gown store also offers a discount to any wedding party who schedules a certain number of hairstyles from the salon. The possibilities to offer a discount for doing business with ones JV are endless.

Other businesses that could join these three in the Joint Venture would be:
a florist
manicurist
musician
caterer
printing and engraving shop
limo
travel agent
banquet room
kitchen store (for kitchen ware and dining goods, probably not cabinets)
shoe store
jeweler
hotel
DJ or band, etc.

True, these businesses don't focus solely on brides, but working out a JV agreement with other businesses that share this niche would absolutely capitalize on the sales strategies of each business involved.

How do you think you could use a JV for your own business? Can you think of at least two businesses that would be a great JV partner for you? Please leave a comment here with your business (and a link!) and one or two ideas on what kind of business you can work with to arrange a Joint Venture.

If you're having a hard time thinking of a potential JV partner for your business, please leave a comment here with a description of what you do and a link to your site and I'll see what ideas I can come up with to help you.

Host a Multi-Vendorin-house Spouse's Shopping Event

In the last in-house Spouse's Shopping Event post, I talked about turning your home into a boutique for one day as you sell your creations to the spouses and significant others of your customers.

Did you also read about creating a Joint Venture (or JV) for your business?

Why not combine these two ideas and dramatically increase your holiday sales? This is a great way to pool your customers together and everyone has the potential to make a lot of extra sales.

Do you know anyone who sells:
Mary Kay
Avon
Cookie Lee Jewelry
PartyLite
Pampered Chef
Tupperware
etc

How about a local massage practicioner, nail technician or hairdresser?

Think about the people you know who have their own full-time or side businesses, and list those who would have similar customers to you.

Contact one to three of these people and invite them to participate in your Spouse's Shopping Event. Each person would follow the steps outlined in the In-Home Spouse's Shopping Event.

If you don't have a space large enough for your guest list, just stagger the times on your invitations. For example, tell a third of your invitation list that the event is from 1-3pm, tell another third of your guests that the event runs from 2-4pm, and another third of your guests can plan to arrive from 3-5pm.

Work with the other vendors you are inviting to this event beforehand to figure out how you will divide the expense of refreshments and gift wrapping supplies.

When sending out invitations to the spouses and significant others, let them know what kinds of items will be available at this event and encourage them to bring their shopping lists with them for help picking out the perfect gift for the other women on their lists. Let them know they can get all their holiday shopping done all at once, with perfect choices that are gift-wrapped and ready to go, (and done early - for bonus points at home!)

Feel free to include your business card with each purchase - any other promotional materials should go in the shopping bag, not wrapped into the gift. Have a sign-up sheet ready for shoppers who want to learn about other special events like this for upcoming holidays such as Valentines' Day and Mother's Day.

Leave a comment here with ideas about who you could JV with for a shopping event like this one!