This is the twenty-eighth day of a 30-day trial. Follow the link to Marketing Ideas En Masse to find out more.
New milestone in searches
Today I had my 7,777th search engine query since I started using the Wassup Wordpress Plugin. If you notice that in the first 12 days of December I have almost tied all of last month’s searches to my site. Pretty Cool. I can’t wait to see where I end up at the end of the month. I am guessing somewhere around 5,000 searches.
Funny Keywords I rank for
Here is a little list of some funny keywords I am ranking for. I used to do a Friday Funny post, which I haven’t done in a while so hopefully this makes up for it a bit.
I didn’t know I was such an inspiration for people to quit their jobs and doing something else. It has almost been a year since I quit my last job as a help-desk technician.
I find it funny sometimes how you can rank for some of the weirdest long tail keywords. I should really save some of the searches I see when they are funny and share them more often. Lindsay on That Mutt a Dog Blog ranks for some funny things as well.
The holidays are upon us and with that it is time to ramp up the marketing of retail businesses. For this post I used the assistance of HARO (help a reporter out) and got a good return of ideas. I will explain more about HARO and different ideas on how to use the free service a little later.
1. The first suggestion comes from Leah Dossey who is the owner, art director/ designer for Blue Leaf Creative. She suggests:
Here is what we have done in the past that has actually boosted revenue for December. We create and send out an e-blast to all our clients (we are a service-related business) that is funny. Last year we sent out, “Closed On Account of Pie.” With a great image of pumpkin pie and the dates we would be closed and a message of how we wished them all a wonderful Thanksgiving and then how we looked forward to working with them during the holiday season. Just that small connection, done in a fun and different way put us in front of our existing client base and kept us fresh in their minds. It is amazing what you can do for free, if you just think outside the box and use some creative wisdom.
2. Next we have Karl Schmieder who is one of the founders of MessagingLab in New York. Karl suggests:
I run a small branding and marketing communications company that only sends out Thanksgiving cards to our customers and all the people in our sales funnel. We do not send out Christmas cards because we feel those get lost in the noise around that particular holiday. We have found that whenever we send out the cards, we add one or two new clients or make additional sales. While one-two sales might not sound like a lot, it is for a two-man shop when you consider the average sale is around $5,000. We find this to be a very effective and cost-effective way to use our marketing dollars.
3. Erin Read Ruddick, the client services director at Creating Results, LLC – Strategic Marketing, suggested that I find a video clip from the show WKRP in Cincinnati “Turkeys Away.”
Here is the video, you might have to click here to view it.
also suggested by Erin:
We’ve done multiple fall promotions for clients, including creating a giant corn maze for a real estate developer that drove thousands of leads, but nothing specifically Thanksgiving.
4. Next Benjamin Christie suggested I take a look at his blog www.gourmetads.com.
“Taking advantage of targeted advertising next to online recipes for holiday favorites is a great way to get your brand at the top of every shopper’s grocery list this year.When a consumer goes online to look up recipes on how to roast their Thanksgiving turkey, will they be thinking Butterball, Norbest or Honeysuckle White?That all depends on whose ad is cleverly placed right beside the roast turkey recipe.
More and more consumers are turning to the Internet for their recipe needs; especially their holiday recipe needs and smart advertisers are taking advantage of this trend with their Thanksgiving advertising in order to create brand awareness during the critical holiday sales rush.Ideally, companies should get their products placed four weeks before the big holiday as many shoppers have already begun to stock their pantries in preparation for the big event.”
5. Lastly I figured I would throw out a suggestion of my own called the Turkey Hunt
I would aim for success by getting as much local publicity as possible, including local business sponsors. Then right on or around Thanksgiving Day I would dress 3-4 people up in big turkey costumes and have them run around in a big field. I would charge people a couple bucks for a bucket of water balloons (all proceeds go to a local charity). Next give them all water balloon launchers and let them rip. The first person to hit each turkey with a water balloon wins that turkey’s prize package from the local sponsors.
So we create a fun way to promote sponsoring businesses, free prizes and also donations to charities. Maybe even instead of charging for the water balloons we offer a swap of a balloon or two for a nonperishable food bank item.
Do you have any Thanksgiving marketing ideas for local businesses or charities? Have you ran a successful marketing campaign on Thanksgiving? Tell us your stories.
I like to throw in a funny post every now and then to end the workweek on a good note. I stumbled upon this prank gone bad on Youtube and thought you would enjoy.
As for the whatnot. Jason over at Blogtomic.com interviewed me about blogging and life, you might enjoy learning a little more about myself and my motivations for blogging. You can find the interview here. Also Ty from Ty’s Blog posted his first video blog post today and I think you might like it. You should head over and check it out.
What a week and weekend it has been here in Fargo, ND. Leading up to this weekend I have been preparing and helping to organize with the state convention for the Republican Party. This is my first election cycle involvement apart from marking a ballot with a check. The primary purpose of my involvement wasn’t due to my love of the Republican Party but rather to promote and represent the Ron Paul campaign. I am happy to report that Ron Paul will be receiving 11 of the 23 delegates up for grabs at the National Convention this September in St. Paul, MN.
End of the Month
With the end of the month being tomorrow I will be posting the final stats and accomplishments for March on April Fools Day . I will say that I have accomplished way more than I ever though possible for my first month of blogging.
A great April Fools Day prank
Here is an awesome prank and maybe a last minute idea any of you who don’t have a prank already lined up.
If you are in need of no fluff Social Media Consulting and Marketing check out my new project. At Echelon Media we understand these new tools and how to properly leverage them. Our experience and expertise is available, and we can take care of it for you. It’s what we do. And we are good at it.
. I will say that I have accomplished way more than I ever though possible for my first month of blogging.
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