Organizing A Successful Small Business Event

Though social media holds big benefits for small businesses, it does not eliminate the need for face-to-face interaction. Customers still require a personal touch to build trust and there is no better way to provide it than by holding an event. The most value is derived when the event is properly planned, promoted, and executed.
Before outlining the structure of the event, determine its goal. Do you want to get new customers or increase business during a slow season? Or, is it time to thank existing customers for their patronage? Think about the goal and the target audience and base the structure on these. Consider whether customers will find value in guest speakers, demonstration sessions, or new item previews.
Formalize the event by designing and printing invitations that include tickets. If appropriate, allow recipients to bring a guest because this could land some new customers. Create gift bags that include product samples, coupons, and branded promotional items like t-shirts. Ask partners to donate items for raffles and solicit sponsors to help finance the event.
Having an RSVP allows you to create enough gift baskets and order a sufficient amount of food. Send email reminders regarding the event and response deadline date. To make this process easier, use content from the invitations as the body of the email. Include an agenda so people know what they will be treated to if they to attend.
Decorate the venue with a welcome banner, balloons, and table centerpieces. Assign someone to take tickets at the door and a few other people to direct guests to the proper area. After the event, send personalized thank you notes to those who attended and post pictures on the company website and Facebook page. Get additional publicity by submitting an event recap and some photos to the local media outlets.

Recruiting Volunteers For Your Church

People are so busy these days that they barely have time to get enough sleep, let alone volunteer their time to others. As a church representative, you know how difficult it is to get people to attend services. Asking them to devote even more of their time often results in frustration. Even those who want to help with church bazaars, facility improvement, and bible study groups may not have enough free time.
If you show churchgoers the value of volunteer efforts, they may change their tune. This begins with formalizing the volunteer process, something many churches do not do. People interested in volunteering should be screened to determine where their skills can be best used. Volunteers should receive formal training so they can perform assigned tasks in the proper manner. Using volunteers effectively reduces burnout, allowing the church to maintain a consistent roster.
Create brochures that explain the various volunteering opportunities and how each benefits the community. Once people understand the different roles and their value, they may be more likely to volunteer. Use thick, UV coated flyers to advertise open volunteer positions to the community. Non-members may have interest in helping out to learn more about the church.
Distribute volunteering brochures after church services and at church events. Provide volunteering opportunities for youngsters, allowing them to get involved at an early age. Children can help distribute church programs or assist with displaying items at church fairs. Older children can sell tickets at church potluck dinners and silent auctions.
In addition to publicizing volunteer opportunities, UV coated flyers promote the church to the public. Businesses and politicians will see what the church is doing to improve the community. This may inspire them to play a more active role in the church by donating money, products, or services. They may even donate the gift of their time.

TWO TIMER: Laurie Schaub Repeats as Football’s Hottest Wife

Over 26,000 votes were cast for Football’s Hottest Wives in the annual competition sponsored by Fantasy Football Sideline and Fantasy Baseball Dugout.  Matt Schaub’s wife Laurie repeated as the champion by overtaking an early lead by Julie Dorenbos, wife of Eagles Pro Bowl long-snapper Jon Dorenbos.

Wayne, Pennsylvania – For the second consecutive year, Laurie Schaub, wife of Houston Texans’ quarterback Matt Schaub, has been named as “Football’s Hottest Wife” by the readers of fantasy sports websites Fantasy Football Sideline and Fantasy Baseball Dugout.

Buoyed by promotion from Philadelphia rock station WMMR and her appearance on the Spadora on Sports radio show, the beautiful Julie Dorenbos, wife of Eagles long-snapper Jon Dorenbos, was the very deserving and early leader in the competition.  But, as the competition moved into the second half of the season, Schaub began making her move and ultimately became the repeat winner in the second year competition.

Third place was awarded to supermodel Gisele Bundchen, wife of Patriots’ quarterback Tom Brady.  Gisele was clearly the most famous of the finalists, but football fans tended to lean toward the less well-known candidates Schaub and Dorenbos.

Laurie Flynn Schaub is an ex-cheerleader from Auburn University.  She parlayed that experience with the Tigers to become a cheerleader for the Atlanta Falcons.  While in Atlanta, she met Matt who was then the back-up QB and holder for the placekicker.  The couple married in February 2008.

Football’s Hottest Wives, patterned after the highly successful Baseball’s Hottest Wives that is now entering its fifth year, began early in 2011 when several nominees were named by the fantasy football website.  Based on visits by readers, the final 17 finalists were selected by the publishers of the website.  Voting began early in the NFL season and continued through Super Bowl Sunday.  Fans were permitted to vote once per hour.  Voting was provided through the website and through text message voting provided by mobile marketing site 84444.com.

Here are the final statistics for Football’s Hottest Wives 2011-12.

