It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas… in June!
Those who have worked in retail or holiday event planning know that the holiday season comes very early to those whose businesses peak in the winter months – and two very festive opportunities are already coming your way in the next few weeks. Details of the first, the 67th annual Raleigh Christmas Parade, are below. Details of opportunity number two should be available in just a few weeks, so look for a follow-up post soon!
Greater Raleigh Merchant’s Association Announces 2011 Raleigh Christmas Parade
The Greater Raleigh Merchants Association (GRMA) announces their 67th Annual Raleigh Christmas Parade to be held on November 19, 2011 at 9:30am in downtown Raleigh.
Applications are now being accepted for all parade entries. Registration will close on September 16, 2011. Visit http://grma.org/christmas-parade/parade_schedule.html for the full parade schedule. If your group is interested in having a float, classic car, helium balloon, walking group or other entry, please visit the Greater Raleigh Merchant’s Association website: http://grma.org/christmas-parade/application.html and submit an online application. No applications will be accepted after the September 16 deadline. Applications are chosen based on realtionship to theme, creativity, entertainment, and community appeal.
Sponsorship and volunteer opportunities are also available. If your company is interested in sponsorship opportunities, please contact the executive director of GRMA, Jennifer Bradshaw at 919-755-9235 or jennifer@grma.org. If you are interested in serving on the committee, please email info@grma.org to receive more information.
The Raleigh Christmas parade is the largest parade between Atlanta and Washington DC. Over 250,000 will watch the parade live from home and over 60,000 will attend the parade in person. The parade will last approximately 2.5 hours and will feature something for the whole family.
Looking forward to seeing you and yours participating in the planning and production of the 2011 Raleigh Christmas Parade… or at least participating as an entertained audience member!
Local Business Spotlight: Happy Anniversary, Lucky B’s!
Happy 6th Anniversary to co-founders Mike Lombardo and Bates Battaglia, and their whole team, at Downtown Raleigh’s classiest dive bar… Lucky B’s! Join in the celebrations just “Around the Corner” starting at 5pm today (Saturday, May 21, 2011).
There will be free food, live music from James Dunn (pictured at right), a Red Bull DJ, and great giveaways like Kenny Chesney concert tickets! Check out http://www.facebook.com/LuckyBsBar for more chances to win before you head out.
Thank you to Mike, Bates, Mr. B, Suz, and the rest of the gang at Lucky B’s for allowing Raleighwood Media Group + Raleighwood Event Group to be a part of your continued successes – best wishes for another six years in Downtown Raleigh… and many more to come after that!
Come Join Us Today at a Few Shop Local Raleigh Events!
This month marks the two year anniversary of the launch of Shop Local Raleigh by the Greater Raleigh Merchants Association – happy birthday, SLR! Join us in celebrating today with two great local events:
Networking Event at Joint Venture Jewelry in Cary
From 4:00pm until 6:00pm, come and enjoy networking, great discussion, and a beverage with other SLR members, volunteers, and local business owners. (Don’t forget those business cards!)
Anniversary Party at Natty Greene’s in Raleigh
Shop Local Raleigh turned “2” on April 15th and to celebrate, we have partnered with NCSU marketing students to plan an Anniversary Party at Natty Greene’s Brewing Co. On April 28th, starting at 7 pm, there will be giveaways, $3 pints of local beer and fun guaranteed for all.
To add to the festivities, we have shared some fun statistics regarding small businesses, public relations, and the return on investment of email marketing, for SLR to use at these events. Along with those “trivia facts”, we’ve also included a special offer for event attendees – so be sure to check out what’s “in store” and “on tap” at these great events tonight. We’ll be back with those special offers here later on the blog, but we didn’t want to spoil the fun by giving them away in advance!
Cheers!
Missed the February Social Media Seminar?
Did you miss the February 2nd Shop Local Raleigh social media seminar? We certainly missed you, but I’ve provided the information shared in that event below so that you can study up on social media and how it positively impact your marketing plans.
Presentation Files:
https://raleighwoodmedia.com/files/slr_marketing_seminar_2011_02_02.ppt (PowerPoint Format)
https://raleighwoodmedia.com/files/slr_marketing_seminar_2011_02_02.pdf (PDF Format)
My friend Greg – facilitator, educator, rhythmatist, Trained HealthRHYTHMS Facilitator, and founder of Shop Local Raleigh member business Drum for Change – asked if I could share these resources with him for an upcoming industry conference. I told him that “I am an open book” and would be happy to share this information as a resource for him and his group and also provided the following “talking points” (below) from the presentation (which I went back and added after the presentation, because if you’ve ever attended an event with me, you know I’m an “off-the-cuff” girl and like to let the audience and their questions about a topic steer our conversation). I thought it would be helpful to share here on the Raleighwood blog, too – for everyone’s benefit!
Talking Points:
Slide 3 – The AMA (American Marketing Association) board is comprised of working marketing professionals, so I feel this definition more accurately describes the business of marketing than the typical dictionary definition.
