Contests as a Retail Marketing Strategy

Contests are an excellent retail marketing tactic for generating 'buzz' and increasing foot traffic to a retail store. Contests are also a method by which to collect contact data from customers, to be used for direct mail and e-mail marketing campaigns.

The types of contests a retailer can plan are as limitless as his imagination. The objective of any contest should be to create the best possible incentive to get customers into the store, and to motivate them to place their contact information into the drawing box. Usually the incentive is a valuable grand prize, but can also take the form of a small gift given just for entering.

One example of a contest idea might be to ask customers to help name a mascot or character associated with the business. A retailer can create an entry form providing space for a contest entrant's name, address, phone number, e-mail address and mascot name suggestion. If the retailer has a website, customers can enter the contest via an online entry form as well. The retailer can set dates associated with the contest such as an entry deadline, a first round selection of three finalists, and finally the date to announce the grand prize winner. The contest rules and progress can be included in all advertising and marketing campaigns within the contest timeframe, including the store's voicemail greeting, flyers, media advertising and website.

The grand prize for this contest might be an opportunity for the winner to appear in a series of local advertisements with the mascot and to have her name and photo appear on the air, in the press, and on the website. In addition, a prize basket could be offered to the winner and to the two semi-finalists.

Another tactic to collect additional contact data and to add longevity to the event might be to conduct the contest in two parts: once the three finalists have been selected, customers can be called back into the store or to the website to vote for their favorite of the three possible choices. In addition to being a fun idea, this type of contest can create great word-of-mouth advertising and a great deal of foot traffic.

Contests with media tie-ins are particularly good traffic builders, as the reach for potential entrants is greater than usual. An example of this type of contest might involve a retail store owner inviting customers to come into the store to obtain a lottery-type ticket of numbers, in exchange for entering the contest via the entry form providing their contact information. Customers would be instructed to listen to a particular radio station at a particular time, or to purchase the local newspaper on a particular date to obtain the winning numbers drawn and compare them to her ticket. The customer holding the winning ticket is the grand prize winner.

The publication or station printing or airing your ads benefits from a tie-in contest, as it receives an increase in listeners and newspaper sales on a particular day. A radio station may provide a discounted advertising rate to motivate a retailer to direct listeners to a show in need of a ratings boost, or to a particular section of the newspaper in need of readers.

Contests are great opportunities to obtain contact information, generate foot traffic, and inspire word-of-mouth advertising for a retail store. Include a series of contests in your annual retail marketing plan.

About the Author

Jim O'Donnell of Jaguar Consulting, Inc. in Kingston, NH provides marketing and business development services for small business and has developed a series of Retail Marketing Checklists designed to help small business owners achieve a higher growth and profitability. He can be reached at (603) 642-8338, JimODonnell@JaguarConsulting.com, or http://WWW.Checklists4Business.com to review all checklists that are currently available.

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Car Insurance Quotes are Just the Beginning

Insurance for Your Car can Get Even Lower Rates with Lifestyle Discounts for You

Car insurance quote are a great tool for finding the best car insurance companies for you.

  You can lower your car insurance quotes even more by searching discounts that apply to your driving lifestyle.

Car insurance quotes can narrow down your choices of insurance companies.  Once you have a list of car insurance companies that can fit within your budget constraints, you can examine those companies even further by comparing the discounts insurance companies offer. 

Many standard discounts on car insurance rates are taken into consideration when you submit information for your quotes.

  Location, the make of your car, and your gender are standard questions for quotes.  However, instant quotes often neglect listing all discounts available in lieu of making the online quote process faster, and websites may also neglect to list all of the discounts that are available to drivers.   Taking the time out of your schedule to search the car insurance company’s website for discounts, make a phone call, or even send an email to the company asking what discounts they offer, will further narrow down your choices of the best companies for you - and save you a substantial amount of money in the long run.

Age is highly relevant when getting preliminary quotes and when searching for discounts.  A young male is likely to be subject to high insurance rates based on the statistics that show that young men are more likely to be involved in car accidents.  However, discounts are offered to students with high grades, and if that same young male is in college that is a determined number of miles away from home, he may qualify for a further discount.  Young men may also receive a discount from the original quotes if they participated in Driver’s Education or a Defensive Driving course.  And for those that choose to settle down early, marriage offers yet another reason for a discount on car insurance, and some companies even offer a discount for being a non-smoker. 

