Preparing for This Dream--and Your Next

When my husband and I were running our own small chain of retail business, life was good. It was during retailing’s heyday and we were in the best of fields. Remember the Precious Moments craze? Beany Babies? Lladro Porcelain? 

Others in our industry—our fellow retailers, our representatives, our suppliers—were buying Ferraris and parking them in specially marked spaces in their business’s parking lots so everyone would know how successful they were. Well, you know me. Frugal. We saved, reinvested and felt pretty smart that we had seed money for something else when the collectibles market collapsed. 

But it wasn’t long before the whole economy collapsed. Lesson here? The only thing you can count on is ups and downs. During the ups (your tenth book just hit The New York Times bestseller list! You just signed a lease for prime retailing space in Las Vegas), savor it. But also save for a rainy day. Continue to offer a helping hand when you can to those in your profession (and others). And don’t sit back on your laurels. And don't flaunt it.

 You’ll still have a dream--maybe a nother dream--one that goes beyond what you imagined.  Go for it! 

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson's FRUGAL book for retailers is A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques launched at the National Stationery Show at Javits Center. Because she is the author of the multi award-winning how-to books for writers,The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success, retailers will also find essentials of writing for blogs, Web sites, and newsletters on this blog. She is the author of an award-winning novel, This Is the Place; and other fiction and poetry. She blogs on better writing at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor blog. Find her tweeting for retailers at @frugalretailing . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use this little green widget to let them know about it:

Retailing: Taking a Marketing Tip From Amazon

In the News: Publisher’s Weekly reports that Amazon will open its first staffed pick-up location on a college campus at Purdue University. They have co-branded with school stores like the University of California Davis and U Mass at Amherst in the past, but this is the first college “convenience spot.” I see this as a brilliant branding effort. As the concept continues to grow, it will give Amazon’s brand as a provider of books and other essentials to a massive book-reading audience, a young audience that will continue to be part of their clentele for a long, long time to come. What can we retailers learn from this marketing move? In terms of service? In terms of location? In terms of acquiring new customers from our most sought after demographic?

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson's FRUGAL book for retailers is A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques launched at the National Stationery Show at Javits Center. Because she is the author of the multi award-winning how-to books for writers,The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success, retailers will also find essentials of writing for blogs, Web sites, and newsletters on this blog. She is the author of an award-winning novel, This Is the Place; and other fiction and poetry. She blogs on better writing at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor blog. Find her tweeting for retailers at @frugalretailing . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use this little green widget to let them know about it:

Saving Time and Work for Retailers AND Building Business with Marketing

 

I learn amazing things by reading advertising, especially the ones known as advertorials. Advertorials are usually written by experts in their fields and are sometimes a bit arcane, but they can make me rethink what I am doing with my books for retailers. You can find advertorials in your local newspaper of in respected magazines like Time. Most media marks them clearly as "advertising" but the headlines usually feel more like great nonfiction topics.

The one I found in December was in a slick magazine called BookBusiness. It was paid for by a short-run printing company called Canon Solutions America. In it they talk about book for niche markets and niche markets have always fascinated me. I write for two of them—writers and retailers.

My point is that this is not a topic that is new to me. But this article made me think. The author (unknown) said “ . . . today you can get the same book with a different cover based on your preference. That’s only going to increase.” The idea of the same book with only one tweak—the book cover—may be slightly overstated, but it fits with what I’ve always said about marketing when I encourage my retail clients and friends to read my The Frugal Book Promoter and just substitute the words “books” and “author” for whatever branch of retailing they're in. I tell them, “Marketing is marketing is marketing" and I know they'll learn to write knockout query letters, media releases, media kits and I know that can make a difference in their business.

So,  instead of encouraging them to adjust, I should probably go back and replace those words with something appropriate to almost any niche market instead of expecting my faithful readers to do it for themselves. That might be the ticket to having a whole series of books—very nearly like the Dummy books that have done so well. After making those tweaks, I could slap on a new cover and reword the title and suddenly my “marketing is marketing” mantra makes more sense (and is easier) for a whole range—a whole new niche-- of readers!

The idea sure fits with my advice to plan your marketing campaign so the work you can do can be recycled. We retailers are not islands. We can only do so much on our own. After that, it’s either get more mileage out of what we do or start outsourcing like crazy. Actually, I kind of like both ideas.

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson is the author of the HowToDoItFrugally series of books for retailers--some of them sponsored by Gift Shop magazine. She brings her experience as a publicist, journalist, marketer, and retailer to the advice she gives to that series of books. Learn more about the whole series of books at http://howtodoitfrugally.com/retailers_books.htm.

Howard-Johnson is the recipient of the California Legislature’s Woman of the Year in Arts and Entertainment Award, and her community’s Character and Ethics award for her work promoting tolerance with her writing. She was also named to Pasadena Weekly’s list of 14 women of “San Gabriel Valley women who make life happen” and was given her community’s Diamond Award for Achievement in the Arts.

