Small Business Boomers » Promotion

Check Out These Tips on Organizing Promotions

Mary Emma Allen — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 08:00:09 +0000

Over at My Organized Biz, I’ve been discussing ways to organize your promotions to focus on special events and holidays. These are times that businesses can provide information about their products and services and show consumers how these will improve their lives. Often these products have relation to current events, local and global, as well as to holidays.

Back-to-school time can be related to many small businesses.

Here are some ideas from My Organized Biz and Home Biz Notes:

Back-to-School Promotions

Organizing for Promotions

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Post from: Small Business Boomers

Are Small Business Newsletters on the Decline?

Mary Emma Allen — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 14:16:02 +0000

Many businesses disperse news by publishing newsletters (e-news, online versions, and print ones). These keep their customers and employees up to date on products and services, as well as entertaining them. Newsletters, of various types, have long been considered a viable way to promote and to gather a loyal following.

However, author and frugal promotion specialist, Carolyn Howard-Johnson speculates, in her latest newsletter, Sharing with Writers, that newsletters are on the decline for a variety of reasons.

Possibly blogging is supplanting newsletters, even those delivered to one’s e-mail, she mentions. Also, there’s the likelihood that people don’t have time for reading newsletters, or feel they don’t. Some newsletters may be getting too fancy, Carolyn also suggests.

She invites you to give her suggestions regarding why you might not be reading so many newsletters.

Do you feel newsletters aren’t so valuable as a promotional and informational tool as they once were? This is something I hadn’t thought about until I read Carolyn’s newsletter.

However, I realize the time factor has entered into my reading of those I subscribe to or consequently have unsubscribed from. With family, an outside the home job, writing/blogging commitments, and helping my husband with a home based business, I find little time for reading except what is connected with my research. I try to squeeze in some reading at lunch time, when I’m riding in a car or flying in a plane, or just before I go to sleep. Usually those aren’t times I’m at the computer.

In a subsequent post, I’ll discuss what attracts me to the newsletters I do read.

What about you?

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Post from: Small Business Boomers

Do You Use Signs for Your Small Business?

Mary Emma Allen — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 14:37:01 +0000

Effective signs are important, if you have a walk-in business. They let your customers and potential customers know where you are and what you are no matter how small or large your “small” business might be. Des Walsh, at Thinking Small Business, blogs about this in a series, called Sunday Markets.

This got me thinking about signs I’ve used, ones I’ve seen, and those other businesses have found effective. At Home Biz Notes, I wrote about this topic, Effective Signs for Your Home Business. You might find something of interest here you can use for developing your signs…or at least set you thinking about what you can do to create more effective ones.

What have you used for signs that produces results?

(Image: sxc.hu)

Post from: Small Business Boomers