Black Friday

Cyber Monday 

Free Shipping Day (NOTE: Free Shipping Day 2010 is Friday, December 17)

Have you figured out your strategies for these upcoming events?

I have been busy doing the Holiday Season planning for a group of my niche websites.

NOTE – NONE of my online business streams are related to selling either needlework or quilting products in any way! Let me repeat that…

I WON'T BE SELLING NEEDLEWORK OR QUILTING ONLINE!!!!!

Anyway, I have my planning notebook, my Planner Pad, and my colored pens and highlighters, planning for the upcoming Holiday Season. (What can I say, I am visual person and I like shuffling paper LOL)

Three of the events I am focusing on are:

Black Friday

Cyber Monday

Free Shipping Day (NOTE: Free Shipping Day 2010 is Friday, December 17)

While my business are online only, these events are equally, if not more, important for brick and mortar.

(REMINDER – NONE of my online business streams are related to selling either needlework or quilting products in any way!)

In the case of Brick and Mortar, it is of the utmost importance that you start figuring out ways that you can make these dates work for your OFFline business.

If you have any sort of online presence, whether you have a business card site or run a full fledged online retail site with shopping cart or something in between, you should be planning… NOW!

Don't wait until the Wednesday before Thanksgiving…  at that point you are already 2 months behind

I am still in the tentative stages of my planning, but already I am thinking that I will start my promotions by Oct 1 — not necessarily blatantly, mind you, but I DO want to make the most of the lead time…

Some of my ideas are -

Create a Gift Basket of the week idea and promote it with a post on the site (note, all of my sites are built with WordPress and I primarily create Posts rather than Pages) and with Tweets (I will have a Twitter acct for each site) and on my email list (I will have at least one email list for each site)

Figure out a way to have an appealing (not annoying) Holiday CountDown. It would need to start BEFORE Black Friday, so maybe start it on Nov 1? Can I figure out a creative way to talk the Holiday Countdown up starting in Oct — maybe with something posted weekly?

Some thoughts related to retailers — ideas which are not appropriate for my business model –

Plan and promote WishLists for customers (Promote offline, and online with website, Twitter, Facebook if appropriate, and on your email list(s))

Offer incentives to get customers to visit your Brick And mortar location on Cyber Monday

Offer incentives and/or activities for Black Friday — for AFTER they have shopped elsewhere for everybody else. Think about offering rewards for surviving shoppping elswhere.

Create a Twitter Hashtag Campaign for these events – either individually or as a group

Tink Note – You SHOULD already be Tweeting and you SHOULD already have a Twitter Hashtag Campaign going where you send out Tweet Announcements as new products are put on the shelves

Check out Twitter for Offline Businesses

The important takeaways with all of this:

• You should be planning all of this now, not on the day before Thanksgiving
• You can't just go into ostrich mode about all of this… make a preemptive strike!

Sharing the Road to Success,
Tink
 

This question was asked on the Quilt Designer’s List I belong to:

*quote*

I need some advice. I guess it is a little late to think about this but I am stuck as far as a marketing plan. I have met with good results when offering my pattern to shops in person but not sure where else to go from here. I am trying to get a web page up but it isn’t ready yet. What am I forgetting?

*end quote*

Here is my reply:

Marketing for independent Quilt Designers is getting more and more important AND more complicated, as the market becomes saturated, the economy tightens up, and the chain store situations become more tenuous.

As Wheat said earlier *frankly it has me quite concerned and that concern is deepest for that segment of the independent design community.* I agree with hewr wholeheartedly!

It is with this in mind that I am focusing my efforts on the marketing sites I am creating for NW and Quilting, Retailers AND designers.

Here is an overview of what you need to be doing…

You REALLY do need a *Marketing Plan*. It is now just as important as the *Business Plan* you should also have…

You should be working on YOUR USP *Unique Selling Proposition*. It should be fairly concise (think Mantra, rather than mission statement)

You need to be building YOUR Brand, and it should be apparent in all of your markeitng and presentation materials: logo, pattern covers, web site, market booth, email signature line, etc…

You should be working on:
* ways to market online AND offline
* ways to market to retailers AND consumers

If possible, you should be trying to coordinate your marketing so that one action or strategy can work in different markets…

If YOUR name and your company name are different, you need to be marketing BOTH, since Quilting is a Personality driven industry…

Check out my Marketing Blog for the post about your *About Me* page…

Go back and read the posts here about why you need BOTH a Blog AND a web site…

This may seem overwhelming but like any big, important project, you need to just take it a step at a time. You have already taken that most difficult first step by asking the question.

Tink

PS – One of the major issues I am grappling with is the growing suspician that many of us, myself included, have gone about marketing with Freebies/Complimentary patterns ALL WRONG!

Stay tuned for some new and innovative approaches!

*Quilter’s Home- For the new generation of quilters*

I found it a very interesting read and I am looking forward to seeing how it evolves. Right now I think that they have a good concept (if you believe their sub-title) but the execution and application of that strategy is lacking.

While I found the articles interesting, they seemed primarily aimed at those who are already quilting… not the *new generation* of quilters in their sub-title.

I enjoyed the article about designing the decor of a room by using a quilt for inspiration. After all, I have an MFA in Scene Design, so how could I resist, but I did feel that it could have been tweaked a bit more for the non-quilters who we hope will become quilters.

Maybe writing about the quilt is a chicken and egg problem… if you already have made the quilt, you are probably a quilter. What if the article started with the room and proceeded to lead an newbie quilter or wanna be quilter into choosing a first project to complement that room?

They have taken an interesting eclectic approach – the article on channeling Jane Stickle and the feature of Quilts inpired by Vera Wang were certainly concepts not usually found in a quilting magazine.

