Sneak peak on how we create our self-promotions to stand out from our competition. And how you can do them too.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGhgzsHAmj4]

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I need to get that legal contract done! Hhhmmmm….what was that attorney’s name that I used before? Did it start with a S? Aren’t they in San Jose, CA? I can’t remember. I’ll do a Google search. I’m sure I can find it (searches….finds a lot of S named attorneys in San Jose, but none of them look familiar). Oh well, I’ll look on Yelp and pick one from there instead.As a client, have you ever worked with a company for the first time and needed their services again months later and couldn’t REMEMBER their name, so you had to find another company to fulfill your needs?As a vendor, have you ever felt disappointed, upset when you found out that a client you worked with before ordered from a COMPETITOR because they couldn’t remember your name, couldn’t remember how to get a hold of you, didn’t feel loyal to you?This is what happens when you don’t consistently stay in front of your clients. Don’t consistently build a relationship with them. I suggest doing something to stay in front of them EVERY single month in a variety of ways. This blog is just showcasing one tool in our tool box that our clients and we use to stay in front of clients and be remembered so when they’re ready to buy, they buy from YOU.“I always love your surprises, thank you!”, “You are awesome!”, “#YouInspireMe”, “You are such a delight!” Do you know what these are? These were some of the messages I received from my clients & prospects when I told them to keep a look out for our fun “Turn the World Kind” week long CHALLENGE that we had mailed out to them.People want to feel connected, to be a part of a community, to have fun and they want to know that your business gives back, your business helps others, your business CARES. This is especially important if you work with Millennials.We rotate the “giving back” theme throughout our various self-promotions. Not just for the sake of marketing, but because it’s who we are as a business. We normally do 4 of these SELF-PROMOS a year and shoot for them landing at 1 per quarter, so we’re consistently getting in front of our clients and prospects with them.There are a variety of ways and TIERED levels of doing your self-promos. First, let me show you some examples of ones that I’ve done. Then I’ll give you the steps to create yours.Bronze level: Select a theme/holiday along with a branded promotional product and message that aligns with your business and mail it out. Mail it out to your entire database or do it to your top 50, 100, etc. The choice is yours. This is the one we mailed out for Leap Year 2016. The frog is a bottle opener, goes with the “leap” theme and is useful and fun. It also encourages them to leap into their goals (we love helping our clients achieve their goals) and it pushes them to get an Accountability Partner and to watch our Fly On The Wall show so we can help them get the most out of having an Accountability Partner.Silver level: Same idea as the bronze level, but add an online element, so you’re getting them to interact with you on and offline. Push them to your social media, to a landing page, to your website to interact with you and like your company online and maximize their exposure to you.This is Cupid’s Bingo that we mailed out for Valentine’s Day. We could have just told them to go to our Facebook page. Instead, we decided to add more fun and do a contest. Bingo! Everyone loves Bingo! We added the power bank to reward the winner and encourage people to play. It also markets our business, so it’s a win-win for everyone.The magnetic photo frame we added to this went with the love theme, is useful and it kept our name in front of our clients after the promotion was long over.We also wanted to advertise it on social media, so we created posts like this one.We created this for our Facebook cover image to promote it beforehand, and the days we were playing Cupid’s Bingo.Gold level: Same as bronze level, but add an additional element….grab a team member, fellow business owner, friend and go out to see some of your clients and prospects, FACE2FACE! I suggest visiting 10 offices if you are going to do them all in one day. Mail the rest of them out.This is my favorite Gold self-promotion that we’ve ever done. Who doesn’t love Lucy and Ethel? We did this for Smile Week (2^nd week of August). We mailed out and handed out smiley face chocolates and our Smile Challenge Card challenging them to make 3 people smile that week.We created this video to promote our Smile Week self-promotion re-enacting the Lucy and Ethel chocolate factory scene.We posted images on our social media of ways to make people smile that week.The day we went out was so much fun! While we were stopped at stop lights, we gave out chocolates to the cars around us, and they laughed and knew who we were dressed up as. People even asked to take pictures of us and absolutely loved what we were doing. Way to be different and memorable, RIGHT!We also posted pictures of where we were and what we were doing on our social media so people could follow us. We also teased our social media followers by posting things like, ”Wonder where we’ll show up next?”.We wanted to maximize this self-promotion so after we visited the companies we created a video capturing our Lucy and Ethel day. Then sent it out to the people we visited and posted it on social media.We also printed out the picture we took with them at their business and mailed it along with a handwritten card. We did this in 2015, and I still go to my client’s offices, and they have our picture up!Doing these self-promotions we’ve deepened relationships with our customers and prospects, we’ve become friendly with the “gatekeeper” at these businesses from the security guards to the receptionists. They’ve suggested other people in the company who we should know too. Before we did these level 3 self-promotions, we were just another vendor coming into their office.And….I absolutely LOVE doing them! The creativity, making people laugh, breaking up their day, the reactions we get all over town! Priceless!!! Remember to STAND OUT from your competition you need to stay in front of your prospects and clients. Engage them, do something fun, different and truly memorable!Self-promotions are a fun way to do this. Here are the 4 steps you need to do:

1. Pull out your marketing calendar and select 1x each quarter that you’ll do a self-promotion. Creating it around a national/fun holiday.
2. Choose the self-promotion level that you want to do. Bronze, Silver or Gold
3. Brainstorm what you’ll do. Tie it into the theme you selected and align it with your business.
4. GET STARTED right away!

Make sure you like our Spitfire Advertising Facebook page so you can see what we’re doing throughout the year for our promotions and it will spur ideas for yours.Follow us on your favorite social media. We are also on Instagram, LinkedIn, Youtube, and Twitter. Hugs and high fives,Shana Anderson-Nute, BASIPronounced SHAW-nuh Certified Promotional Products Consultant & Graphic Designerwww.SpitfireAdvertising.com P.S. If you need help, email us today! We’d love to help you!Do me 2 favors:

1. Share this with a friend or co-worker, so you and I can both help someone else achieve their goals.
2. Don’t have a marketing calendar? I have you covered! Click on this link and download my FREE Monthly Marketing Calendar Worksheet. I’ve made it easy for you to plan out your monthly marketing by just entering what marketing activity you’ll do and when, what your top 3 priorities are that month, what theme you’ll create that month’s marketing around and then evaluate your month when you’re done. This is the monthly marketing calendar that my clients and I use and have great success. All you have to do is go to the link and then download it.