Middle age drivers will find that they can apply for the same discounts, and even more based on their driving history.

   Being accident free, ticket free and having a clean driver’s license are all potential traits that can lower original car insurance quotes.  Many of the best car insurance companies offer discounts for having a good credit rating and carrying car and homeowner’s insurance with the same company.   Insurance for you car can also be lowered through discounts offered to those who carpool to work or drive a short distance to work. 

Senior drivers can have their car insurance quote lowered by even more factors.

  Many companies offer rate deductions based on age, membership in certain retirement programs, work status, frequency of driving, low annual mileage, and longevity with an insurance company.

Car insurance quotes are rarely the final rate.  Insurance for you car can be less costly be researching the available discounts that are available based on your lifestyle and driving history. There are many more discounts available based on your car and choice of deductibles that also have the potential to reduce your quotes even more.   Take time for an online search to find driver discounts that can drive down your car insurance rates.  A discount on insurance for your car is a savings that you can drive around with

About the Author

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Printing Your Newsletter Is Easy

Newsletters are a quick and easy way for organizations, community groups, or businesses to get information to a specific audience.With the software that's available, it's possible to create one from home.If you don't have the experience or time, however, you can look into outside printing and hire a company to produce a newsletter for you.

Before you can engage a printer, however, you should draft a layout.The plan and the information you want to present is totally up to you, but there are a few pointers that can help maximize the efficiency of your newsletter, and keep it interesting for your readers.

By keeping a few design ideas in mind, you can present a coherent and attractive newsletter to your readers.

1.Needless words - Words like "the" and "newsletter" don't really serve a purpose in the title.If you've presented the material correctly, those concepts will be understood.

2.Icons and symbols - Icons and symbols representative of the company or organization can be distracting when they're near the title.Separating them from the title allows the reader to focus on the words and begin reading.

3.Distortions and effects - Stretching, compressing or otherwise altering the typeface can be off-putting.Those effects are fine for a child's class project or party flyer, but if you're trying to present a polished and professional image, keep text effects to an absolute minimum.

4.Poor use of white space - White space allows the reader a clean section of the page.Allowing for adequate white space has several effects.It sets off the text you do have - contrasting blank and filled spaces.White space can also function as text separation, a resting spot for the reader's eyes, and a way to emphasize headlines, subheadings, or graphics such as photos.

5.Too many graphic "frills" - These frills, also called accents, include borders, shaded backgrounds, horizontal and vertical lines and other decorations.Many times, these accents are unnecessary.If you use your white space to greatest advantage, you'll find that your newsletter doesn't need the trimmings and varied color schemes.

6.Wraparound text - Sometimes it's necessary to include graphics on your pages.The text surrounding these images (pictures, graphs, etc.) should be captions and text pertaining to the picture.When text wraps around a graphic, you're likely to end up with over hyphenated lines that disrupt normal reading pace.That can be frustrating for readers and encourage them to skip the story or put the publication down altogether.

7.Upper and lower case type - Reading text in all caps can be difficult because of the way our brains process information.Upper case letters disrupt our normal word recognition patterns and can sometimes convey the wrong meaning.Consider SEAL and seal.The difference between these two words has all to do with the spelling.You don't want to confuse your readers nor make reading your articles difficult for them.And let's not forget, in our web friendly, e-mail filled world, all caps is considered shouting and can be offensive to some readers.

8.Underlined text - When you underline text, generally you intention is to draw the reader's focus to those words.However, be careful with underlining.As with graphic accents, it can be distracting, unprofessional and unnecessary.Underlines also make words harder to read.

With your newsletter, you're trying to appeal to your audience and keep them interested.Staying away from the above mistakes can make your bulletin that much more effective.If you don't have the time to remember all of those pointers, however, hiring a professional printing company can save you some of the trouble.

A professional firm will arrange the layout for you.An experienced printer knows all about presentation and you can be certain that your finished product will be polished and professional and attractive to your audience.

About the Author

Creating an attractive and effective newsletter can be a daunting task.

That's where a printing professional can be useful.Let H & H Print Service do the designing for you.http://www.hhprint.com .

