I have a fan page on Facebook for my business, and I’m doing a random drawing in December for the fans. I’ve always heard other contests say that they’re only open to US residents. I will be offering gift vouchers to randomly drawn fans. Legally, do I have to limit this to US residents?
Some people hide their location on Facebook so you can only see it if you’re their friend. This would be a bit of a pain trying to get everyone to respond to me with their location. I could run the drawing with only the people I’m sure about, but that would limit the eligible people a lot.
How much are you spending on advertising? Do you think you could be doing better? If you’re like me, you have had advertising campaigns that left you thinking that you got a very low return on investment and not much publicity. When I think of a standard ad campaign, I usually think of the time frame in terms of days, weeks, and maybe months. What would you think about a campaign that would still be running a year from now with no additional investment? Let me introduce you to a truly unique advertising campaign idea.
If you market locally, some of your goals probably include maintaining visibility and establishing yourself as a leader in your community. Here comes the “meat” of my advertising plan. A standard 11 ounce ceramic mug has an area about 8″ x 3″ that can accommodate images and logos. According to my calculations, that would be enough space for up to four small advertising spots.
An 11 ounce mug can fit up to four ads
Your first plan of action would be to find local “mom and pop” restaurants, diners, and coffee shops that would be willing (and happy!) to accept one or two cases of free coffee mugs to use at their tables. Next, find other local businesses to purchase ad space on these mugs. One of my 11 ounce custom mugs is about $14. Fitting four ads on each mug makes each ad cost about $3.50. Make sure to mention to your advertisers and restaurants that these mugs are dishwasher safe and that the image will not crack or peel. That’s $3.50 for permanent advertising on each mug!
Local businesses will appreciate your efforts to boost visibility for everyone involved, and local restaurants will be very happy to be receiving a free supply of mugs. Make sure to notify the local media and submit a press release!
I’m working on setting up a new store for amateur radio custom products. I’ve already got a CRELoaded version running here, but Heidi Caswell introduced me to an e-commerce plugin for WordPress that I really like. It has many of the features of my current store, and I really like the ability to have a blog there as well. If my content is good, it should help draw people to the store and get repeat visitors.
I don’t have much of it set up yet (a bit of the category structure and two products), but you can take a look at it here. Once I figure out how to import my existing products, the store will be moved to the location of the existing amateur radio store.
The Wall
If you’ve read some of my previous posts, you will remember that I mentioned The Social Brick Wall. This is a project where your picture gets posted on the “wall” along with links to your Twitter and Facebook profiles and your blog. It’s free and a fun way to get exposure.
We have added several new people to the wall lately. I know that they have been working on getting profiles set up, but I wanted to offer a suggestion to everyone else to maximize their experience on the Wall. Linking to the profiles I mentioned is great, but there is another way to link to virtually unlimited profiles to maximize your social networking power. All you need to do is sign up for a free profile at retaggr, customize your virtual business card, and you can then tag your photo on the Wall with the card. That way, anyone can click on your photo and find your profile on any website you choose to include in your card.
The Special Offer
To get the Wall membership kick-started, I am making a very special offer to anyone who joins the Wall. You will notice at the top of the page that there is a slot for rotating banner ads. You get a free month of advertising there just for joining. For an unlimited time, I am offering one free month of advertising for every person who joins the Wall from your referral. Just tell them to give me your name when they join, and I will keep running totals of your free advertising.
Now there is even more incentive to join and invite others. The more people we have on the Wall and visiting the page, the larger the audience for your ads. Let’s build a Wall together!
