Search Results for ‘cross promoting’
Fortune cookies are a great way to promote your business. And if you have ambition to make them yourself, you can customize the message to suit the occasion or project you are promoting. Here’s your fortune cookie recipe for business success:
You will need:
• 1 egg white
• 1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 pinch salt
• 1/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup white sugar
DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Butter a cookie sheet. Write your fortunes on strips of paper about 4 inches long and 1/2 inch wide. Generously grease 2 cookie sheets.
2. Mix egg white and vanilla until foamy but not stiff. Sift the flour, salt, and sugar and blend into the egg white and vanilla mixture.
3. Place teaspoonfuls of the batter at least 4 inches apart on one of the prepared cookie sheets. Tilt the sheet to move the batter into round shapes about 3 inches in diameter. Be careful to make batter as round and even as possible. Because the cookies have to be really hot to form them into the crescent shape, do not make too many at one time. Once they cool it is too late. Start with 3 or 4 to a sheet and see how many the pan (and you) can manage.
4. Bake for 5 minutes or until cookie has turned a golden color 1/2 inch wide around the outer edge of the circle. The center will remain pale. Get a second batch ready to pop in the oven while the first one is baking.
5. Remove cookies from oven and using a wide spatula quickly moving cookie, place upside down on a wooden board. Quickly place the fortune on the cookie, close to the middle and fold the cookie in half. Place the folded edge across the rim of a measuring cup and pull the pointed edges down, one on the inside of the cup and one on the outside. Place folded cookies into the cups of a muffin tin or egg carton until firm.
This idea and others can be found in Quirky Marketing – 365 Ways to Promote Your Business Using Zany and Non-traditional Holidays.
February 4th, 2009
Excerpt from Promoting Your Business on the WEB Special Report.
Cross Promote – Share costs and prospect lists with a complementary, non-competing business. For instance, if you are a realtor, you could share the cost of a direct-mail postcard with a mortgage or title company. Or put links to a complementary business site on your Web site, and ask the other business to do the same. For example, if you send out brochures, both partners could include a brochure and/or business card of the other’s business. Nothing is more powerful that a recommendation from a trusted source and if your cross-promotion partner has customers or clients, chances are they trust her or him and will listen when a suggestion to use another company is presented. When you cross-promote with another business you have the opportunity to reach a whole new circle of potential customers. Some of the companies you could consider include to collaborate with a well-known company, competitors (not in your area, but in the same industry that serve a different market) and nonprofits you support.
Cross promoting or partnering reduces a small business marketing and promotion costs and also opens the door to implement techniques you could not previously consider because of the expense of doing so. Read It Takes Two – How to Cultivate Profitable, Strategic Alliances To Increase Your Market Share for more tips on how to find Cross-promotion partners to serve your target niche.
Want more ideas to promote your business on the WEB? Get a FREE copy of the 8-page Special Report Promoting Your Business on the WEB TODAY!
November 13th, 2008
Videos have really taken flight. They are everywhere! Friends send friends links to videos they love. Companies create videos to promote their businesses. Individuals do crazy stunts to become video-lebrities and more! So, what can YOU do with Video to promote your company? You could create an instructional video on a topic related to your product or service; something your prospects would find interesting and even more importantly be searching for. Take the “How Stuff Works” blog. They have created a video on all sorts of things and are getting a reputation as a place to go for information on what else… how stuff works! When producing videos, think about the K.I.S.S theory – keep it short and succinct to keep people’s attention. Think about ways that you can put more content into (short) video segments on your site, and then post them to YouTube, Revver and other video-sharing sites. YouTube is an excellent venue to generate traffic and a buzz. Revver
’s unique technology tracks and monetizes videos as they spread virally across the web, so no matter where your creativity travels, you benefit. You can create a video on how your product works like the folks at Blendtec did with their Will it Blend Videos, or a video presentation of your best salesperson pitching your product. Record video interviews with industry experts… Use Video in your email, on your website instead of a blog post, on your social networking pages, and more’s unique technology tracks and monetizes videos as they spread virally across the web, so no matter where your creativity travels, you benefit. You can create a video on how your product works like the folks at Blendtec did with their Will it Blend Videos, or a video presentation of your best salesperson pitching your product. Record video interviews with industry experts… Use Video in your email, on your website instead of a blog post, on your social networking pages, and more
Check out Internet Video Magazine for the latest on Internet Video Articles, Tutorials, News, Book and Product Reviews – Everything you need to know in order to shoot, create and post your own Internet Video Masterpieces. Talk Fushion is an excellent fee-based platform for recording and uploading video and with Google Video and Flickr you can do it for free.