How Marketing, Free Art, and Retailing Dovetail

I received this artistic  freebie  in my e-mail box from my fave book cover designer Chaz DeSimone. It seemed as if he had my retail clients and friends in mind.  

Chaz designed  several of my book covers including Your Blog, Your Business (http://budurl.com/blogging4retailers). He does a series of  free Ampersand poster art each year for the sheer joy of giving and doing. This is one all my retail friends should look into for sure! It could be used on any marketing material or display advertising--in-store or otherwise.  Please do give Chaz credit, though--just another way of passing around the joy for 2014.  Here's what his e-mail said:



I hope you got everything you wanted for Christmas. But if it's the wrong size, color, or if you simply don't need another mug or pair of socks, there's always the Returns & Exchanges counter. At least you don't have to camp out overnight like Black Friday; in fact, your return can usually wait 30 days or more.
Here's a rendering of a typical Returns & Exchanges sign of the Art Deco Department Store era. Remember the smell of fresh popcorn at Sears?
(Personally, I don't usually return stuff--instead, I purchase a ton more Christmas decorations at 50% off for and even grander display--a la "Christmas Vacation"--the following year. )
http://amperart.com/index.php/2013/12/26/55-returns-exchanges/
...for a large detail view, notes about the artwork, and how all my half-price decorations irritate the neighbors.
Next week look for the last AmperArt edition of the year, the last of the Ad Slogan Series. Great tips on working with others to complete tasks and achieve goals, and how losing weight and feeling great is actually a lot of fun. Happy New Year!

Chaz DeSimone Graphic Design, 12228 Venice Blvd. #156, Los Angeles, CA 90066, USA

Unsubscribe | Change Subscriber Options

PS: Please feel free to contact chaz at chaz@amperart.com with questions or to let him know you like his great attitude toward retailers. (-:

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson's FRUGAL book for retailers is A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques launched at the National Stationery Show at Javits Center. Because she is the author of the multi award-winning how-to books for writers,The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success, retailers will also find essentials of writing for blogs, Web sites, and newsletters on this blog. She is the author of an award-winning novel, This Is the Place; and other fiction and poetry. She blogs on better writing at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor blog. Find her tweeting for retailers at @frugalretailing . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use this little green widget to let them know about it:

Retailing: On Halloween, Cute Dogs, Profit and Depression

So, now you've gained at least a pound from swiping the chocolate from your kids' trick or treat bags and we've heard all the retail stories about how Halloween sales are going to be down and see that Time magazine says "Consumers are spending (way) more on pet costumes, it's time to get real.

It's always been important to watch trends. And animals have been trending up (to use Twitter's phrase) more than about anything else--at lease since the 1990s when I carried something in our chain of gift stores we called "cold-cast porcelain) dog figurines. They retailed for about $39. and came sculpted in about every breed imaginable. People bought them for themselves and people bought them for friends and relatives who were crazy about their dogs. And everyone is. (They had cats and some other animals in the line, too, but dogs sold three for every one other species we sold.)

So I'm not surprised that doggie costumes were big for Halloween. If you're frugal, you could buy a pumpkin costume and dress your pup up to amuse Thanksgiving guests, too!

So what other lesson to glean from the Halloween/pet retail coup? Well, you may not remember the Great Depression. Neither do I. But I remember stories of how it influenced even the movie industry to make more jolly, bright, and wonderful musicals.  When the nation is under sequestration and our we are under constant threat that we won't pay our debts, people are down. As long as our money holds our we will spend our money where 1. it doesn't cost us too much  2. makes us feel good.  At least as long as our own money holds out.

Sooooo....search out products that are fun and reasonable to add to your mix. Even fun and frugal can be "quality merchandise." Especially if it put bacon on a retailer's table.


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Carolyn Howard-Johnson's FRUGAL book for retailers is A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques launched at the National Stationery Show at Javits Center. Because she is the author of the multi award-winning how-to books for writers,The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success, retailers will also find essentials of writing for blogs, Web sites, and newsletters on this blog. She is the author of an award-winning novel, This Is the Place; and other fiction and poetry. She blogs on better writing at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor blog. Find her tweeting for retailers at @frugalretailing . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use this little green widget to let them know about it:

Retailers Will Love New Link Service for Increasing Worldwide Sales

 

 

I am testing a new free service that helps people sell products that are listed on Amazon  in countries other than their own. I am so jazzed about it, I am speechless! (Well, OK, not quite!)

 

BookShow assigns a new link that takes readers to a sellpage on the most  appropriate Amazon bookstore depending on where they live. I.e. If a a German buyer is looking for your product that is for sale in other countries, it would take them directly to your product on Amazon.de.  The same link would take work no matter where your customer resides.

