Scrappy Marketing Solutions Blog

Shameless Self-Promotion with New Year’s Resolutions

In the words of Photojojo blogger Nichole Esmon, "Goodbye 2007, Hello Two Thousand and Awesome!"  (love the phrasing of that)

It's New Year's Eve, and many people's thoughts turn to resolutions.  Why not take a cue from Esmon and the Photojojo blog, and use resolutions to remind your customers of the great content you've been offering them?

A little background...Photojojo.com is an online store that sells photo-related products.  As such, their blog offers tons of valuable photo-related resources, presented in a fun, edgy writing style.  For New Year's, Esmon compiled a tip list of 19 photo resolutions for Photojojo's blog/newsletter.  Many of the tips refer back to content previously posted on Photojojo's blog. 

Very clever - a Scrappy Marketer's Hat Tip for this marketing-via-resolution-tipsheet idea.  It's actually quite useful for their readers - the tip list provides links to posts readers may have previously missed, or forgotten to follow up on.  But putting all these links in one post also reminds readers how much they enjoy reading Photojojo, and that oh yeah, they've been meaning to check out that cool gadget in the store.  Plus, all the internal links to specific posts also help with search engine juice.  Win Win.

So - what kind of resolutions list can you come up with for your business?  Triscape, makers of digital scrapbooking software FxFoto, could provide a list of "5 Photo Organization Resolutions for 2008".  Author Lisa Sanford could write up, "10 Cultural Holidays Not to Miss in 2008".  A local scrapbooking store could put together a simple "Getting to Done - 10 Scrapbooking Resolutions", with tips on quickly working through your stash (of photos AND/OR supplies!). 

What tips could you offer that would highlight content you've already written, and that would point people to the products/services you offer?  Give it some thought and get posting!  Feel free to leave a link to your professional resolution list in the Comments!

Email & White Paper Marketing Idea from Carolee's Creations

A great email marketing idea recently arrived in my inbox from Carolee's Creations.  Essentially they've created a whitepaper to address a common concern for their target audience  (In scrapbook speak...they created an idea sheet to help use your stash.)  Then they sent out an email blast to let people know the white paper was available.  Georgana also posted about it on her blog.

According to Wikipedia, a white paper "is an authoritative report. White papers are used to educate customers, collect leads for a company or help people make decisions."  Whitepapers are typically offered by companies as a marketing tool.  They are written in article format, presenting a problem, then offering a solution.  That solution is usually points to a product or service that the company offers.

In this case, the white paper/tipsheet/idea sheet [PDF] addresses how to get past "Christmas Card Chagrin" - "that sick gnawing feeling in the pit of your stomach [when] thinking about the expense" of sending out handmade Christmas cards. The four-page PDF describes creative ways to work past that problem, including specific examples (with sketches) of 15 cards created using one sheet of stickers, four sheets of cardstock, and one stamp (all Carolee's Creation products).

Try this marketing technique yourself!  Think about what concerns your target market has, and put together a white paper describing how to solve it, and how you can help.  Then send out an email and post to your blog to tell everyone that the paper is available.

A Scrappy Marketer's Hat Tip to Carolee's Creations for this marketing "hat trick" - marketing by white paper, email newsletter, AND blog.

24 Blogging Days till Christmas

While Shimelle Laine has her every-day-in-December-and-a-bit-into-January Journal Your Christmas class, Dina has started a "24 Blogging Days 'til Christmas" blogging challenge at her WordFeeder blog.  God bless her.

I love this idea - and I'd love to blog every day this month. I do come close to every day - usually several times a week, amongst my three blogs (Blog of Me, Scrapbooking Industry News, and this Scrappy Marketing blog).  Dina is offering great, easy-to-implement blogging challenges - we're up to Day 5 already.  I liked Blog Copywriting Tip #3, which I am kinda-sorta putting into play in this very post.  She suggests to "bring it back around" in any given blog post:

What you do is stop in the middle of your tirade, whatever it may be, and ask yourself, "how is this like what I do for a living?"

Here's how it works: I found out about Dina's blogging challenge via her e-newsletter.  I started this blog post to alert you to this cool resource I've run across in my personal/professional life, and share the resource with you. 

In doing so, I reinforce to you that I'm pretty savvy about blogging, and that I might be able to help you with your own business blogging efforts.  See how easy it is?

So.  How can you "bring it back around" in your blog?  Or how do you already?

Holiday Marketing: Christmas Gift Ideas

Check out this article in the Gretna Breeze newspaper: Precious ideas for Christmas gifts.  It begins:

With the Christmas holiday season in full swing, a new business in Gretna can help those with a creative boost. Precious Treasures, located at Nebraska Crossing Outlet Center, is filled with scrapbooking tools and items to get artistic results.

This is your cue to send out a press release offering your suggestions for holiday gifts - Top Five Gifts for Scrapbookers this year, Top Five Ways to a Digital Photographer's Heart, 10 Photo Gifts for Grandparents.  Send these ideas off in press release format to your local media - local newspaper, midday TV news, morning and drive-time radio hosts.  These tips make great filler pieces at this time of you, and great coverage for your business.