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The Intentional F&I Manager-Part 1

An Intentional F&I Manager does things with a purpose, and on purpose

Its an exciting day in the F&I Department and many F&I Professionals are reaching record performance levels. As the economy struggles and the prices of everything from gas to groceries rises sharply, people are more watchful of their money. They will only buy things that have real value to them. Thats exactly the kind of customers I want in front of me

The "Intentional" F&I Manager does things with a purpose and on purpose The F&I Professional has a well-developed belief in his products. He knows what they cover and how they benefit the customer.

Other, less "Intentional", F&I Managers complain how tough it is and make excuses for under-performing. When you ask these F&I Managers what went false very last month, numerous are immediate to point out that their flop was due to a couple external factor, which prevented each other like achieving their purpose. "Vagrant conduct by Sales Managers, sales people and those darn local credit unions are killing us", is whatever you will pick up. The merely obsession you can be agreed to triumph in F&I without calculatedly fight is ruin Effecting visited dealerships regarding the countryside, there emerges a distinct diversity between the booming F&I managers and the less than-performers. The booming F&I Supervisor completes a lot extra objects intentionally than their under-acting peers. Lets take a peep at the boulevard of an "Intentional F&I Supervisor".

Pass through an "Intentional Policy"
A authority football artist that accomplishes not grasp the playbook and a authority baseball artiste that refuses to carry batting drills experience one thing in general. They are destined to dishearten An F&I Specialist must pass through an intentional strategy by atmosphere goals, practicing his generate and acting to unfailingly hone his exploits or they are destined to disappoint as at any rate

The side road to an intentional F&I merchandises regularly begins along furthermore situation goals. Each day, magazine and magazine projections should be thoughtfully planned to call increment and provide a target to hop for. Goals must be shared as well as the dealer or GM to enable themselves to have room for us in charge in our efforts to augment our production. Repeating these on a every day grounds will hold our month indulge in going adrift and stock us on follow. In my episode, I go through found there to be three classifications of Purpose setters: Gamble-Takers, Warmth-Takers and Under-Takers

The Gamble-Taker is until the end of time searching for more make skills and will work dependably to intensify his skills so he can offer a purchaser concentrating and analyze building presentation. These are the managers who are fun to book also, for they are incessantly famished for knowledge, and all the time strive to become improved at their make.

The Care-Taker needs nil to do plus the difficulty to accelerate. If they can basically carry the status quo and resume to stay at their latest level of production they are energized. All of their spirit is focused on evoking agreed numbers dont go behind, not on functioning to see themselves go up

The Not up to-Taker is the manager that bothers me the more. Their need to learn and step up died a extensive age ago. Their main incentive is to dig up an F&I thoughts at a dealership where no one expects a great deal of. Minimal demeanor expectations, no stress to step up, just complete the job work, and sell all without specification the customer needs to buy. Whatever they advertise is impromptu, for the customer considered necessary it.

Its period for these managers to search out something also to do.

Evaluate your production on top of the end 90 time and establish how intentional your tactic has been and type a determination to grow to be a Risk-Taker Your chances for success increase in proportion to the era you use up maneuvers, provision and envisaging for your next buyer. You must become awfully intentional also see to scheduling maneuvers performance as portion of your every day day to day.

Clientele at the moment request capable professionals. They want to know any person who cares close to their precise setting, and who has the proficiency to abet themselves brand right decisions.Until they obtain a expert in the F&I headquarters, they will ignore the occurrence as beside the point, and a desert of their epoch. Recruits will keenly pay for true know-how. It is your affair to contribute it to each other

Every week, you must deplete phase springing up ways and recovering your aptitude to effectively crush purchaser objections using the use of visual aids and more proficient needs-step forward questions. You hunger to role-behave, videotape and synopsis true deliveries to improvement insight on your presentation, or sort out an in-house consultation by your dealerships exercises provider in make a request to taste your consultative sales method evaluated. You should agenda 20 minutes into every day to maneuvers your fashion. No Excuses You misinformation increase your earnings level any higher on the outside than you grow on the in.


Almost about the Creator

Architect Bio
Ron Reahard is senior maneuvers consultant for Reahard Associates Inc.,which gives customized in-dealership FI exercises,

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