Hold a “Weird Gift Basket Stories” Contest and Send the Results to the Press

Hold a “Weird Gift Basket Stories” Contest and Send the Results to the Press
by Joyce Oladipo, "The Giftpreneur Queen"

The media goes crazy about weird and crazy news because they know that people enjoy reading, watching, and listening to weird things. Hold a “Weird Gif Basket Stories” like sending a gift basket to the wrong girlfriend, or child wouldn’t leave gift basket because it was full of yummy candies. Hold the contest with your customers other prospects by offering a price for the weirdest and strangest stories that has happened to people as a result of buying a gift basket.

Once you receive your stories you can:

1. Place them on your website
2. Create a small book to hand out at home shows
3. Record them and create a free audio to give away
4. Include then in your newsletter


However the most powerful use of the stories is to get free publicity by creating a buzz in the press about them. You can send a press release to the local newspaper, have the local television and radio channels interview the winners or have you as a guest.

Examples of media release could be:

Granny Loves Gift Basket Too!
German Shepherd Got Gift Basket Goodies as a Thanks You Gift

Online entrepreneur Joyce O. Oladipo, "The Giftpreneur Queen," publishes
the award-winning 'Gift Basket Success' ezine with 400 subscribers.
If you're ready to jump-start your marketing, make more money, and have
more fun in your Gift Basket business, get your FREE tips now at www.GiftBasketQueenSecrets.com

Why Don’t You Try? SPEAK OUT!
by Joyce Oladipo, "The Giftpreneur Queen"

Speaking in public increases your visibility, boosts your credibility, and establishes you as an expert in your field. It’s a powerful way of being in direct contact with potential clients. You might even find yourself closing a sale before you leave.

Find organisation to present to. There are so many business, and professional groups that are eagerly seeking free speakers for their meetings. Here are some suggestions:
• Chamber of Commerce networking events and workshops
• Trade and professional association meetings and conferences
• Lectures, workshops, conferences, and fairs hosted by educational institutions, community organizations, and affinity groups
• Live chats hosted by online services and web sites

Steps To Take Before Speaking Out

1. Create a few topics you would like to present to them. Your topics should be interesting, distinctive, and show off your specialized expertise.

2. Once you have a talk event scheduled, look for ways to get the most out of the opportunity. You can post the details on your web site, list the talk in your newsletter, or send a special bulletin to your contact list.

3. Ask the sponsoring group if you might also write an article for their newsletter. It can be distributed before the talk, an article will increase your attendance and if it was sent out after the afterwards, you may get inquiries from those who missed you and want to know where you will be speaking next.

4. Give them valuable educational information. Make sure the audience knows exactly what services you offer by giving the host a prepared introduction to read.

5. Collect contact information from the people who attend by holding a drawing for a book or tape, or offering them a free report or newsletter.

6. Finally, try circulating your own evaluation form, collecting feedback on your presentation, asking if your services might be of interest, and gathering names of other organizations where you might speak.

© 2006-2006 Joyce Oladipo

Online entrepreneur Joyce O. Oladipo, "The Giftpreneur Queen," publishes
the award-winning 'Gift Basket Success' ezine with 400 subscribers.
If you're ready to jump-start your marketing, make more money, and have
more fun in your Gift Basket business, get your FREE tips now at www.GiftBasketQueenSecrets.com

Start Blogging Now!

Start Blogging Now!
by Joyce Oladipo, "The Giftpreneur Queen"

You call yourself a Giftpreneur and you're not blogging?

Well, what have you been doing?

You don't even need to have your own domain to blog. Blogger.com provides the service you need to start.

If you don’t have your own website, a free blog from Blogger.com is a good option. There is no reason why you can’t start marketing your business online with a blog.

I’m in the process of getting my own domain name blog, instead of using Blogger.com, not that I would stop using this one but I recommend that every Giftpreneur GET THEIR OWN domain for the sake of creating a businesslike and professional appearance.

Honestly, nothing is easier to set up than a blog, especially if you decide to install Wordpress on a Cpanel host or server like Datawebpro offers using Fantastico. This is the web server that I use and I would be using them to create my own domain name blog too.

You are just one click away to creating your own entries and having your own blog! It’s quite easy to set up.

Best of all, blogs are the fastest way to get free traffic to your Gift Basket Web Site.

So, have I gotten your attention yet?