Lately, I have been spending a LOT of time pondering the importance of having a USP (Unique Selling Position) and why it is absolutely necessary for any internet presence, especially a retail site. As usual, I find these thoughts sliding into my other work and consciousness…

Clearly, *Quilter’s Home- For the new generation of quilters* has a USP, they just haven’t applied it yet…

As I said, it will be VERY interesting to see how the magazine evolves. Certainly an innovative approach such as this is a much needed energizer for the Quilt Industry (and Needlework, as well). I wish them the best and l look forward to watching them carry their concept thru into reality!

Tink

She is doing so many things right! And look at how well she is using CafePress!

Be sure and take a look at the *About Avis* page! See… there is ALWAYS something interesting to write about, especially for those of us lucky enough to be in a *Personality Driven* industry.

All of this would work equally well for a Needlework or Quilt retailer, or a NW or QU Designer… Are you taking notes?

I think my favorite might be the Caterpillar mug! *VeryBigGrin*

Tink

My relatively new (and definitely under warranty) 2430DL died…rather spectacularly… (There was a stomach churning THUNK and then a *FATAL ERROR CODE*!

This was, of course, on a weekend! I went to the K-M site and left a Service request with the error message. Within about 12-18 hours, I had an email reply telling me that they were *escalating my call*. Note, this was still during the weekend!

First thing Monday AM, I get a nice telephone call from a REAL person. Now due to circumstances at my end, I wasn’t able to connect up with the K-M representative (henceforth referred to as the K-M Printer Elf) until Wednesday. The ELf and I discuss the problem, try one quick fix and my wonderful K-M Printer Elf, declare Minnie #1 officially dead. ;-(

The K-M Printer Elf IMMEDITATELY ships me a new printer and it arrives on Friday AM!

There is a mix-up while I am transferring the toner cartridges and I end up having to wait until Monday to get detailed help from the Elf…

Due to a variety of circumstances, the new Minnie was unable to recognize the half used toner cartirdges I had installed. I called the Elf (who was endlessly patient, btw) and he told me that he’d send out NEW, high capacity cartridges OVERNIGHT Mail…

He suggests I call either him or their service center when the new cartridges arrive and they will talk me thru that installation since there may be a need to tweak setttings…

The new cartridges arrive, the Elf takes 30 minutes to talk me thru everything…patiently, as I said… and VIOLA, I have a new, wonderful printer!

I will be shipping back the old one and don’t plan to buy anything BUT K-M Printers from now on!

I use the printer to print the covers for my books and to create other products that I sell, so believe me, this is a BIG issue for me! Service like this is a rare, rare thing and worth its weight in Marketing Gold!

Thank you, K-M Printer Elf and Konica-Minolta!

Tink

Recent statistics indicate that more and more often people are turning to the Internet — instead of the yellow pages — to find local businesses like yours that are close to home. Check out these stats from the Kelsey Group…

• 74% of households now use the Internet as an information source when shopping locally!
• Approximately 45% of people searching locally intended to buy!
• Respondents who used traditional Yellow Pages decreased from 75% to 62%

As a local business owner, it’s crucial to realize that the Internet is now — more than ever — an extremely important tool for attracting customers.

This issue is just one of those that we’ll be discussing at the Marketing Edge for Retailers site!

Keep watching. I hope/plan to go live in the next week…

I’ll announce it here and in the Groups.
Tink

http://www.gitomer.com/index.cfm

Today he was talking about how the internet is affecting the sales process and discussing buying an automobile. The couple of points that I found were significant are:

*quote*

Because an automobile is so personal, most customers want to see it, touch it, and drive it before they purchase it.

*end quote*

*quote*

10 years ago, the average consumer visited 4.1 dealers before making a purchase. Today, they visit 1.7. The customer shows up ready to buy. It’s up to the salesperson to create an atmosphere where the sale can take place.

*end quote*

The bold italics are mine!

Granted, a car is a BIG purchase, but the issues I mention here are issues that Needlework and Quilt Retailers face everyday. Are you and your employees *creating an atmosphere where the sale can take place*?

Here is a LINK to the FULL article.

Tink

http://www.cnn.com/2006/TRAVEL/06/19/trend.fishing.ap/index.html

First off, who can NOT love the idea of Pink Waders and fishing equipment. Way back when, I was a union stagehand in IATSE. I spray painted ALL of my tools pink, and let me tell you… if any of the guys borrowed them, they were quick to return them! *VeryBigGrin*

But, ignoring everything else… this is the paragraph that most got my attrention:

*quote*

Outdoor marketers have found it makes good business sense to reach out to women, said Monica Pelletier, spokeswoman for the national Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation.

“The thinking used to be that the man is the one who goes fishing and he’s going to decide whether to take the family along, but really it’s the woman who decides where to take the family. She determines the activities,” Pelletier said.

*end quote*

The bold, italics are my own and sure give me something to think about! Are we in Needlework and Quilting giving ANY thought to this significant fact? Hmmmmm……

I have some specific ideas that I intend to share with my Gold member Retailers!

Tink

Now, clearly, you’ll get NO argument from me about what a great movie it is! However, I did get a tingle… a marketing tingle…

The significant phrease for me was *the group’s annual top-100 TV special*

So here is the plan… (rubbing hands together, gleefully)

Choose one of your shop’s Hot Spots… put together a display of the Top 10 New Designs… This could be done just once a year… but my inclination is to do it monthly. Make it a regular feature of the shop… include Employee choices to maximize the branding potential.

If some of the designs are from new designers, include information about the designer… remember, Needlework and Quilting are personality driven industries! Use this to your advantage!

Scheming in KY,

Tink