 

In fact, this is so miraculous, I don't quite trust it. So my poetry partner Magdalena Ball and I set up a trial link for our chapbook for mothers:  http://bookShow.me/1438263791

 

We're wondering if those of you who live in countries other than the US would check to see if this link works for you and where it takes you. Maybe tell us where it takes you if you say, live in Denmark. To the French Amazon? To the Spanish Amazon? 

 

I'd love to hear if you're excited about the possibilities, too. Either as a comment on this blog or by e-mailing me direct at hojonews@aol.com.

 

I think this is 2013's  Most Promising Free Online Service.

 

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson's FRUGAL book for retailers is A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques launched at the National Stationery Show at Javits Center. Because she is the author of the multi award-winning how-to books for writers,The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success, retailers will also find essentials of writing for blogs, Web sites, and newsletters on this blog. She is the author of an award-winning novel, This Is the Place; and other fiction and poetry. She blogs on better writing at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor blog. Find her tweeting for retailers at @frugalretailing .

Free Flier: 7 Reasons Why You Should Share Your Expertise with a Book

“Getting published is good for business.”

Some of the subscribers to this blog are what I call soul writers, meaning they would be different people if they didn’t write.

Others of you are professionals who know the truth of the first line in this note. You publish to showcase your expertise in your chosen career.

For some of you, the line between the two is not clearly defined. You may be both kinds of writer at once, even within one book. Some writers may use one kind of writing to financially support the other. I'm definitely a bit of both.

If literary authors, poets, and other soul writers want to build writing careers, they need to think of their writing as credibility boosters more often. More business people should think in those terms, too.

If you aren’t convinced, e-mail me at HoJoNews (at) AOL (dot) for a free copy of the little four-page flier I give away when I speak to business groups. It’s called  

Seven (or More*) Reasons Why You Should Share Your Expertise by Publishing a Book

And here are the first three of those reasons to get you started.

1.  A book of your own gives you credibility. Even Star Speaker Pam Kelly, a top coach and one of the master UCLA instructors I took classes from in order to get a special instructor’s certificate, has found that a book (http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=howtodoitfrug-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=0979100100&ref=tf_til&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr) makes her a standout among other experts.

2.  Having a published book can be an excellent negotiating tool. Imagine! A top investment firm is taking applications for a keynote speaker before a room of 500 and you're the only applicant who can offer a package of keynote skills plus a book (perhaps packaged in a signature tote!) to this prospective client!

3.  Having a published book for sale at the back of the hall where you are speaking or in your store or business office will add to your profitability.

 

*Great Marketing Rule: Try to give people more
than they paid for, more than they expect.

I know you’ll want to see all seven reasons. You may want to use the flier as a handout to use yourself. You may adapt it to your own needs, but do credit it to me with a link to my site or a little pitch for this blog.

 

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson's FRUGAL book for retailers is A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques launched at the National Stationery Show at Javits Center. Because she is the author of the multi award-winning how-to books for writers,The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success, retailers will also find essentials of writing for blogs, Web sites, and newsletters on this blog. She is the author of an award-winning novel, This Is the Place; and other fiction and poetry. She blogs on better writing at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor blog. Find her tweeting for retailers at @frugalretailing .

Facebook Campus to Have It's Own Open Air Mini Mall

You probably knew but just in case: Facebook is building it's own little main street shopping area for its employees at their campus in Menlo Park, California!

It seems that any retailer who wanted to apply for a location would have a captive audience there--an audience with plenty of new-media money in their pockets. 

A general stores is planned, and an gallery. But I saw no plans for a bookstore (really! do they all really read only e-books!). And no plans for a real gift store, card shop, or clothing store (really, do they all only wear stretched-out T-shirts and second hand jeans?).

And, do you suppose they would do this without getting input from a retailing professional? 

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson's FRUGAL book for retailers is A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques launched at the National Stationery Show at Javits Center. Because she is the author of the multi award-winning how-to books for writers,The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success, retailers will also find essentials of writing for blogs, Web sites, and newsletters on this blog. She is the author of an award-winning novel, This Is the Place; and other fiction and poetry. She blogs on better writing at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor blog. Find her tweeting for retailers at @frugalretailing .

