Thursday, December 07, 2006

Holiday Email Marketing

Creative e-mail marketing tips to increase your holiday sales or just let your customers know they are on your mind this holiday season. They are all simple to do.

Remind customers about gift cards. Whether you own a retail store, e-commerce site, restaurant or spa, you can use e-mail to promote your gift cards. You could offer a discount or an added bonus to those who purchase gift cards from you. For example, you could offer a free ornie to the purchaser of a $25 gift card.

Offer gift ideas. Some folks just go blank at the holidays when they pick out gifts. Make it easy for your customers by giving them great gift ideas. Everyone's trying to figure out what to buy their friends and family. Highlight gifts that would be great for dad, mom, brother, sister or the friend who has everything.

Send a customized holiday e-card. A great way to connect with your customers or clients is to send a personalized holiday e-card. You can include a photo of your staff along with their signatures. You can also include a poignant thought, poem or short story that helps express the sentiments of the season. Show them how much it has meant to you to have them as customers.

Tracy(Cedara)Dunn of http://www.thrutheatticdoor.com

We need our computers!

So many of us are running our business from a computer. I myself am checking a few dozen times a day. It is the main tool of my buiness and so there are a few things that I try to do to keep it running in tip top shape.

1.Think before you install. So many times I’ve heard someone say their computer isn't working properly. Come to find out.... they've downloaded several programs from the internet or from a CD of a friend. Installing all these programs on your computer will take up space on your hard drive, which will eventually slow your computer down. They could also be an open door for viruses and cause other programs to crash. So install as few programs as possible on your computer. If you can, use a second computer to “play with” and test programs you're thinking of using company-wide.

2.Dump what you don't need. Every few months you should go thru your computer to find and delete any programs you don't really need. These unused or unnecessary programs take up valuable hard drive space, and if you're not using them, you should remove them from your computer via the “Add/Remove” programs option in your control panel.

3.Defragment your hard drive. The hard drive is one of the hardest-working parts of your computer—you're using it all the time, every day (whether you realize it or not) to access the programs you use and store the files you create. The hard drive doesn't save the files in any particular order; instead, it uses the first empty space it encounters (space that's created when you delete files). So data gets scattered around the hard drive, making it slower for you to access the data stored there. That's why it's critical to defrag your hard drive on a regular basis to keep things running as quickly as possible. Do it monthly if you're a “light” computer user and weekly if you're a power user.

4.Security is important. Things do go wrong. Therefore, its important to always backup your important data. You can back it up online, to an external hard drive or to a central server, or you can place the data on CD-ROMs or DVDs. Whatever method you choose, make sure to back it up on a regular basis so that if your computer crashes, you can easily recover your important data.

Tracy(Cedara)Dunn of http://www.thrutheatticdoor.com/

Research Your Competition

Now I'm not talking about copying what the competition is doing.
You have a great business. You can have a better one if you keep an eye on those around you.
Look at their websites. Compare with yours.
Which reads easier? Which guides you smoothly from spot to spot? If there is a problem....which can offer the help needed quicker?
Which offers the customer just what they are looking for?

You know what your customers have been buying. You know what they have been looking for.
Make sure that its YOUR website they always keep coming back to.

Tracy(Cedara)Dunn of http://www.thrutheatticdoor.com

Saturday, December 02, 2006

Do You Like Freebies?

Pattern Mart recently unveiled their new Freebies page, where every other Monday there is a new fun short survey and once you take the survey you get a suprize free gift! The fun part is you never know what it's going to be. It changes every other Monday. So you can come back every couple weeks and take a new survey and receive a new free gift. How neat is that!?

The first freebie was given away to almost 600 people who took the short survey and the feedback in response to the new freebie page has been tremendous. Folks are really enjoying it. So be sure and stop by and check it out!

The current survey is up and running and if you miss that one, a new one will be up on these dates: Monday, December 11th and Monday, December 25th and every other Monday there after.

Have fun and enjoy the freebies! Ofcourse feel free to also browse through Pattern Mart as there are some awesome new patterns up including some new Punch Needle Patterns and Knitting patterns.