1.       Laurie Schaub (Matt) – 24.8%

2.       Julie Dorenbos (Jon) – 20.4%

3.       Gisele Bundchen (Tom Brady) – 7.8%

4.       Kristin Cavallari (Jay Cutler) – 4.6%

5.       Sasha Dindayal (Antonio Gates) – 4.5%

6.       Alicia Jammer (Quentin) – 4.1%

7.       Candice Crawford (Tony Romo) – 3.6%

8.       Evelyn Lozada (Chad Ochocinco) – 3.5%

9.       Heather Mitts (A.J. Feeley) – 3.5%

10.   Katina Taylor (Jason) – 3.3%

11.   Amanda Brown (Peyton Hillis) – 3.3%

12.   Carrie Prejean (Kyle Boller) – 3.2%

13.   Christy Oglevee (Chris Cooley) – 2.9%

14.   Brittany Koehl (Stephen McGee) – 2.6%

15.   Sanya Richards (Aaron Moss) – 2.5%

16.   Kim Zolciak (Kroy Bierman) – 2.1%

17.   Betina Driver (Donald) – 2.0%

18.   Others – 1.4%

We comb the write-in vote in the hopes of finding a hot wife that we may have missed in the competition.  The leading write-in candidate was Susie Celek, boxer and wife of Eagles’ tight end Brent Celek and also the business partner and good friend of Julie Dorenbos.  Susie is also a regular on WMMR radio in Philadelphia.  Nicole Jennings, wife of Packers’ wide receiver Greg Jennings, was also listed on numerous write-in ballots. 

Kendra Wilkinson, wife of Hank Baskett was also named on several ballots, but Kendra was not eligible this year due to Baskett not being on a regular NFL roster.  Lingerie Football League stars Amber Seyer and Jenny Kaus also received votes, but that’s for another contest that the company will sponsor soon – Hottest Stars of the LFL.

2011 Marketing from My point of view

To me the biggest surprise of 2011 is the continued back and forth debate on Social Media ROI and the outcry for a unified metric. Yes, I understand the difficulty and the need to do calculate Social ROI but many, and I want to say most, companies lack an established strategy. Organizations are “doing” Facebook and Twitter because their major competitors are. How can you quantify results when you don’t know where you are headed? Furthermore, when harnessing the total power of social media and aligning it to organizational/Marketing goals and objectives…Demand/Lead Generation, Sales/Marketing Alignment, Customer Relationship Building etc. Each of the aforementioned goals can be nurtured with Social Media but each set has its own benchmarks in which to be measured. There shouldn’t be a unified metric on how to measure Social Media ROI, Social Media is multi-faceted and should be tailored to

The Reflection of Marketing in B2B Business

As a sales rep, I’ve always sought out ways to communicate with more prospects while maintaining personalization… this is what the new era of automated sales & marketing promises. No longer do sales reps have to sacrifice scaled effectiveness in order to remain sincere with prospects. The gap between marketing & sales is truly starting to bridge.
While a major development, the location-based marketing explosion wasn’t the only key social trend in 2011. It was exciting and encouraging to see B2B marketers more fully embrace social media marketing and the impactful role it can play in forming individual relationships with the masses. With the majority of B2B buyers starting their decision-making process via online research and talking to other users in social communities and blogs, marketers must adjust for this changing dynamic. This year was a clear indication that companies, all companies, must not only embrace social media, but should be investing in tools designed to monitor, measure and report on the channel’s impact—greatly enhancing the way they track and execute customer communications and dialogue.
One thing I’m going to be particularly passionate about in 2012 is helping marketers truly achieve 1:1 dialogues with their individual customers—not segmented blasts but real-time, multichannel, personalized, 1:1 communications. I firmly believe that the only way to truly achieve this is to focus less on what you want to say and more on what they’re telling you they’re interested in. With inboxes becoming more cluttered by the day, marketers who want to be successful must take steps to carefully “listen” to customers and prospects so they can create dialogues that cut through the noise and engage their audience. This means going well beyond aggregating and segmenting toward truly understanding what each individual does across emails, websites, social networks, offline locations and more. By bringing all the silos and channels together to gain a singular view of each customer and prospect, marketers can create campaigns that foster dialogue with each and every contact on his or her terms and timing—true Bto1 marketing.

Text Message History Timeline

Bob Bentz is president of Advanced Telecom Services which provides text message marketing, apps development, mobile websites, and custom QR Codes to its media and advertising customers.  Bob would like to supply such services to Santa Claus as well, but Santa doesn’t answer his text messages, Tweets, Facebook friend requests, or LinkedIn contacts.  Santa, if you are reading this, please follow @BobBentz on Twitter, friend him on Facebook, or hit him up on LinkedIn.  He has a great deal for you.

What Santa Claus Can Teach Us About Inefficiency

The Greatest Businessman of All-Time

North Pole –When you think about the greatest businessman of all-time, who comes to mind? 

Ford?  Rockefeller?  Bill Gates?  Donald Trump?  Richard Branson?  Mark Zuckerberg?  Steve Jobs?

Give me a break.

The greatest businessman of all time is, without a doubt, Santa Claus.

8 Things That Santa Claus Does Better than Donald Trump

Think about it.  Santa’s customers return year after year.  He has a factory that churns out toys 24/7 with little overhead.  He has loyal and long tenured employees that work for near minimum wage.  Of course, there aren’t a lot of jobs in this tough global economy, so imagine how hard it is for vertically challenged elves these days. 

Santa Claus has a promotions department that secures prime visibility in crowded malls and gets him grand marshal positions in parades all over the world.  He also has a publicity crew that writes songs, poems, and even produces movies and television shows with him as the star.  His stamina is amazing and there are no performance enhancing drugs in his body, unless you count the chocolate chip cookies!

He’s an advertising genius.  Just watch TV in December and see how many commercials he’s on.  I’ve seen him drinking Coca-Cola for years now and am still amazed how he can balance himself on that Norelco razor after all the junk food he eats!

And talk about customer service.  It’s the best in the world!  No waiting on hold to talk to his telemarketers “Ryan” from Sri Lanka.  He knows what you want, often without your even telling him.

The Biggest Mistakes Santa Claus Makes

But, sometimes I think Santa Claus is slipping a bit the past few years.  He hasn’t really embraced html5, social networking, apps, or cloud technology very well. 

Santa doesn’t own an iPhone or an Android.  He thinks a Blackberry is a health food that he’d never dream of eating. 

I think he’s one of only about 15 people in the world that don’t have a Facebook account.  I’m not sure if he knows how to Google anything.  His website isn’t optimized.  I’ve never seen him Tweet.  His Klout score is below 25.

His workers still use basic tools from the pre-Industrial Revolution.  And, they don’t even have worker’s compensation or a decent HMO. 

His mode of transportation still involves harnessed livestock that take a treacherous route around the world. 

And, don’t tell me one animal with a light bulb on his nose is innovative.  It’s animal cruelty.  Call the ASPCA! 

As for knowing when we’re sleeping, even conservatives would admit that’s taking The Patriot Act too far!

His ordering process?  It’s downright archaic.  I mean, who writes letters any more? 

The Only Thing That Can Save Santa Claus’s Business

What Santa Claus needs is mobile marketing. 

Worldwide, 5 trillion text messages are sent each year, but how many of you have ever received one, or sent one, to the North Pole?  Even Verizon can’t hear you now at the North Pole. 

Did you know that 18% of those 5 trillion text messages are considered commercial text messages?  Don’t you think text message marketing would be a great way for Santa to get rid of some of his closeout inventory?  I hear there’s a warehouse at the North Pole that still has half a million eight-tracks in it!

Ever see the long lines at the mall with kids wanting to take their picture with Santa Claus?  By the time the kids get up to Santa, they are often crying and that doesn’t make for a great Christmas card photo opp.  Why not provide a Custom QR Code to scan while waiting in line?  Mom could scan it and Santa could entertain the kids with videos and the provide text message reminders to be especially good at this time of year.

Did you ever watch the late news on television on Christmas Eve?  There’s usually some hokey satellite picture of Santa flying over some other country.  In the eastern United States, I think Santa is usually somewhere around Slovakia during our 11 o’clock newscast. 

Well, I’m an insomniac and I often stay up late on Christmas Eve multi-tasking on my laptop while watching the History Channel, ESPN, or Skinemax.  I would love to check the app on my iPhone to know when Santa and his reindeer are getting close to my hometown so I can get to bed on time.  If his clever little engineers can’t figure out how to develop an app to track the progress of the flying reindeer, I’m sure Southwest could give them a hand.

Ordering is another issue.  How many of you still have envelopes and stamps in your house?  It’s been so long since I sent a letter that I have no idea how much it even costs to send a letter any more.  How many stamps do you need to send a letter to the North Pole anyway?  It’s not even on the USPS.com web site; I checked.  Plus, there’s the issue of the post office losing your snail mail.  No, that never happens, does it? 

By the way Santa, I’m still waiting for the Porsche I asked for last year.  I knew I should have sent my Christmas list by Fed Ex.

With text messages, we could send in our Christmas lists to Santa Claus through a short code, say 72682 (S-A-N-T-A).  With an easy-to-use mobile marketing solution like this, Santa could confirm receipt and even tell you if you’ve been…bad or good. 

Maybe that’s what happened to my Porsche.

Bob Bentz is president of Advanced Telecom Services which provides text message marketing, apps development, mobile websites, and custom QR Codes to its media and advertising customers.  Bob would like to supply such services to Santa Claus as well, but Santa doesn’t answer his text messages, Tweets, Facebook friend requests, or LinkedIn contacts.  Santa, if you are reading this, please follow @BobBentz on Twitter, friend him on Facebook, or hit him up on LinkedIn.  He has a great deal for you.