Job Hunting in the New Year

How to Interview Like A Pro Forty-Three Rules for Getting Your Next Job Mary Greenwood. JD. LLM iUniverse release/ ASIN: B004JHZ26C Kindle EditionKindle / paperback Reviewed by Carolyn Howard-Johnson A book for its time… The Feel-Good Guide for Getting a Job and Learning Negotiating Skills Who would have guessed. I read this book because I thought I might be able to recommend it to my retail clients, but it turns out, getting a job is very much like selling a book! So it’s suitable in many ways for my author-clients, too. Getting a job isn’t much different than it was back in the days when I interviewed at PR firms and magazines like Good Housekeeping. Though we have many tools at our disposal that weren’t available back then, the basics are similar. And industry-to-industry, we can learn so much from the general (yet detailed!) information Mary Greenwood gives us in How To Interview Like a Pro. Basic business skills like Greenwood imparts here, are useful at some level for almost anyone who must earn a living. Mary’s number two rule is that a job hunter must “prepare a good elevator speech.” She also says, “Make a list of everyone you know.” Ajob hunter would then use that list to find influential people with contacts of their own who will lead them to other jobs, recommend them to others, and generally hold their hands through the process. Going hand in hand with this process is Mary’s rule “Telling everyone you know you are looking for a job.” She, expands this rule by adding: “Tell everyone whom you would like to know you are looking for a job.” Here she covers making new contacts using social networking. Mary’s rules are born of experience, both general and legal. Her book moves us along from rule to rule—lickety split—right down to the never-nevers like: “Never say you don’t have any more questions.” Interviews go both ways. If they don’t, the interviewer may form some opinions you’d just as well he or she didn’t. I once hired for my store a very young employee with no experience because her questions were so astute I figured she was mature for her age and would learn fast. It turned out, that assessment was right. One of the reason things move so quickly is Greenwood’s anecdotes. You’ll come away from this book feeling as if you aren’t alone in your search and knowing how to make sure you aren’t. You’ll know the basics and the details, like how to answer about any question an interviewer is likely to ask. One of the best things about this book is Greenwood’s Introductory Rule: “Getting a job is like parking. You have to be at the right place at the right time.” If you keep that in mind—along with her little protractor story (yes, this is a tease—I think you should read this book!), you’ll hang in there and know one day you’ll be exactly in that place at that time. Now, here’s the thing. I believe that almost anyone in the business world could benefit from this book, from interviewee to interviewer. from author to retailer to IT guy or gal. Sometimes the books we get the most from are the ones we don’t think we need in the moment. Have it ready. It’s way more than a get-a-job book.

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson's FRUGAL book for retailers is A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques launched at the National Stationery Show at Javits Center. Because she is the author of the multi award-winning how-to books for writers,The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success, retailers will also find essentials of writing for blogs, Web sites, and newsletters on this blog. She is the author of an award-winning novel, This Is the Place; and other fiction and poetry. She blogs on better writing at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor blog. Find her tweeting for retailers at @frugalretailing . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use this little green widget to let them know about it:

Cash Mobs, Your Store, and Loyalty

Cash mobs, Promotion and Your Store
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There's something new on the online horizon. So far it's being used effectively by small retailers, but I see no reason why it couldn't also be used by manufacturers to sell particular products and, though so far it has been a flashmob phenomenon, why couldn't it be adapted to online fan pages?

What is it?

It's called cash mobbing, but checks and credit cards are accepted.

It was started by buy-local advocates in the retailing industry. It uses any kind of media including the Web and traditional media to get loyal folks to support a local business on a specific day, sometimes at a specific time. They are encouraged to come spend a minimal amount of money out of loyalty (with, perhaps, a little self interest stirred into the mix), and people do. They come. They come to be supportive, to feel part of the crowd, because it's an event, because it's a fad.

Time magazine reports it was started in 2011 by Chris Smith who read that Groupon methods of increasing business using mass discounts might backfire because retailers or service providers couldn't sustain the discounts and remain profitable. And he liked the term "cash mob." The idea was to get people interested and he did. Time reporter Katy Steinmetz says, "100 of Smith's fellow citizens [in Buffalo, NY] each spent around $10 at a wine shop with local media in tow. He's been hosting cash mobs ever since." 

Then Andrew Samtoy tried it in Cleveland. And he is using @Cashmobs moniker on Twitter to promote these events. He is also incorporated as Cash Mobs, Inc. You could use his service—or do it on your own, but do think of your own name. Samtoy apparently has a stranglehold on "Cashmobs."  Yours could be the name of your book or store plus the word "mobs." Of course, if you go the do-it-yourself route,you'd need do your own promotion (which you'd probably need to do some of in any case!)

Do use the second edition of The Frugal Book Promoter (http://budurl.com/FrugalBkPromo) to give you tons of ideas of how to attract the crowds. And my A Retailer's Guide to In-Store Promotions (http://budurl.com/RetailersGuide) to help get the whole event right.

Let's combine a couple of mottoes. "Just Do It and They Will Come."

Online or in person.

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson's FRUGAL book for retailers is A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques launched at the National Stationery Show at Javits Center. Because she is the author of the multi award-winning how-to books for writers,The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success, retailers will also find essentials of writing for blogs, Web sites, and newsletters on this blog. She is the author of an award-winning novel, This Is the Place; and other fiction and poetry. She blogs on better writing at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor blog. Find her tweeting for retailers at @frugalretailing . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use this little green widget to let them know about it:

A Great Tip for Getting the Word Out On Your Christmas Event!