And read Jessica Kizorek’s book SHOW ME ~ Marketing With Video on the Internet
Want more ideas to promote your business on the WEB? Get a FREE copy of the 8-page Special Report Promoting Your Business on the WEB TODAY!
November 3rd, 2008
Excerpt from Promoting Your Business on the WEB Special Report.
Give something away… such as a book, tips, special report, white paper, free membership. You do this to build credibility and also to give people an idea of the quality of offers you also have to sell. Give-aways build word-of-mouth and drive traffic to your site and ultimately build sales. You can partner with others to increase your database by giving something away on their sites and in their promotions (see Cross Promote below for more ideas). 1000 Great Giveaways is a good example of promoting your products and or services on another site. Check out an ebook I wrote called “Your Marketing Calendar 2008” to see how we capture the leads.
Include Your Website URL on Everything; on stationery, cards, your vehicles and other printed material you distribute to your prospects and customers. Make the best use of your signature with your name, Web Site Address(es) your Company Slogan, Additional Information and a give-away.
Want more ideas to promote your business on the WEB? Get a FREE copy of the 8-page Special Report Promoting Your Business on the WEB TODAY!
October 11th, 2008
How Cause-related marketing can grow your company and do good.
According to a report published by onPhilanthropy, cause marketing sponsorship by American businesses has been steadily rising over the years.
The potential benefits of cause marketing for nonprofit organizations include a wider audience in which to promote the nonprofit organization’s cause, increased accessibility of potential donors and supporters through a company’s customer base.
The potential benefits of cause marketing for businesses big or small include promoting your company in a positive way, improving your relationships with your current customer base, and attract your target audience. Cause-related marketing can make your company stand out from your competitors and heighten your company’s reputation within your target market.
In the ook Brand Spirit: How Cause Related Marketing Builds Brands by Hamish Pringle and Marjorie Thompson the authors say: “Nothing builds brand loyalty among today’s increasingly skeptical, hard-to-please consumers like a proven commitment to a worthy cause on the part of a company.”
Some ways you can implement a cause marketing campaign include giving a portion of the profits of sales of a product to the cause. Companies have created programs to donate a percentage of their sales to a nonprofit organization through the use of auctions. You can align your company with a cause to brand your business as the official (name of industry) of (name of cause). You can adopt a program and get your staff involved to help implement your marketing efforts such as participating in an event hosted by the cause as a TEAM effort, donating time to mentor youth in the schools or community, giving blood, to name a few.
Think BIG ~ The Let’s say Thanks Campaign by Zerox created a way for individuals across the country to recognize U.S. troops stationed overseas. By submitting a message through the LetsSayThanks website you have the opportunity to send a free personalized postcard greeting to deployed servicemen and women.
Arrow, The Authentic American Brand created the “We are Ellis Island” campaign which ito raise money to restore dilapidated buildings on the south side of Ellis Island. Through association with Save Ellis Island, the Arrow brand is committed to preserving Ellis Island with the help of the National Park Service. Arrow launched the website www.WeAreEllisIsland.com for visitors to post their family stories, share inspiring stories of hope, courage and perseverance, all in the name of living out the great American dream. When you visit We Are Ellis Island you can read thes stories and donate money to the causes Arrow has committed to donate 1% of its 2008 wholesale sales to the project. To learn more about Arrow, visit www.arrowshirts.com.
Start small ~ You don’t have to be a BIG company to adopt a cause. Just look around your community to see what the needs are, what is missing, lacking or could use a little (or big) boost in support. Check with non-profits you believe in, with local chambers of commerce, business groups, niche groups, your trade associations, ask your vendors and customers for ideas. Find out who your target audience supports and see if it meshes with your values and your company’s mission. If so, you are on your way to getting out and doing good. And it is a great way to raise your profile in the eyes of the media. A local retailer could run a promotion donating a portion of the sales goes to support a local school project that is underfunded or donating your products to bring joy to less fortunate families in your communities during the holiday season.
One success leads to others and you can build upon those to get more creative and grandiose in your ideas and strategies. After all, America’s economy is fueled by small business and the companies we keep.
September 10th, 2008