If you read my Gift Basket Marketing Blog, you've probably noticed that I post every week.

I have a few reasons why I do that.

Well First of all, blog are quite easy to write they are more informal and conversational than a newsletter which tends to be more structured.

I am able to be myself and write articles that are of interest to the gift basket industry. It’s more out of the box articles.

Secondly, a blog is super easy to create.

You don’t have to know anything about HTML to have your own blog, there is nothing to upload to a server. Just write your message, click 'Publish' and your message is posted and available for the entire world to read.

That means that I can publish any tip I have that might interest other Giftpreneurs, I don't have to wait until my Gift Basket Success Newsletter is sent out to tell them about what I’ve just learnt. I just blog what I ever I want to say straight away.

So for example if you have any gift basket idea you want your customer to know about, or you are sponsoring an award you can just blog it.

Lastly, I've discovered just discover that the free traffic coming to my blog has increase dramatically. The more I post, the more traffic I get.

Now everything I know about I blog, no matter what.

It good to allow comments to be posted to your blog, you build a community, which makes your site much more interesting for visitors.

And when the site is more interesting, people stick around longer.

Something that encourages even more traffic are the RSS-to-Email "Blog Alerts" Which allow folks to subscribe to receive my blog posts via email, instead of using a feed or news reader.

Aweber offers this service, and has posted an article "Convert RSS to Email Newsletters Automatically" to show you how easy it is to set up.

If it’s difficult to write your posts find someone to write about various tips about gift basket or anything related to your service.

You can also target your post to the corporate industry as that’s where must of the money for gift basket comes from...

All you have to do is either stop taking long term vacations all the time, or find someone who is successful an online writer to write about various aspects of that topic...You can even write your blog when you are on vacation.

By the way if you are interested in being featured in my “Inside Story”, let me know. I will be doing a teleseminar with successful Giftpreneur pretty soon.

To sum things up... Blogging is fun, it drives free traffic to ones site and it PAYS. What could be better than that?

Learn More about Blogging

There are lot of information about the benefits of blogging or how to set up and run a blog but here is an interesting book I ‘ve read.

Blogging to the Bank

Rob Benwell promise a system that would take could help you make a t least $500 in just 30 days.

His system seems to be easy to execute, he give a step-by-step tutorial on how to set yourself up and drive traffic to your new blog.

He even shows search engine results for one of his sites and shares information on how to test and track your own results.

I don’t really like the idea of getting an additional application to get more traffic.

But he did say that fresh content is far more effective for driving traffic to your blog and site.

His 39 page report was reduced to $47.00, but I've heard that he plans to raise the price back $99.95.

© 2006-2006 Joyce Oladipo

Online entrepreneur Joyce O. Oladipo, "The Giftpreneur Queen," publishes
the award-winning 'Gift Basket Success' ezine with 400 subscribers.
If you're ready to jump-start your marketing, make more money, and have
more fun in your Gift Basket business, get your FREE tips now at
www.GiftBasketQueenSecrets.com

5 Basics For Your Marketing Message

5 Basics For Your Marketing Message
by Joyce Oladipo, "The Giftpreneur Queen"

Your marketing message is one of the most important elements of your marketing program. Most giftpreneur are confused about their marketing message. Some think it’s just a slogan and some thing it’s just a regurgitation of all their awards and how long they’ve been in business. Some even think it’s their vision and mission statement. Well I have to say it’s not about these.

Your marketing message is what grabs the attention of your customer; it tells them how you can solve their problem, why they should trust you and why they should choose to do business with you.

The key to creating a winning message it to make sure that it matches the wants and needs of those who receive it.

5 Steps to Creating Your Marketing Message

1. Identify Your Target Market

Every gift basket business owner must have a target market, even a local dry cleaner has a target market, which is probably all the professional people living within a five mile radius of their store. So the first question you want to ask yourself is “Who is your target market” Once you have narrow down your target market, it’s easier to craft a message to that target market.

2. Identify Their Problems

Identify your target market’s pain and suffering and tell them that you understand and empathise with them. People don’t care about you until they know you care about them. So try and identify their problems and come up with solutions. Do they need more customers? Do they hate shopping?

3. Present Your Solutions

The next step is to present your solution. How do you help them solve the problems you’ve identified? For example, if they hate shopping you take the hassle of gift shopping and still make them look great. If they want to increase their client satisfaction, you may want to set up and manage a client appreciation program for them. Always identify all the benefits of your solution and how those benefits will improve their life or business and take away the pain and anguish.