If you have a Christmas product for sale like books, cookbook, artwork, (or about anything else) or  you're going to hold a Christmas event, you're going to love ChristmasDaddy.com. This tip will go in the December 18 issue of my SharingwithWriters newsletter, but I didn't want to make my blog subscribers and visitors wait. What a way to drive traffic to your Web site.

PS: You just knew I couldn't send out a newsletter without a marketing tip in it, right? This is an example of how you can use a free service from ChristmasDaddy.com: http://www.christmasdaddy.com/christmas-news/north-pole-press/Poetry_for_Christmas.shtml. It's an example of how my poetry partner Magdalena Ball and I used it to promote our Christmas chapbook Blooming Red (http://amzn.to/BloomingRedKind ).

Christmas Daddy says: "Advertise for FREE! Submit an article for either Christmas Stories, Christmas Recipes, Christmas Decorating, or Christmas Event Ideas and we will place your article with links back to your site or charity site you designate. You can even submit a banner ad to be placed with your article. Click here to get the details. http://www.christmasdaddy.com/christmas-article-submission.html."

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson's FRUGAL book for retailers is A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques launched at the National Stationery Show at Javits Center. Because she is the author of the multi award-winning how-to books for writers,The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success, retailers will also find essentials of writing for blogs, Web sites, and newsletters on this blog. She is the author of an award-winning novel, This Is the Place; and other fiction and poetry. She blogs on better writing at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor blog. Find her tweeting for retailers at @frugalretailing . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use this little green widget to let them know about it:

Broaden Your Retail Horizons with Shopping Mall Exposure!

Time magazine ran a piece on how shopping malls are changing in their regular section on the economy a couple of weeks ago. They report that many upscale malls are doing very well, but middle-of-the-road malls have lost tenants like crazy. They are filling their real estate with all kinds of businesses like ice rinks, museums, health clinics, and even churches. They also (though this isn’t new) fill empty spaces with temporary rentals. I got to thinking how this could be a trend that could benefit retailers eager to test the waters in other cities or other parts of town, as an example. But I also got excited about some of the marketing possibilities they migh offer. 

And because those spaces can be gotten very cheaply by mall standards, I also figured mall administration would be open to just about any ideas a retailer came up with.

Here are some ideas you could approach your local mall with:

~Go in with your local service organization or Chamber of Commerce to open a little carnival of booths focusing on local business of all kinds--services, retailers, etc.  You could hold holiday readings, seminars, etc. in it. And I can imagine the coverage you’d get in the local press with this idea—maybe even the national press that has business pages like USA Today.

~If there is a store window in a space that hasn’t been leased, rent it for the season to showcase your store that could well be located across town. If not, how about using it to promote a new vendor or a holiday event you'll be holding.

~On a smaller scale, ask the mall administration about their kiosk or cart programs where you can promote your store with coupons, gifts with purchases, etc. You'll find tons of ideas for these kinds of things  in my book A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotion: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques (http://budurl.com/RetailersGuide), will help you with these projects.

~Make your new well-trafficked space into a money making venture. Rent out space for readings, how-to demonstrations, children’s hours, poetry open mics, even to bloggers who want to increase their visibility. Relate each one to some line you carry in your store. And, of course use the space for your own events.

~How about a one-week or one-day rental. Say you have a kitchen supply store. How about a week of cooking demonstrations and before Mother’s Day. Enlist authors of cookbooks to promote with you by using their contact lists of readers and media moguls.

~Capitalize on any big promotion ideas you are already using. Once we had a huge Precious Moments event in our mall parking lot using a motorhome as a rolling museum for PM artwork including the figurines we sold. A centerpiece like this is bound to attract interest at any mall. BTW, you may have seen C-SPAN, CNN, etc use a similar idea a tradeshows.

Hint: My book A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotion: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques (http://budurl.com/RetailersGuide), will help you with these projects. It's also available (frugally!) in Amazon's Kindle store.

Note: Using mall space to promote your brick and mortar or online store can be done quite simply or on a large scale. If you have a big idea, start now for your 2013 promotion. And you may not want to wait for the December holiday season. Mall business is excellent around Valentine’s, Mother’s and Father’s Days, graduation time, etc. If you carry patriotic products, put your thinking cap on for a bash on the Fourth of July.

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson's FRUGAL book for retailers is A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques launched at the National Stationery Show at Javits Center. Because she is the author of the multi award-winning how-to books for writers,The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success, retailers will also find essentials of writing for blogs, Web sites, and newsletters on this blog. She is the author of an award-winning novel, This Is the Place; and other fiction and poetry. She blogs on better writing at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor blog. Find her tweeting for retailers at @frugalretailing . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use this little green widget to let them know about it:

Ideas To Boost Christmas Retail Sales--In Store and Frugal!

