Facebook, along with many other social media services, is making an impact on  our lives and can be a great benefit to our businesses as well. Utilizing a Facebook page for your business provides you with a free avenue by which to reach your customers on a daily basis. It allows them to share their support for, and referrals to, your business with their friends, family, and acquaintances. Never has there been a more cost and time effective way to communicate with your “fans.”

Here are a couple of  ideas that work great to get (and keep) those fans!

• Be sure to include your Facebook page on all ads, business cards, and other marketing materials.
• Use a postcard or business card to offer a discount or free gift for those who “like” your page.
• Give additional gifts or rewards to those who get their friends to like you or share their experiences, pictures of your products, etc. on Facebook.
• Don’t forget to add value and good reason for being your fan. Update, educate, offer, and encourage with your page!

With a little creativity you can tie almost any promotional item in to your Facebook campaign. Some work easier than others and of course will vary with your business.

Determine first how you are going to get the item into the hands of your new (or existing) fans. If you need to mail the item we would select something easy and inexpensive to send. On the other hand, if you’re offer includes the need to stop in for the item or visit you at an event, etc. we don’t need to consider that factor.

Here are a couple of my favorites:

Drinkware remains a perpetual favorite promotion. The items are usable, shared with friends, and keep your imprint in front of your fans. Get creative with catchy phrases, fun art, and practical design to make the piece one your fans will reach for.

We love the Budget Mug at only $2.00 and the X-one for Travel.  X-one even has it’s own Fan page so you can share branded images of your item with their many fans.

Give this promotion a Whirl! A cool little tie in that says “Thanks.” Suitable for any industry, this little fan could be tied in even more effectively for a cooling or A/C company. We love this idea and so will your customers.

For easy to mail solutions, how about a Cell Phone Screen Cleaner? This item is usable on most cell phone models. It clings on and off easily with no sticky residue. Clean your screen and then stick it back into place. The cleaning pads work great, are full color, and always with your Fan. Offer a discount every time they show it and everyone who is nearby will want to now how to get their own! A great way to build fans.

There are as many ideas for the use of powerful promotions to use along side Facebook as their are Facebook users! Don’t wait to harness the power of social media in your marketing efforts.  We’re waiting to create the perfect Facebook promotion to boost your business- Call your Generate Rep today!!

What is the purpose of a promotional campaign or ad specialty give away? While you may have a different answer depending on you business or the specific campaign, I would imagine that linking your company brand to something exciting, useful, and memorable would go in the win column of any promotion you might run.

We found a product at the ASI show this year that would assure that type of win for your business in virtually every case.

The physical product is a simple, laminated card that is fully branded with your logo, tag line, and any additional information you may want included. However, the real value is in the VIP service the card entitles your client to receive.

With activation of their card your client receives access to highly trained, phone based VIP Concierge Service. The service can be used for anything from weather updates and directions to trivia answers and Consumer Reports. Your personal concierge can schedule Tee Times, provide price comparisons, gift suggestions, or even emergency assistance. Worried you’ll sleep through that key appointment next week? The service can schedule reminders  through a call, text, or e-mail. Most important to you as a business owner or account executive is that this service is always custom branded to your company.

In other words, when you call in to the personal VIP service I have provided you the trained assistant will answer on behalf of Generate Sales & Marketing as well as opening or closing the call with a script I provide.

WoW Cards provide some nice additional features to assure you get your money’s worth as well. I am very impressed with the quality of the operators. They are courteous, well spoken, and highly skilled at anticipating additional needs to assure your client gets the most out of the service. In addition, there is no worry that your clients will be interrupted in mid call should their minutes run out. They are not only allowed to finish their call, but when they call in the next time they are alerted that their minutes are actually all used but still given this final call as a courtesy. As an added bonus they are encouraged to phone your company to see about the possibility of gaining additional minutes.

It is a new and exciting product that manages to make your clients feel special. They also want to share their VIP status and “show off” using the service which is obviously a great way to get your company name in front of even more potential clients and begin a dialogue between your top clients and their associates about your business.

We’re pretty excited about the vast array of uses this product has. Customer loyalty, purchase incentive, referral thank you, corporate giving… I could go on- but I won’t! I would rather you see for yourself what the service can do and start getting excited about the possible applications this card could have for you.

We are offering you several  sample this service.

• Be among the first qualified  business associates to sign up for our e-mail specials (see the link on the right side of this page) or contact us for a free price quote and ideas on how to make WoW your most successful campaign to date and we’ll provide you with a free trial account of your own.
• Click this to go directly to a demo site for more information.
• View a Powerpoint we put on SlideShare by clicking this link
• Or give us a personal shout and we’ll be happy to show you just how it works. 219.433.8544

We have more great products from the show to share with you in the coming days so be sure to sign up for the feed or follow/fan us!

Colleen and I just returned from the ASI show Chicago. This is one of 4 industry trade shows held throughout the year. We are tired… our feet are aching…but we are super excited about quite a few new products we saw.

The industry suffered a bit with the economy but seems to have decided it’s time to aggressively market once again. They showed that they practice what we preach in regard to not cutting back marketing budgets when times get lean. Having said that, they also understand that value and ROI have become more important than ever and seem to be helping out the small to medium businesses with quality items at lower minimums and lower price points.

In the coming days I will be taking some time to share a few of the products with you about which we are most excited. Stay tuned to hear about Complimentary Concierge Assistance,  the Epxobox, and a Pen that doubles as a super advertiser.

If you have not yet done so please sign up for our RSS feed or register to receive our e-mails. We will be passing on some fabulous show specials to our subscribers- don’t miss out!

Wishing you Brand Power and Successful Promotions!  Lisa Gapen