4. Present the Result

It’s not enough to talk about your solution; you have to prove it to them that your solution works. In this step you need to prove your results by giving testimonies. People love testimonies. The best testimonial are the ones that tells the prospect what life was like before using your service and what life was like after applying your solution. Your testimonies should be presented in 3 steps

• The problem
• The solution
• The results

If you are new to the business you can talk about problems you’ve solved for friends, maybe a wedding, or a charity even you work on.

5. What make You Different

This tells your customers why they should do business with you. Why should they create a system for their gift program, when someone can just go down the store and arrange something? Prospects want to hear you communicate your difference and those different needs to be specific, concise and most importantly, an emotionally connection with your target prospect. It needs to be something they care about.

Now you have a simple formula for creating an effective marketing message. Your marketing message should use all your external communication. It starts with knowing the wants, fears, problems, and needs of your target market and end by crafting a message that speaks to those problems in a compelling and believable way. You need to make it clear what’s in for them when they use your solution or do business with you.

© 2006-2006 Joyce Oladipo

Online entrepreneur Joyce Oladipo, "The Giftpreneur Queen," is creator of the
fastest growing ezine 'Marketing Strategies to Jumpstart Your Gift Basket Business.
To learn more about this step-by-step program, and to sign up for her
FREE how-to articles and FREE audio class, visit www.GiftBasketQueenSecrets.com

Not Attracting Enough Customers? Here’s Why

Not Attracting Enough Customers? Here’s Why
by Joyce Oladipo, "The Giftpreneur Queen"

Not attracting enough customers to your gift basket business could be because you are not doing the right thing or you are doing the right thing wrong.
It could be you are marketing the wrong way. You might think that you must be adverting, building a beautiful website, and asking for more referrals, well this are good marketing efforts but they are just a small part of a complete gift basket marketing process.

Here is an outline of a good Gift Basket Marketing Model

1. Develop Your Sales and Marketing Plan

You have to be clear on your marketing message and to whom you are targeting your message. You need to know your ideal customers and what they really want. What problems are they facing and what result are they looking for. For example you can target real estate and focus on helping them build customer relation.

2. Get Your Target Market Attention and Get Them To Want to Know More

Use attention grabbing marketing to get yourself notice. Advertise the solution to their problem. You can do this in headlines, on radio show, television, direct mail- flyers, brochures, or newspaper ads. For example a good headline might be “How to Improve you Customer Satisfaction and get More Referrals”. Always make sure your ad leads to getting their name, address or email address to start a lasting relationship

3. Educate and Inform You Customers without Selling

This steps hold to key to your success. Educating you customers establishes your relationship and trust. And it gives you the unique edge over your competitors. Must giftpreneur skip this step and jump to the sales. People are tried of sales pitch. You can write articles and reports for local newspapers.

4. Upsell Your Customers Negotiate Price

Now that the customer trusts you and they now know they need your help. All you have to do is be a listening ear; your customer would always tell you how to sell to them. When you listen to them you would know what emotional button to push to close the sales. You need to find a good feature in you business that will appeal to your customer. To upsell always recommend a complimentary service for example a reminder or a month subscription for your gift basket.


5. Exceed Customers Expectation

Always try and exceed you customer’s expectation. Most customers today have a low service of expectation as a result of their day-to-day experience with business. This makes it simple for you to go beyond what they expect and do something extra special. It is also wise to under promise but more than you competitor and over deliver.

6. Make It Easy For Customers to Give Referrals

Try and get referrals straight after the sales. Consider giving them incentive for referring their friends and families to use your service

Where Can You Go Wrong

If you skip any of these steps you would not get a good result from you marketing effort. It takes knowledge, experience and patience to learn how to successful move from step 1 to the next. Each step has it own unique strategies. Try and work on getting your customers attention and providing them with information. If these two steps are mastered, the others will become simpler

© 2006-2006 Joyce Oladipo

Online entrepreneur Joyce Oladipo, "The Giftpreneur Queen," is creator of the
fastest growing ezine 'Marketing Strategies to Jumpstart Your Gift Basket Business.
To learn more about this step-by-step program, and to sign up for her
FREE how-to articles and FREE audio class, visit www.GiftBasketQueenSecrets.com