So! LA Times reports "Big chains get a back-to-school revenue boost." AND they attribute that boost to in-store promotions.  So, if using promotions can give big chains a boost (3.6%)  that sets them to thinking positively about Christmas, you can too. And if you've run dry of ideas or the promotions you ran last year were only ho-hum, maybe you need some new ideas. Or maybe you need to revive some of the ideas small retailers used last decade or the decade before that to boost sales.  And maybe it's time to do some reading to get some new ideas--or just get inspired and motivated. Yes, I'm suggesting A Retailer's Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions (http://budurl.com/RetailersGuide).

What about letting marketing savvy-authors help you boost sales with a workshop, seminar, or reading promotion. Ask them to use their contact lists and social networking skills to bring new customers into your store?

Get details and ideas on a host of other sales producers, too. Signs. Utilizing dead space in your store. Creative events. Point-of-purchase promos. Ideas for your display windows. Contests. Building your lists in-store . Using them effectively. Reward cards. Layaway. Gift certificates. New gift registry ideas (see the last post on this blog, too!). Catalogs. Gift-with-purchase ideas. Parking lot ideas. Cross-promotion. Home parties. Are you tired yet?

And while you're at it, up your social networking skills, too. Check http://howtodoitfrugally.com/retailers_books.htm for more retailing ideas. 


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Carolyn Howard-Johnson's FRUGAL book for retailers is A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques launched at the National Stationery Show at Javits Center. Because she is the author of the multi award-winning how-to books for writers,The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success, retailers will also find essentials of writing for blogs, Web sites, and newsletters on this blog. She is the author of an award-winning novel, This Is the Place; and other fiction and poetry. She blogs on better writing at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor blog. Find her tweeting for retailers at @frugalretailing . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use this little green widget to let them know about it:

Gift Registires Not Just for Brides! Try Back to School!

In my A Retailer's Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotion, I include gift registries as a kind of in-store promotion that shouldn't be neglected. But now the LA Times business section reports in their continuing retail column about a trend toward encouraging customers to use gift registries for back-to-school needs.

So, OK. I admit I didn't think to include this particular use of registries in that chapter! But now that I have my thinking cap on, what a concept this is.

It works for high school kids. Is Staples missing a bet? Is your store missing a bet? They need pens, computers, backbacks, etc. 

And sporting goods stores sells backbacks, no?  What else could parents and students add to the list from those stores that includes a top-of-the-line backback.

And what about college students going off to school. They'll need everything from linens to microwaves.  What's in your store you could suggest?

And, no, you don't need a big computerized system. You could do a display with back-to-school needs. Use signs to suggest your registry.  And when someone likes the idea, make up an index card file for your customer's wish list. Maybe offer free shipping to the college of their choice with orders over a certain amount.

And yeah, this could be done for your online store. If you have one, you're a tech wizard!

What other kinds of gift or essential-needs occasions could you tout to your customers with this simple kind of registry--the kind we used in the 80s?  Leave your ideas in the comments on this blog.  You may not think that's smart competition, but if you do, it's obvious you haven't read up on the value of cross promotion or the zen of great marketing in my retail books.  (-:

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson's FRUGAL book for retailers is A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques launched at the National Stationery Show at Javits Center. Because she is the author of the multi award-winning how-to books for writers,The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success, retailers will also find essentials of writing for blogs, Web sites, and newsletters on this blog. She is the author of an award-winning novel, This Is the Place; and other fiction and poetry. She blogs on better writing at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor blog. Find her tweeting for retailers at @frugalretailing . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use this little green widget to let them know about it:

Learning from Gap, Adidas, Nike, Target Other Environmentaly Conscious Retailers

Not to put a too much of a commercial twist on it, but how can other retailers--no matter what you sell--follow the model being set by Timberland, North Face, Adidas, Gap, and lots of other big guys? They're making eco chic according to Time magazine and it's an example worth copying.

More than 60 big name brands and retailers pilots a program for apparel makers. They assign a Higgs Index to the eco friendliness of clothing. It's all voluntary. Anyone can join. Anyone can apply to get a rating for their clothing item.  It was only last week my workout spot (Total Woman) featured a rack of yoga clothing that is eco friendly. They were expensive but also stylish, soft to the touch, and wickable. 

I like both the idea and the inclusiveness of the thing. It's great marketing. Should prove profitable--for the businesses and the planet. Everyone wins. So don't we need this for other industries, too. What retail organization could help rate independent stores and chains? What organization could offer (Zagat style?) ratings on paper or home cleaning products?

So far the US government has nothing to do with this program. Thus there's no penalty for a low score and no roses to pin on the noses of those who rate high. 
Well, OK. Rating high gives a company (vendor, retail store, whatever) bragging rights.  And maybe a write-up in in Time?