Slide 5 – As overused as the phrase “social media is a two-way conversation” is, it’s true! Businesses that only promote their businesses, but don’t take the opportunity to engage with their audience, are not going to benefit from the time and effort required to nurture this form of communication.
Slide 6 – BIG takeaway: DO NOT MAKE A PERSONAL PROFILE FOR YOUR BUSINESS. Make a PAGE. There is a difference. Signup at facebook.com/pages. Have a personal profile so you can understand how it works from the personal user perspective, but create a page for your business/brand/organization. A vanity URL is a short, personalized URL like http://www.facebook.com/raleighwood – this is the same as telling people what your website address is exactly so they can come right to you instead of telling them to “google you”, where your competitors could snatch up their attention, instead.
Slide 8 – Remember that twitter is a unique network in itself. You don’t want to have to Twitter profile for your brand and only populate it through your facebook activity. You won’t get very many followers if you’re not offering unique information to that audience separately. You’ll also be “blind” to the responses you get on Twitter if you never actually use twitter to engage your audience there, as well. (IE: They’re not going to go to your facebook page to leave you a comment, they’re going to do it on twitter and you will likely miss it.)
Slides 10 and 11 – I LOVE iContact.com for an email service provider. They are local to Durham, NC – as is Bronto.com. MailChimp.com is free as long as your list is under 1,000 subscribers.
Slide 12 – AllFacebook.com and Mashable.com are two nice resources for staying up to date on social media happenings and changes. They can be overwhelming due to the frequency of their content and updates, so I just check in once a month or so 🙂
Have any questions about this event? Feel free to ask! I hope to see you at the next Shop Local Raleigh seminar and will be sure to post details here when that event is confirmed!
Cheers,
Lisa
Join Me Tomorrow at Shop Local Raleigh’s First Seminar of the Year!
Join me tomorrow morning to kick-start your Spring marketing goals and hear from other local business owners and seasoned veterans who are using social media to support their marketing plans. The event, Free Social Media Seminar – Marketing for your Business: Facebook, Twitter, is the first for 2011 in a series of quarterly education events hosted by Shop Local Raleigh (part of the Greater Raleigh Merchants Association). ALL SLR & GRMA Members are invited.
We’ll talk about the idea of push versus pull marketing and some effective uses of social media for your business.
The free seminar will help you to understand:
Marketing and why it’s important for your business
Social Media 101
Email Marketing, Blogging & website and how they integrate
Top 10 Tips for Social Media Marketing 2011
Question/Answer panel including local business owners and veteran marketing professionals that use social media
And the best part? You’ll be able to hear me speak! (Just kidding about that being the best part. ;-)) Please do think well wishes for me though as today I’m fighting a nasty winter cold. Have no fear, I’ll be presenting tomorrow. Just please forgive if I sound a little raspy!
The event is from 9-11am on Wednesday, February 2, 2011 at 1 Maiden Lane – just off of Hillsborough Street.
RSVP to info@shoplocalraleigh.org today! Not a member, yet? That’s ok – come as our guest! But please still email to RSVP so we can have an accurate head count.
Fairway Adds First Digital Billboard Just North of Raleigh
I just finished reading an interesting press release on dBusinessNews (Triangle) – The Triangle Region Receives its First Digital Billboard. This is something that I might need to make a drive out to Wake Forest to see!
The most compelling sales features of a digital billboard like this is that advertisers can change up their promotional offerings in a digital format, instead of waiting weeks or even months to change the billboard display. Restaurants can now target breakfast consumers in the early morning hours and run lunch-time, dinner, or late-night advertisements at relevant times of day, too.
Non-Profits Take Note!
“As a good corporate citizen, Fairway is utilizing its digital capabilities to help promote local non-profits by providing no cost advertising on the new digital display. Some of the public service announcements will benefit the following non-profits: The Salvation Army, N.C. GreenPower, Franklin County Humane Society and Meals on Wheels of Wake County.”
I checked out Fairway’s website and didn’t immediately notice any calls to join its non-profit program or to submit your organization for consideration, but it would only take a few minutes to email the organization or give them a call to inquire.
I’m sure the display won’t show video or other types of truly attention-commanding media, as driver safety is likely a major consideration when getting local approval for a billboard display of this nature, but simply having a different advertisement displayed each time a driver passes (or showing 3 or 4 while the driver is stopped at a red light), means lots of promotional opportunity within one finite amount of space.
I do have to wonder why Fairway chose to place their first billboard of this kind outside of Raleigh in a more suburban/rural location, but my first suspicion is that it may have to do with local zoning.
Have you seen the new billboard yet? Tell me about it in the comments!
PS – Merry belated Christmas! I hope the holiday weekend was good to you all! Tank and Delta are sitting home now in front of the window watching the snow from this past weekend’s North Carolina blizzard fall from the trees.
Cheers,
Lisa
Free Advice: Don’t Abuse Your Email List!
Four of the five local retailers that emailed me yesterday, on Thanksgiving, about their Black Friday and holiday weekend sales and promotions sent me the same email again today. That’s eight emails, from the same four retailers, within 24 hours.
Now, that may not seem like a whole lot, but when I deleted 50 more emails that had arrived from non-local retailers between midnight last night and 10am this morning, you can see how the competition for my attention as a consumer gets fierce!
