One thing that I frequently spend quite a bit of time on with new clients is issues with their domain name .  If someone needs a domain name , I refer them to GoDaddy .  Sometimes if they absolutely don’t want to mess with domain registration or if I know that they won’t keep the registration current, I will manage it for them and just bill them later.

While many web developmentcompanies resell domain registration along with hosting and web design, that is just not something that I have wanted to delve into for two main reasons.  First, we are just talking about a margin of a couple of dollars a year and unless you are doing a high volume, it’s just not worth it.

The second reason, and the most important one, is that when someone buys a service through me, they expect me to be able to fix it if they have a problem.  If there is an issue with their web site, I can handle it.  If it is a problem with their hosting or email, I can make sure that it is fixed.

However if I resold domain registrations and someone let their domain name expire or had their domain unlocked and the nameservers were transferred, there is literally nothing I can do about it.  The last thing I want to do is put my company in a situation where a client has an expectation that I can fix their problem and my hands are tied.  Those couple of dollars a year (see above) just aren’t worth it.

I have written post after post about this, but I can’t say strongly enough how important it is for you to protect your business domain name .  If you had a phone number for years and it had been in all your advertising and your clients had it in their phone directories, what do you think would happen if suddenly one day that phone number started directing calls to a competitor?  What do you think that would do to your business?

That is exactly what can happen if you let your domain name expire or lose control of your domain.

Here again are a few tips for protecting your domain name :

Keep Your Contact Information Current

The registrant information on file at your registrar should ALWAYS be kept current and make sure emails from your registrar don’t get sent to your SPAM filter.  Every registrar will send you reminder emails 60 to 90 days before the domain expires.

Keep Your Domain Locked

Your domain registrar should have a feature to “lock” your domain name to prevent transfers.  If it is unlocked and someone submits a transfer request, you will have to deny that request or it will automatically be transferred.  If you aren’t paying attention to emails related to your domain name or if your email isn’t current, you will have a big problem on your hands.

This should be a standard feature, you shouldn’t have to pay extra for it.

Keep your Domain Registration Independent from Your Hosting

You should never get into a situation where your domain registration is tied into your hosting.  Some registrars, like GoDaddy and Network Solutions, do also offer hosting; however, one isn’t conditional on the other.  For example with GoDaddy , you can register a domain, add hosting to it, and then if you later wanted to cancel the hosting you would still have the domain and be able to use it on another hosting account. (This article explains the basics of a web site and how domains, hosting, and web pages work together.)

You should be able to direct your domain name to point to any hosting service, and if you can’t then run.

I have spent hours over the past week trying to help someone who had signed up for a new hosting service with another company.  That new company not only transferred the web site files, but also their domain names to a new registrar.  Normally that wouldn’t be an issue, except for that the registrar it was transferred to is a wholesaler and the only way the site owner can manage the domain name is through the hosting AND the hosting company only allows the domain to be pointed to their own hosting service . . . essentially locking the site owner into their hosting unless they switch registrars once again.  Which brings me to the next point . . .

Plan Any Domain Registrar Changes Carefully

If you plan to switch registrars, (say for example, from DirectNic to GoDaddy ), make sure that transfer is absolutely what you want to do.  If you switch registrars or change the registrant information, you can’t switch again for 60 days.  When I bought a domain from an auction on SnapNames, I couldn’t transfer it over to my GoDaddy account for 60 days.  In the situation I mentioned above, the site owner is literally stuck on hosting where his site won’t function because the hosting service that the domain management is tied into won’t allow a change of nameservers and he can’t change to a registrar that would allow him that capability for another 60 days.

Never EVER Let Your Domain Expire

Let me repeat that.

Never, EVER let your domain expire.

This is a big, BIG deal.  Some people think that if you let your domain expire that you can just go back and reregister it.  NO.  That is not the case . . .  as in a great big NO.

If you let your domain expire, this is what happens.  Most registrars will give you a grace period, it’s different for each one, maybe 5 days to a week.  During the grace period, you may experience an interruption in your domain direction but you can renew as you normally would.However, there have been a couple of times that I have had an eye on a domain name and the registrar put it into expired status immediately.

After that grace period, it will go into a redemption period.  This time frame varies by registrar.  During the redemption period, you can still renew or “redeem” your domain name ; however, it will cost you a redemption fee in addition to your renewal fee to do so.  The amount varies by registrar, I’ve heard between $75 to $150.

After the redemption period, the domain goes into “pending delete” status.  At that point, you can’t get it back prior to the domain dropping and it will sit there until the domain is deleted from the registry record.

Once the domain registration “drops,” it will become available and there is an entire industry around picking up dropped domains.  Trust me, it is highly unlikely that you as an individual will be able to beat a domainer in reregistering a dropped domain that has any search engine credibility at all.

What will most likely happen is that the domain will be picked up by one of these companies and held.  They will either make their money back by putting up Adsense sites on the domain and getting money from the click throughs from visitors coming to find you, or they will sell the domain back to you at a premium.  At the point, you will have to pay whatever they ask to get it back.

So again . . . don’t let your domain expire.

Yes, they are cheap and because of that many people don’t place much importance on them.  However, your business’s domain name has much greater value than the $10 a year it takes to keep the registration current.  The longer you have that domain and the more prominence you build in the search engines, the greater that value becomes.

Don’t lose that value in one fell swoop over carelessness.

© Carla for Legacy Marketing Services, 2009. | Permalink | Post tags: domain names, small business web tips, small business websites

Many people use Microsoft Word to create content and articles, after all, it is a word processing program.

However, problems arise when they want to import that content into a web page.  If you’ve never looked at HTML source code for a site, you may not know the difference . . . but trust me . . . anything that comes out of Word is a mess when it gets to the web.

Not only does it clutter up and slow down your site with unnecessary code, but the garbage code can also break your site’s design layout.  I recently received a support request for a client because a section on her site was messed up.  The client had posted a new article, pasting the content from Word, and a mangled site was the result.  I had to go into the article itself and strip out all the Microsoft tags to get it to work.

Pasting from Word

You should never copy and paste content from Word directly into your content management system.  The WYSIWYG editors for Wordpress and most of them for Joomla have a “Paste from Word” icon feature.

1. Copy your content from Word.
2. Click the “Paste from Word” icon and a dialog box will appear.
3. Paste your content into the dialog box and hit save.

This will normally strip all the Microsoft junk code from your content.  However, some editors have configuration settings for what gets stripped and what doesn’t.  If that is the case (such as with the JCE editor for Joomla),  you may need to test the settings until you get just the right combination.

With any content management system (CMS), you platform theme is going to contain a stylesheet that specifies what each element of your site should look like, resulting in a cohesive look.  You do not want font and style tags in your content, because that will override the theme settings.

Fast and Easy with Dreamweaver

If you have a copy of Dreamweaver, my favorite way to prepare content for the web is by pasting the Word content into a blank HTML file in design view.  It usually does a pretty good job of converting the format to properly structured paragraphs.  Then I copy that and paste it directly into the WYSIWYG content editor in the CMS.

Final Tips

If you have a site with a layout that was fine but is suddenly out of whack, check first your most recently added content.  Look for any extraneous tags.  That will most likely be the culprit.

© Carla for Legacy Marketing Services, 2009. | Permalink | Post tags: blogging, business blog, business web sites

We developed this option after working with many small businesses who went the DIY route with one of the many site builder options and were frustrated in their attempts to get the site looking the way they wanted as well as the poor search engine rankings for their keywords.

The Business Builder program is not a “DIY” route (we set it up for you), but it is a “manage it yourself” option.

Below is a video on how to edit and update a page using the system.

Click here to view the embedded video.

For our current clients, the video is also located in the Knowledge base for easy reference.

© Carla for Legacy Marketing Services, 2009. | Permalink | Post tags: Business Builder web site, business web sites, small business web tips, small business websites, Web Sites for Small Business

If you have a Joomla based web site, most likely you are using a WYSIWYG editor to compose and edit your articles.  My editor of choice for my own sites as well as Joomla web sites developed for clients is JCE (Joomla Content Editor.)

The two main features that I really like about it, particularly for clients editing their own sites, is the ability to upload images to the media gallery, as well as edit and rename them, right from the article screen, as well as that it allows an easy way to select articles within your site.  It really does make it that much easier for clients to manage their own sites.

One source of frustration for web masters creating pages on a content management system is that many types of code are stripped out of the article when saved to keep malicious scripts from corrupting the database. This is a necessity when multiple users are submitting content.

However, if you are the only one maintaining your site, that same protection can get really annoying depending on how stringent the editor is in restricting code.  There are workarounds with plugins, but again . . . it’s a pain.

Selective Permissions with JCE

JCE is not just a way to make your articles look pretty, it has the functionality to take your Joomla user levels to a whole different level.