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Carolyn Howard-Johnson's FRUGAL book for retailers is A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques launched at the National Stationery Show at Javits Center. Because she is the author of the multi award-winning how-to books for writers,The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success, retailers will also find essentials of writing for blogs, Web sites, and newsletters on this blog. She is the author of an award-winning novel, This Is the Place; and other fiction and poetry. She blogs on better writing at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor blog. Find her tweeting for retailers at @frugalretailing . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use this little green widget to let them know about it:

IBM, The New Yorker, Customer Service, and Thy Retail Business

I spotted an ad in an old edition of The New Yorker I had been saving until I could spend time devouring the fiction in it. It was a full-page ad that had very little on the page, sort of a smokey, Wedgwood blue. It said "Shirts can pick a tie for you." My reaction was, "Hun?" But they had me hooked.

Then it said, "IBM helped a German retailer boost customer satisfaction 18% with dressing rooms that actually suggest accessories." It suggested you learn more by going to http://ibm.com/smarterplanet .

For some reason, reading this felt almost as good to me as finishing the fiction piece I had been looking forward to.  It's about promise for the retailing in general. About the importance of keeping up with technology. It's about partnering with people and businesses that know what they're doing. And most of all, it's about service.

Now, service is something that never goes out of style, never stops making a difference in reaching our goals.

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson's FRUGAL book for retailers is A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques launched at the National Stationery Show at Javits Center. Because she is the author of the multi award-winning how-to books for writers,The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success, retailers will also find essentials of writing for blogs, Web sites, and newsletters on this blog. She is the author of an award-winning novel, This Is the Place; and other fiction and poetry. She blogs on better writing at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor blog. Find her tweeting for retailers at @frugalretailing . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use this little green widget to let them know about it:

Is Your Marketing Mail Even Being Read?

You may remember how I warn authors in A Retailer's Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotion (www.budurl.com/retailersguide) against using attachments when they e-mail, especially when contacting the media. Well, now Time magazine includes a warning on their roster page not to do so. It says, “Write to Us: Send an e-mail: letters@time.com. Please do not send attachments.”

I know many of you are still attaching because you attach in your e-mails to me. Often the attachment is short enough to fit nicely in the window of an e-mail, so there is no need.

In that award-winning book, I also tell you your job is to make it as easy as possible for your contacts to help you promote by using your name, title, articles, etc.? Putting your information in your e-mail rather than attaching makes it easier for them.

But more importantly, they will see what you have to say. Many media outlets block e-mail with attachments and/or won’t open or read them. Time is one of those that won’t. And the sad part is, you may not even know they didn't see your media release or pitch. Even sadder, that may discourage you from doing more marketing that will benefit your business.

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson's FRUGAL book for retailers is A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques launched at the National Stationery Show at Javits Center. Because she is the author of the multi award-winning how-to books for writers,The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success, retailers will also find essentials of writing for blogs, Web sites, and newsletters on this blog. She is the author of an award-winning novel, This Is the Place; and other fiction and poetry. She blogs on better writing at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor blog. Find her tweeting for retailers at @frugalretailing . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use this little green widget to let them know about it:

Retailers Must Let Their Business Cards Evolve

Business Cards for the Age of Tech and You
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By Carolyn Howard-Johnson

The LA Times just headed an article "Business cards get filed under obsolete.'" I'm hoping none of my author friends read it, but just in case, here is my rant. They said that young people especially think that now we have e-mail (and, yes, I presume e-mail signatures!) business cards are redundant.

I remember back in the 70s (hippie days, remember?) when my husband and I opened our retail shops. We thought business cards were too, well—hoity toity. We were wrong then and whoever these "young people" are—well, they're wrong now.

Yes, more business is being done by e-mail. And yes we do have e-mail signatures (though most business correspondence I see doesn't do a good job with branding or information in their signatures. In fact they don't do as well as most business cards I see!).

Yes, people can easily punch details into their iPhones when they want to keep information. But business cards can be (should be as far as I'm concerned!) more than a way to exchange phone numbers. They should be mini advertisements. That phone number in someone's iPhone will not invite someone to a retailer's most recent event or help a customer visualize a retailer's storefront or logo. But a business card with  those images and maybe even a little award logo on it sure can. And it can do it more than once. It can remind people of you now and every time they run across that card in the future.

I am so convinced, I've included a little section on designing effective business cards and ideas for how to use them in A Retailer's Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotion(www.budurl.com/RetailersGuide). Here's but one quick example:

I spoke at a meeting for publicists  last month. There are usually 50 to 100 people at these meetings. What a shame if I let that kind of opportunity pass by just speaking and then saying "See you all later." Of course! Business cards! They will appear magically near each attendee's dinner plate. And yes, they have an image of my booksfor retailers with an endorsement from retail guru Randy Eller on them. And a USA Book News award-winner logo, too. And essential ordering information, of course.

I use business cards when I travel, too. They are crucial for those doing business in China, as an example, and yes people there still respect them enough to present them with both hands. People who think everyone lives and breathes by their smartphones are just as out of touch as those who ignore them in their marketing plans. Business cards are complementary to apps and other digital marketing, not an anachronism.