I’m email savvy enough to use a dedicated email address for my lists subscriptions. One that I don’t require myself to check once per day and one that is certainly not connected to my Blackberry. Most consumers are not this dedicated, however. So when their email inbox becomes overwhelming, they start clicking on “unsubscribe”. And once they’re gone, they’re likely not coming back!
I’m going to just put this out there. Email publishers who email frequently, about the same topic, almost always see an uptick in unsubscribes when they took a quick look at their email marketing statistics. Oh no! That’s exactly the opposite of what they want to see happen – and quite unfortunate, too.
So remember the golden rules of email marketing: make it relevant, keep it valuable, and don’t overdo it! I also recommend analyzing your past email marketing campaigns to find out what really works for your audience. Think Tuesday is the best day of the week to send email marketing out to customers or email list subscribers? Think again!
Just because Tuesday at 10:00am seems to be the popular “buzz time” for email distribution among marketing types, I have personally audited many of my clients’ email marketing campaigns and found that each have their own personalities. And many times, the emails they’ve sent on other days of the week have significantly higher open rates. Why could that be? Again, you’re competing for your audience’s attention. Plus, your target demographic may have unique behavioral characteristics. (Teachers work from 7:00am until 4:00pm, bartenders work from 6:00pm until 3:00am… do you think they will be checking their email at the same time?)
If everyone sends emails on the same day, you better have the best subject line among the bunch. And that, is a whole ‘nother topic of discussion!
Want to discuss the analytic side of email marketing? Drop me a note and let’s talk shop! Not using an email service provider so that you can analyze your email marketing performance? Stop what you’re doing right now and send me an email. We have got to get you on the path to making your email marketing work for you! 😉
Geekin’ Out: Kodak ESP 9 All-In-One Printer
How many girls do you know who would be thrilled to get a wireless printer for Christmas and a Dyson vacuum for their birthday? Probably not many… but I sure am one of them! Let’s talk about the first part of that equation: the printer. To be specific, the Kodak ESP 9 All-In-One Printer.
Last Christmas my parents gave me and my sister new printers (and recycled our old ones at the store, yay!). While most “kids” may not be crazy about getting a ridiculously practical gift for the holidays, I loved it. As a still-getting-on-my-feet-small business owner, I rarely spend the money to buy things I’d really like to have (or, ahem, even need sometimes)… and this was something I had wanted for quite some time: the ability to print from anywhere in the house – not just the home office!
The wireless printing is by far my favorite feature, but the copier feature is also SUPER easy to use, and I love all of the settings that make saving ink a breeze (ie: print in draft, black and white only, etc. – but that’s sort of a given with most modern printers). I’ve had this printer for almost a year and am just now having to buy replacement ink for the first time. Which, by the way, is not nearly as budget-busting as it used to be. One of the biggest benefits of a Kodak printer is the relatively low cost of ink, when compared to others. Prices range from just $10.00 for black ink to $28.00 for the combo pack.
I have not even gotten halfway into what this printer can do, because it just works. And that’s all I need it to do. I had a P-S-C (printer-scanner-copier) prior to this, but definitely not one that was wireless or that could scan a stack of papers from a top tray. This printer retails for $249.99. You can buy it online or in stores, if I remember correctly (but I didn’t see any Kodak ink at OfficeMax tonight… so I may have to order that online).
If you are so inclined, I would really appreciate if you would purchase any Kodak needs (the above recommended printer, said needed ink, etc.) through my affiliate link here:
Save $ with KODAK All-in-One Printers available at the KODAK Store, which simply means nothing more than if you purchase based on this blog post, Kodak will send me a 3-4% commission. They have not contacted me or compensated me for this post in any other sort of way. The opinions expressed here were alllll my own!
And in the interest of a totally fair review, I’ll go ahead and list the only flaw I’ve found so far with the printer. Occasionally, I’ll have to physically press the power button on the printer face to cycle the power on or off when my computer doesn’t want to talk to it via the wireless right off the bat. This could be due to my computer or wireless network, however, so i don’t want to entirely lay the blame on the printer here!
Any questions? Any other products/categories you readers would like me to review next?
Happy Printing!
-Lisa
What’s ON Your Cup?
What’s in your cup may not matter as much as what’s written on your cup, with this great idea from Caribou Coffee. To be fair, I don’t believe they pioneered the idea, but I do love the customer engagement! Way better to use your customers words (with permission, of course) than a small array of old quotes, no?
Engage guests with memorable digital interactions.
When the company asked guests to submit comments about what they stay awake for, more than 15,000 people responded. Next year, Caribou plans to reissue its coffee cups with statements from those guests.
via: Marketing executive shares lessons from Caribou Coffee’s growth, growing pains – http://www.restaurant.org/nra_news_blog/2010/10/marketing-executive-shares-lessons-from-caribou-coffees-growth-growing-pains.cfm
image: http://www.diytrade.com/china/4/products/3075181/double_wall_paper_cup.html (PS – I’m not advocating importing your cups from China, I just like the picture.)