A stock Joomla installation has the following users levels:

• Front End Access
  • Registered User: The first level of Joomla access.  Certain areas of the site can be restricted to registered users.
  • Author: Can submit and edit their own content.  Their submissions must be approved by a higher level user.
  • Editor: Can submit and edit their own content as well as content by other authors that has not yet been published.
  • Publisher: Can submit, edit and publish their own content as well as edit and publish any other user’s articles
• Back End Access
  • Manager: The basic level of back end administration access.  They can access the content menu of the Joomla back end and can edit, publish, and update sections and categories.
  • Administrator: In addition to the permission level that a manager has, an administrator has the ability to use most components; however, they cannot chang the site templates or the configuration of the site.
  • Super Administrator:  A Super Administrator can manage all aspects of a Joomla site

JCE ties in with the Joomla user groups by allowing you to specify which use groups can use the editor, which editor features are available to them, and what type of code can be included in the content.

Configuring JCE

There are two main locations where JCE can be configured.  The first is the configuration panel for the component.  It mainly controls how the editor is displayed and whether or not it will attempt to clean up sloppily formatted code.

In most editors, allowed tags are usually specified in the main configuration screen; however, this is not true of JCE and this is where most questions arise on how to get the editor to work the way you want it to.

The second step to configuring JCE is under the “Groups” menu option for the component.  This is where the real meat of the functionality comes into play.  Separate permission sets can be applied to different Joomla user groups.   For each user group, you can specify:

• Which components the editor is available on.
• The appearance of the editor to the user.
• Whether relative or absolute urls are used for images.
• Prohibited and allowed elements.
• Whether css, javascript, or php can be used.
• Allowed formatting elements.
• Where images are uploaded to (each group could upload to a different directory) and the file size limits.
• The composition of the editor toolbar and allowed plugins.
• What types of files can be uploaded.
• Whether they can upload files and/or create, rename and or delete files and directories.
• What type of media is supported.
• How paragraphs and line breaks are included.
• What is stripped in the “Paste from Word” option.
• The default alignment and margins for image insertion.
• Which content link types are allowed.
• Which spell check service is used.

By using group permissions for the editor, you can scale the functionality of the editor for different levels of users, as well as making life easier for your administrators and main publishers.

Legacy Marketing Services is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Joomla Project or Open Source Matters. The Joomla logo is used under a limited license granted by Open Source Matters the trademark holder in the United States and other countries.

© Carla for Legacy Marketing Services, 2009. | Permalink | Post tags: business website, Joomla, small business web tips

Today’s email marketing tip comes from Tom Kulzer, CEO of Aweber.  Aweber is one of the leading email marketing subscription services, the email service of choice for the top internet marketers.

Your web business probably gets product inquiries from potential customers around the globe. Inquiries come via e-mail and your web site, and you try to send information to each hot prospect as quickly as you can. You know that you can drastically increase the likelihood of making a sale by satisfying each person’s need for information quickly!

But, after you’ve delivered that first bit of information to your prospect, do you send him any further information?

If you are like most Internet marketers, you don’t.

When you don’t follow that initial message with additional information later on, you let a valuable prospect slip from your grasp! This is a potential customer who may have been very interested in your products, but who lost your contact information, or was too busy to make a purchase when your first message reached him.

Often, a prospect will purposely put off making a purchase, to see if you find him important enough to follow up with later. When he doesn’t receive a follow up message from you, he will take his business elsewhere.

Are you losing profits due to inconsistent and ineffective follow up?

Following up with leads is more than just a process – it’s an art. In order to be effective, you need to design a follow up system, and stick to it, EVERY DAY! If you don’t follow up with your prospects consistently, INDIVIDUALLY, and in a timely fashion, then you might as well forget the whole follow up process.

Consistent follow up gets results!

When I first started marketing and following up with prospects, I used a follow up method that I now call the “List Technique.” I had a large database containing the names and e-mail addresses of people who had specifically requested information about my products and services. These prospects had already received my first letter by the time they requested more information, so I used the company’s latest news as a follow up piece.

I would write follow up newsletters every now and then, and send them, in one mass mailing, to everyone who had previously requested information from me. While this probably did help me win a few additional orders, it wasn’t a very good follow up method. Why isn’t the “List Technique” very effective?

• The List Technique isn’t consistent. Proponents of the List Technique tend to only send out follow up messages when their companies have “big news”.
• List Technique messages don’t give the potential customer any additional information about the product or service in question. He can’t make a more informed buying decision after receiving a newsletter! If someone is wondering whether your company sells the best knick-knacks, what does he care that you’ve just moved your headquarters?
• List Technique messages convey a “big list” mentality to your potential customers. When I used to write follow up messages using the List Technique, I was writing news bulletins to everyone I knew! I should have been sending a personal message to each individual who wanted to know more about my products.

What follow up method really works?

Following up with each lead individually, multiple times, but at set intervals, and with pre-written messages, will dramatically increase sales! Others who use this same technique confirm that they have all at least doubled the sales of various products! In order to set this system up, though, you need to do some planning.

First, you’ll need to develop your follow up messages. If you’ve been marketing on the Internet for any length of time, then you should already have a first informative letter. Your second letter marks the beginning of the follow up process, and should go into more detail than the first letter. Fill this letter with details that you didn’t have the space to add to the first letter. Stress the BENEFITS of your products or services!

Your next 2-3 follow up messages should be rather short. Include lists of the benefits and potential uses of your products and services. Write each letter so that your prospects can skim the contents, and still see the full force of your message.

The next couple of follow up messages should create a sense of urgency in your prospect’s mind. Make a special offer, giving him a reason to order NOW instead of waiting any longer. After reading these follow up messages, your prospect should want to order immediately!

Phrase each of your final 1 or 2 follow up messages in the form of a question. Ask your prospect why he hasn’t yet placed an order? Try to get him to actually respond. Ask if the price is to high, the product isn’t the right color or doesn’t have the right features, or if he is looking for something else entirely. (By this time, it’s unlikely that this person will order from you. However, his feedback can help you modify your follow up letters or products, so that other prospects will order from you.)

The timing of your follow up letters is just as important as their content. You don’t want one prospect to receive a follow up the day after he gets your initial informative letter, while another prospect waits weeks for a follow up!

Always send an initial, informative letter as soon as it is requested, and send the first follow up 24 hours afterwards. You want your hot prospects to have information quickly, so that they can make informed buying decisions!

Send the next 2-3 follow up messages between 1 and 3 days apart. Your prospect is still hot, and is probably still shopping around! Tell him about the benefits of your products and services, as opposed to your competitors’. You will make the sale!

Send the final follow up messages later on. You certainly don’t want to annoy your prospect! Make sure that these last letters are at least 4 days apart.

Following up effectively seems complicated, but it doesn’t have to be! So many potential customers are lost because of poor follow up – don’t you want to be one of the few to get it right?

Did this article inspire you to add email marketing to your marketing campaign?  Try out the features and power of Aweber for only $1.    Want to plan a campaign?  Contact us for a customized marketing plan.

© Carla for Legacy Marketing Services, 2009. | Permalink | Post tags: email, email marketing, newsletters

In a previous post, we discussed common email marketing mistakes that small businesses make with their email marketing.  Today we are going to cover some best practices for email ads and newsletters for your business.

Affordable Email Newsletter Programs and Services for Small Business

I know that in today’s economy, every business owner is watching the bottom line and if your company does not already have an email campaign integrated into your marketing plan, it may not seem like now is the time to add another expense.  However, as you are reading over the options for starting an email campaign, I want you to keep in mind and compare the costs to the same effort if you were sending it by direct mail (design, printing, and mailing.)

Step 1:  Choosing an Email Platform

An email mailing platform will allow you to compose your email and then will automatically merge it with your mailing list.  As each email to each subscriber is mailed individually, the chance that your email will be caught in a spam filter is much lower.

There are two types of options for a platform: self hosted and subscription based services.

Self Hosted Email Software

With a self hosted version, you obtain the email software, install it on your own web server, and then create your list(s) and send the emails.

Pros: There are no restrictions or additional charges for the number of lists and/or subscribers.

Cons: Installation and maintenance of the platform itself requires expertise.  Mailing capabilities could possibly be limited by email restrictions of the site host.

Self Hosted Solutions:

• PHPList:  A stand alone open source solution; however, it is not the most user friendly.
• Interspire:  commercial platform
• Add on components to CMS platforms such as Acajoom for Joomla, Civimail for CiviCRM on Drupal, or SugarCRM’s email campaigns.

Subscription Based Services:

There are countless email subscription services out there.  A few things you want to look at when comparing services are:

• The monthly subscription price.
• How many lists are allowed at each pricing level.
• If the sender can be change for the mailing and/or for each list.
• The pricing levels per subscriber
• If the list owner can add subscribers or if the subscriber has to opt in on their own.
• The reporting and statistics available.
• The subscription process: does it look seamless to the end user.
• Are both lists and autoresponders (preset sequential mailings) available?
• What effort does the company providing the service take to ensure the sending IP addresses are not blacklisted?
• What is the service’s delivery rate?

As I said, there are many email marketing services available.  Here are a few of the more popular ones:

• Aweber: the email service of choice for many internet marketers
• Constant Contact:  an easy-to-use service used by both email marketing newbies and experienced users.  Try it FREE for 60-Days.
• iContact: Provides a Fully-Loaded Product at an Affordable Price. Click here to start your free trial now!
• Get Response: GetResponse’s competitive advantage is offering a turn key solution for email marketing including email templates, custom field options, autoresponders, and tracking.

Other Tools:  DeliveryWatch allows self email publishers to measure the success of their email campaign by tracking the deliverability rate.

Step 2: Create Your Email Template

The next step in getting your email marketing campaign off the ground is to get your email newsletter template created.  If you have signed up with a subscription service, generic HTML email templates will be available and most also offer the ability to use an HTML email template that has been custom designed for your business.

Creating an HTML based email is different from designing a web site as well as different from creating a flyer in Word.  Each email client and web based email service renders HTML based email slightly different (Microsoft Outlook 2007 being the biggest offender.)  So specific guidelines must be followed when designing for email.

When setting up an email campaign for my clients, I like to create an email design that complements the business’s other identity pieces to continue the branding.

Once you have the template set up you can reuse it again and again, changing only the current message.

Step 3: Compile Your Email List

Once you have your service and email template set up, the next step is to compile the list of your email subscribers.  Most email services allow you to import a list; however, you will need to check on the required format.

Normally, this is done by creating an Excel file with a each subscriber on a row and each field for the subscriber in a separate table cell.  The file is then saved as a CSV file, and then imported into the email platform.

In order to maximize the distribution of your newsletter, integrate a newsletter sign up box on your web site and provide a link  to the newsletter in your signature on all of your outgoing emails.

Step 4: Plan Your Email Campaign

Now that you are set and ready to go, it is time to integrate your email newsletter schedule into your marketing campaign.

Need help starting an email marketing campaign for your business?  Contact Carla at Legacy Marketing Services today at 713.289.0819 or 800.589.8729 for a free consultation.

© Carla for Legacy Marketing Services, 2009. | Permalink | Post tags: email marketing, email newsletter, small business marketing

I get a lot of emails . . . and I mean A LOT.  Some are mailing lists I have signed up for, others are emails with product updates from online merchants I have purchased from, and of course there is always the ubiquitous spam.

However, one type of email that I always pay particular attention to are those from local small businesses.  For one, I like knowing when merchants I shop with on a regular basis are having sales or special events going on.  Second, I am always interested in watching how the independent business owner is actively marketing and the tools that they use.

What Not to Do in Business Emails and Newsletter

1. Don’t send emails from your desktop application.  I get emails like this frequently from local businesses.  They create a distribution list in Outlook, create their email, and then send to their list directly from Outlook.There are two problems with this.  First, many times the recipient’s emails aren’t event listed as a blind carbon copy (BCC), and they are displayed to the entire list.  Second, most internet service providers restrict the number of emails you can send to in one email.  So if you have an email going to 100 recipients, maybe only ten or twenty will actually be sent.  Also, that is the quickest way to get your email and/or IP address blacklisted as a spammer.
2. Don’t send attachments in Word.  I also get a lot of flyers sent as an attachment in Microsoft Word.  While the ideal is to create an email ad that includes the promotion, if you absolutely must send an attachment, send it as a PDF.There are several reasons for this.  Some people don’t accept email attachments.  Some people don’t have Microsoft Word, and if they do have Word, older versions won’t open the latest Word format.  Also, a file may look one way on your computer and totally different when opened by someone else due to fonts and formatting. Adobe Acrobat Professional is the program most businesses use to create and edit PDF files.  However, if you don’t have the program, CutePDF is a free PDF driver available for download that will create a PDF out of any file.  Simply download and install the driver, open the file you would like to convert to a PDF, and go to print and select CutePDF instead of your standard printer.  A save dialog box will appear allowing you to name the PDF file.
3. Don’t design your emails in Microsoft Word.  Another common mistake is designing the email in Word.  Microsoft Word is not an HTML program.  Microsoft Publisher is not an HTML program.  I’m not even that fond of FrontPage.  Anything that has Microsoft in the product title, in my opinion, should not be used to publish on the internet (although I do like Live Writer.)Why all this animosity towards Microsoft?  Anything Microsoft puts out is a big bloated mess.  Have you ever copied an article you wrote in Word and published it on the web?  Have you ever looked at the code?  It is a huge mess.   Lines and lines of pseudo code which only serves to slow down file transfers.When you create an email in Word, what you are sending is a message that is proprietarily coded by Microsoft.  Yes, it will display as you want in Outlook, because Outlook is a Microsoft program; however, that is all you can count on it displaying correctly in.

© Carla for Legacy Marketing Services, 2009. | Permalink | Post tags: email marketing, email newsletter, online marketing

I came across this video today and just laughed and laughed and laughed.

The video is by Scofield Edit, a boutique agency in Indianapolis that provides editorial and editing services.   The video perfectly captures some of the outrageous attitudes that clients sometimes have towards service based businesses.  The only thing that they don’t reference is where they want you to work for free in exchange for a “partnership.”

For all of my service based clients, the next time someone tries to beat you down on price:  step back, watch this video again, laugh and go back and hold firm.

© Carla for Legacy Marketing Services, 2009. | Permalink | Post tags:

I just got a call from my printer and they are running an amazing special on brochure printing and I am passing that savings along to you.

Save $100 on brochure printing from now until July 10th.

The special offer is on 8.5″ x 11″ trifold brochures, full color on both sides, on 100 lb gloss book paper.

With this promotion, it is a great time to stock up for your marketing efforts for the rest of the year.

If you would like to take advantage of this offer, your order needs to be in no later than the 10th to get the pricing of $229 for 1000.   To get the best results, your brochure file should have a resolution of at least 300 dpi.

If you would like me to design a new brochure or make changes to an existing one, please let me know as soon as possible because we have to have everything completed by the deadline of the 10th.

Either give me a call at 713.289.0819 or you can order online as well.  Click “Update Cart,” and at the next screen enter the promo code, JULY09, to get the savings.

© Carla for Legacy Marketing Services, 2009. | Permalink | Post tags: brochure marketing, small business marketing, special offer

I just sent this out as part of an advertisers update for the Kingwood Connection and to my eNewsletter List, and thought I would post this on my blog.

Most of you reading this will not be in the Kingwood area; however, wherever you are I am sure there are opportunities for you to do some community marketing on the 4th of July.  If there truly is nothing going on in the area, then pull out a BBQ and make your own event like Rick Alspaugh of Ace Hardware does with his annual Street Dance.

The 4th of July & You

When we moved to Kingwood in 2002, our first taste of Kingwood life were the 4th of July festivities.  We went to our first Kingwood 4th of July parade and received a promotional fan from the RE/MAX float where we later found our Realtor.

There was also a float entry by the neighborhood village we eventually bought in (that is the only time I have seen a float by a village HOA).  When we were looking for homes, that was in the back of my mind because to me it said that it was a friendly, community oriented village.

If you want to forge relationships with the community, participating community events is a great way to do it.   People may not always mention it, but it does make an impact on a customer’s opinion of your company.

I don’t have any affiliation with these events,  I just think that local businesses have a great opportunity and I hate to see anyone miss out.

4th of July Parade

The Kingwood 4th of July Parade is organized by the Kingwood Civic Club.  The fee for commercial entries is $30.  If you have a nonprofit organization, the fee is waived.   Entry forms can be picked up at the Lake Houston YMCA.

Line up starts at 8 am on the corner of Feather Lakes and West Lake Houston Parkway.  Judging starts at 9 am, and the parade starts at 10 am.  The route goes south on West Lake Houston Parkway from Creekwood Middle School, and West on Kingwood Drive to Kingwood High School.

Entry Ideas:   Some businesses go all out and create real floats.  If you have the time, resources, and inspiration to do that . . . awesome!

If not, don’t think you can’t participate.  Get a banner printed for your business, have your employees (or wrangle some friends to do it with you) wear shirts advertising your business, and walk the parade route.  Slap some banners on the side of a pickup truck and drive in the parade. When Kids in Action has participated in the past, they have walked with a parachute and did the thing where they pop up waffle balls during stops.

I do offer banner printing through Legacy Marketing; however, with shipping the time is a little short.  I go to Signs Designs Now on 494 for all my last minute banner and sign printing.  But if you need a banner for the 4th, you need to order it now . . . as in call them first thing Thursday.

If you have a business that offers classes, do little demos during the breaks.  I’m originally from Oregon, and parades are big, especially with the Rose Festival, and there are always entries with exhibitions in the parades.

If you have a landscaping business, create a mini scape in a trailer bed.

Illustrate what you do to parade goers.

Handouts: Be sure to have plenty of business handouts.  If nothing else, hand out your business cards.  Full sized 8.5 x 11 flyers have always seemed a little unweildy  to me for passing out at a parade.  Rack cards or 4″ x 6″ or 5″ x 7″ postcards are great for that.

Parade goers always like getting other “stuff” though.  One year for a mom’s group, we handed out ice pops, which were a big hit.  Tip: if you are going to hand them out get them now, they take a lot longer to freeze when your freezer is full of them.

Candy is always a staple.  Just be sure not to get anything that will melt.  A lot of people hand out water bottles.

If you are looking for little toys and gadgets, we go to Party Wholesalers on the South side of Houston to get our prizes for Picnic on the Park.  If you want to stay a little closer to home, The Goody Bag is on 1960 in Humble.  Right now The Goody Bag has a promotion on their website, $5 off a $25 purchase.

Parade Tips:  Remember it gets hot in July.  Wear sunscreen and be sure to bring plenty of water for your people.

Also, last year I did a float with my friend for her son’s business, the Reptile Wranger , and I could not believe all of the kids that crowded the route . . . some running right up to the floats.  If you are driving and have the manpower to do it, it would be a good idea to have one or two people walk in front of your vehicle to make sure children don’t get too close while it is moving.

Town Center 4th of July Festival

I love events at Town Center and the 4th of July Festival is one of the biggest . . . and I say this as the organizer of Picnic on the Park.

The festival will be from 2 to 9 pm.  Regular vendor booths are $75, food booths are $100.  You can download the application from the web site

I’m pretty sure they will take applications even up to the day of, but give Angela Griffing, the coordinator, a break and get your application in ahead of time if you are planning on doing it.  Trust me, it makes life so much easier if you don’t have to try to get people situated at the last minute.

Frequently Asked Questions: i get these questions all the time for Picnic on the Park, so I’m sure Angela does as well.

What do I get with a booth? You get a 10′ x 10′ space.   You need to bring your own tables, chairs, canopy, etc.  They don’t require a canopy, but I highly recommend it.  If you need electricity, you need to bring a generator.  The electrical situation is very shaky at the park and they just can’t have a bunch of people plugging in or it will blow the breakers.

What do I do if it rains? The event goes on rain or shine.  If starts raining, don’t pack up and go home.  Hunker down in your canopy (see note above), invite passersby in and make new contacts.  It almost always rains on the 4th, but it is never for very long.  Yes, people still come.

People start coming when the event opens, but things really start hopping at around 6 pm as people start coming for the fireworks.

What should I do at my booth? If you have a retail business, it is easier to set up a display that will draw people in and give them something to look at.  Don’t set up a table across the front and making it easy for them to just glance and walk by, put the table to the back and sides and draw them in.

Be friendly.  Make eye contact and smile.  I’ve seen many vendors at my event founder because they sat at the back of their booth with a glum look on their face.  They gave off such a negative vibe, it was almost a physical wall.

If you have a service based business, it is a little harder to come up with something to attract people.  A few examples of successful vendors at our Picnic on the Park event would be The Little Gym that brings mats and wedges for kids to play on.  Jamie at Creekwood Dental participated in her first Kingwood event this year at Picnic on the Park and had a beehive of activity by handing out tattoos  (available at Party Wholesalers or the Goody Bag) and candy filled eggs.   Tracy Woodard was a Plus Sponsor at Picnic on the park and promoted her new resale shop, Everything-N-Between, by renting a helium tank and handing out balloons.

Have sign ups for drawings.  Ask people to sign up for your mailing list and put something in it for them by offering discounts through it (if you don’t have a mailing list or eNewsletter and would like to start one, contact me).  if you still need ideas for your booth and would like to rent one of the games we use for Picnic on the Park , contact me.

© Carla for Legacy Marketing Services, 2009. | Permalink | Post tags: event marketing, hometown marketing, local marketing, small business marketing