Some of you may remember when everyone thought that TV would make radio obsolete. It didn't. Radio just evolved. So will business cards. And in the meantime, I hope you won't let the opportunities they offer pass you by.

To for resources on business cards and you may want to subscribe to Reno Lovison's blog, www.businesscardtobusiness.com/blog.

----- Carolyn Howard-Johnson's FRUGAL book for retailers is A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques launched at the National Stationery Show at Javits Center. Because she is the author of the multi award-winning how-to books for writers,The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success, retailers will also find essentials of writing for blogs, Web sites, and newsletters on this blog. She is the author of an award-winning novel, This Is the Place; and other fiction and poetry. She blogs on better writing at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor blog. Find her tweeting for retailers at @frugalretailing . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use this little green widget to let them know about it:

E-bay, Google, Amazon, PayPal:Taking a Page Out of Old-Time Retailers' Notebooks

Could you ever have imagined how things could turn around in the retail world?

I remember the days when Web sites were just getting started and we knew we had to get in on the trend or our little chain of stores in enclosed malls would not be able to compete on an even playing field.

And I've watched as Amazon grew...and grew...and grew.  And was delighted in some respects because it did so much for books (putting aside how it--along with the big-box bookstores--nearly killed independents and how then the proliferation of big-box bookstores hand in hand with Amazon started killing each other off)!

And ta da! Here's the new twist. Amazon and other biggie online types are returning to their roots (and yes, brick-and-mortar stores are their roots!). Apple (of course!) led the way. And they were super successful because they had products that were a delight to look at and feel in the flesh (or the plastic as it were). They had products that benefited from a sales staff and training that could hold our hands as we grew into the Macs, iPhones, iPads, etc.

But now Google and e-bay, and PayPal and Amazon are trying it too. PayPal wants in-store business that now goes to credit cards. E-bay's counting on a convoluted combination of store and online payment to bid on handbags people can feel. Google wants to promote its Chromebook.   And yep, Amazon.

According to Time magazine, Amazon  wants to "showcase Amazon gadget like the Kindle tablet, which in turn could drive sales of digital content.

I feel certain that all of these stores will be architecturally superb. Branded like crazy. And marketed with all the pizazz and bubble of Coke. But Kindle doesn't look like the Mac. And people are more savvy about tech these days and don't need the hand-holding. So unless they take some pages from the books from old-time retailing  (or at least from Apple!), they aren't going...

Oh, yeah. I guess that's exactly what they have in mind. Any retailers out there who want to act as consultants? Or let them read from the minutes of your staff meetings?
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Carolyn Howard-Johnson's FRUGAL book for retailers is A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques launched at the National Stationery Show at Javits Center. Because she is the author of the multi award-winning how-to books for writers,The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success, retailers will also find essentials of writing for blogs, Web sites, and newsletters on this blog. She is the author of an award-winning novel, This Is the Place; and other fiction and poetry. She blogs on better writing at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor blog. Find her tweeting for retailers at @frugalretailing . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use this little green widget to let them know about it:

Personal Service Turnabout: Bloomin' News

I just can't help but talk a little about personal service! The topic is prompted by a copy I received of the January edition of Bloomin News (www.bloominnews.com) in the mail.  Editor Peggi Ridgway ran an article/review on my book A Retailer's Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions (www.budurl.com/RetailersGuide) in that issue (page 12) and I had seen it online, but she still cared to pop a paper copy in the mail to me so I'd have the real thing for my records.  Yes, with a personal note enclosed.

It reminded me that personal service runs both ways. We retailers know about extending service to our customers. Everyone does. But it isn't as often that our vendors and the media do the same for us. Anyway, I thought I'd return the favor by mentioning it in this blog. Marketing (at its best marketing is gratitude) can by cycled and recycled. In fact that's one of the most cost efficient way to do it!

So here's the return favor. On p. 14 is an article titled "12 Great Ways to Grow Profits in 2012: BRIGHT IDEAS." The first one was "Hold seasonal events." It made me smile. Perhaps she had just finished reading my book!

If you're a florist, I know you'll want to subscribe. If you're a retailer of some other ilk, keep my mantra in mind. We can learn much from what is happening in other industries.  It seems Bloomin' News has a lot to report about what's happening the world of flowers.

PS: On page 15 is an picture of a beautiful arrangement using what I think of as diametrically opposed flowers--succulents and the palest of roses.  Any retailer could use this inexpensive idea for flowers at one of their own events.    
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Carolyn Howard-Johnson's FRUGAL book for retailers is A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques launched at the National Stationery Show at Javits Center. Because she is the author of the multi award-winning how-to books for writers,The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success, retailers will also find essentials of writing for blogs, Web sites, and newsletters on this blog. She is the author of an award-winning novel, This Is the Place; and other fiction and poetry. She blogs on better writing at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor blog. Find her tweeting for retailers at @frugalretailing . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use this little green widget to let them know about it: