Check out the schedule and awesome activities at the link below!
http://www.appalachianfestival.org/
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Appalachian Festival!
Check out the schedule and awesome activities at the link below!
http://www.appalachianfestival.org/
Friday, April 20, 2012
Stealth Postcards
OK, it is a terrible title. I just didn't have a good short name for this article. It really should be "Using Postcards in Envelopes for Marketing Purposes", but that is WAY too long! It is a glance at how you can use an envelope with my favorite marketing piece - the envelope to do some pretty good target marketing.
First of all, I order postcards every time there is a sale at Vistaprint.com. There are other vendors that have better everyday deals, but they often do not have the many template choices that I can get at Vistaprint. I never order at the regular price, but wait for "100 FREE" or worst case the "50% OFF" sales. The price is good and it is easy for me to design. If you have better software and design skills than I have you can search for other sites and save even more on postcards.
As I have said in other articles, I do not "sell" Stephen Hollen, Storyteller. I market specific programs with postcards. A good example would be programs built around a holiday. You might develop a 4th of July program, a Mother's Day program or a Celtic program you market for March and the weeks before and after St. Patrick's Day (I scheduled 5 gigs for March with this very program idea. It doesn't hurt that I can trace my Celtic roots back quite a way on our family tree).
Develop the program and purchase postcards specifically for that program. As I write, Vistaprint just sent a 50% off postcard offer to me by e-mail. That comes to $12.50 for 100 plus 32 cents postage for postcard rates or 45 cents for first class. Yep, 57 cents is a lot if you are going to send out 1,000 pieces of mail. I want to talk about a very targeted idea.
This summer I have several "anchor gigs" I am building mini tours around. I am going to travel out of state and have a decent paying gig. However, I would like to take advantage of the days before or after to get a few other gigs in the area. This is where the envelope comes in and it is pretty cool.
I went to the local card shop and found envelopes that my postcard fit into. The ones I have were on sale and a nice light gray in color. NOTE: They also look like invitation envelopes! This is important! Folks will open an invitation but might just toss my postcard in the trash.
I recently purchased a printer that feeds from the top and will print on postcards and card stock. It works great! I did a quick note that was printed in the space an address would normally go in. It was simple, I would be in their area on specific dates and had dates open if they were interested. I printed this in blue ink so it looked different from the pre-printed info on the back of the postcard.
I placed the postcard in an envelope and then hand addressed them to venues I had already researched and selected. Most of the time I was able to find the name of the person who would be able to schedule gigs. In some cases I simply called and asked.
The postcards were sent out and in several cases I received calls before I could do any follow up. In other cases I followed up with an e-mail or phone call. The "hook" was the fact that since I was in the area already, I could offer a discounted rate to them. The urgency was that I only had a specific number of dates available.
In my case, I had several postcards and programs that I could send to very different venues. This increases the chance of getting those "on top of" gigs.
Does it work? Yes, but it works much better if you can follow up. Do I always get a gig from each piece I send? Heavens no! It does get gigs and is better than driving 300 miles, spending the night at my expense and doing one gig.
Try it!
First of all, I order postcards every time there is a sale at Vistaprint.com. There are other vendors that have better everyday deals, but they often do not have the many template choices that I can get at Vistaprint. I never order at the regular price, but wait for "100 FREE" or worst case the "50% OFF" sales. The price is good and it is easy for me to design. If you have better software and design skills than I have you can search for other sites and save even more on postcards.
As I have said in other articles, I do not "sell" Stephen Hollen, Storyteller. I market specific programs with postcards. A good example would be programs built around a holiday. You might develop a 4th of July program, a Mother's Day program or a Celtic program you market for March and the weeks before and after St. Patrick's Day (I scheduled 5 gigs for March with this very program idea. It doesn't hurt that I can trace my Celtic roots back quite a way on our family tree).
Develop the program and purchase postcards specifically for that program. As I write, Vistaprint just sent a 50% off postcard offer to me by e-mail. That comes to $12.50 for 100 plus 32 cents postage for postcard rates or 45 cents for first class. Yep, 57 cents is a lot if you are going to send out 1,000 pieces of mail. I want to talk about a very targeted idea.
This summer I have several "anchor gigs" I am building mini tours around. I am going to travel out of state and have a decent paying gig. However, I would like to take advantage of the days before or after to get a few other gigs in the area. This is where the envelope comes in and it is pretty cool.
I went to the local card shop and found envelopes that my postcard fit into. The ones I have were on sale and a nice light gray in color. NOTE: They also look like invitation envelopes! This is important! Folks will open an invitation but might just toss my postcard in the trash.
I recently purchased a printer that feeds from the top and will print on postcards and card stock. It works great! I did a quick note that was printed in the space an address would normally go in. It was simple, I would be in their area on specific dates and had dates open if they were interested. I printed this in blue ink so it looked different from the pre-printed info on the back of the postcard.
I placed the postcard in an envelope and then hand addressed them to venues I had already researched and selected. Most of the time I was able to find the name of the person who would be able to schedule gigs. In some cases I simply called and asked.
The postcards were sent out and in several cases I received calls before I could do any follow up. In other cases I followed up with an e-mail or phone call. The "hook" was the fact that since I was in the area already, I could offer a discounted rate to them. The urgency was that I only had a specific number of dates available.
In my case, I had several postcards and programs that I could send to very different venues. This increases the chance of getting those "on top of" gigs.
Does it work? Yes, but it works much better if you can follow up. Do I always get a gig from each piece I send? Heavens no! It does get gigs and is better than driving 300 miles, spending the night at my expense and doing one gig.
Try it!
Sunday, April 1, 2012
Coming Soon!
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