Marketing Your Gift Basket Business
Find Your Place in the $60 Billion Wedding Industry
As more than 2 million U.S. couples sort out their wedding budgets which averaged $28,732 in 2007, according to The Wedding Report Inc.they'll collectively be spending more than $62.8 billion this year to make the experience as memorable and personal as possible.
Wow! So how can you create a niche for your gift basket business within this lucrative industry? Maybe its best to start in your own community and find out what goods and services are already being offered to brides and grooms. Over the slow summer months, visit some of these businesses in your neighborhood.
* Florists
* Restaurants
* Hotels
* Bridal Shops
* Tuxedo Rental Shops
* Hair and Nail Salons
* Bakeries
* Photographers
* Caterers
At each stop, make sure you leave a brochure or flyer about the services that you offer and discuss how you might work cooperatively. For example, a florist who only does bouquets and reception flowers may be willing to give your name to the bride who is interested in welcome gift baskets for guests who are coming in from out of town. The photographer might allow you to leave one of your samples in his showroom.
Visit places that ladies are: Coffee shops, hair salons, nail salons, tanning places, schools, any offices. Consider leaving a brochure or flyer at all of those places with your information on it. Place the flyers on all bulletin boards and leave them anywhere you can. Invite everyone you know! You should be able to get customers that way.
Also check out your Yellow Pages for bridal or wedding consultants. In the past decade, the need for someone to take care of all the details has grown and consultants are involved in all phases of planning and organizing the wedding. Creating a good working relationship with the local wedding consultant may go a long way to helping you get involved in the wedding business.
Marketing Gift Baskets for Administrative Professionals Week
Administrative Professionals Week (it used to be called Secretaries Day) is celebrated during the last full week of April. Now is the time to start gearing up and marketing for this holiday!
Start by making sure that your current corporate/business customers know that the holiday is fast approaching. Send emails with photos of your selections or put together a direct mail marketing flier. Call these customers and let them know that the holiday is coming and you'll be sending some information. You can also make their gift giving even easier by reminding them about the gifts they gave last year and to whom they sent those gifts.
If you don't already have a customer base that includes businesses, you can use the same emails or fliers to send to new, potential customers. Get a list of businesses in your community from your local chamber of commerce. Call each business and find out to whom you should send your information. Getting your information to the right person is half the battle! Think about personally delivering your promotional materials along with a small gift (some cookies or candies) from your line to make your business stand out from the others. Make sure you communicate how your services will benefit them. Don't be afraid to ask your satisfied customers from prior years to give you referrals for this holiday season and approach new customers by referencing the name of your satisfied client.
If you're not already involved with your local chamber of commerce or other business groups, this is the time to start your networking efforts. Find out about business groups in your community and take your business cards and promotional materials to their next meeting. Make an effort to find out if you know anyone who is already involved in one of these business groups and try to arrange to go the next meeting together and get some personal introductions.
When meeting potential new clients, be prepared to tell them how your current customers have benefited from using your services, and how the recipients have enjoyed your gifts. Don't be shy about letting them know what a good job you'll do for them.
Free Gifts/Discounts
According to Platform-A, AOLs advertising business, more and more people are using on-line generated coupons for purchases than the traditional newspaper coupons that were popular in the past. Furthermore, younger couples are the most likely life-stage group to use online coupons, indicating an opportunity to influence product choices within this segment.
With this in mind, La Bella Baskets has sales every month. All you have to do is send an email to your customers directing them to your web site and listing all the sales. We also give out a free prescription and pet card to all of our customers (small token of our appreciation).
Gift Basket Businesses Can Thrive This Holiday Season
An article in Business Wire suggests that this year, given the uncertainty of our economic situation, people will try to take greater control of their lives and find pleasure in the simple things. According to researcher Joan Hollaren from Mintel, people around the world are feeling insecure and are already looking to reestablish a sense of stability in their lives. In the coming year, it will be more important than ever for businesses to respond quickly and creatively to changing consumer needs and desires, as we all become more selective in how we spend our money.
What does this mean for our gift basket businesses? First, if consumers are going to be more careful about what they buy, they will also will be concerned about getting exactly what they want. Gourmet basket businesses are already familiar with creating gifts that are targeted to a special occasion or a customers special requests. In marketing efforts for the holidays, we can bring this individualized service to the attention of our customers thereby satisfying their need to have some control over their purchases.
Given that people may be a bit more stressed out this holiday season, try to lighten the mood. Think about gifts that include a range of products that soothe, energize or simply lift the spirits. Bath and body products, and decadent gourmet chocolates certainly fit the bill!
Other Ideas:
Cultural activities: Local theaters have programs which include advertising for local businesses. Museums often have gift shops and I often see consignment items in these shops. Why not find out if that gift shop would like to sell some gourmet baskets to their patrons. Art galleries have art openings featuring one or more particular artists at a special show. They often serve snacks at these openings. You might be able to work out something with the gallery owner to cater their next opening and showcase your best gourmet treats. Your business cards (or even a sample basket) would let gallery customers know where to get these food items.
Exercise:
Go to local fitness centers and find out if you can post your business cards or leave flyers with your information and save on beautiful gift baskets..the perfect gift.
It Worked for the Obama Campaign; Make It Work for Your Gift Basket Business
One item that astounded me is that text messaging on mobile phones is becoming the preferred method for mobile marketing. Now, I just learned how to send and receive text messages, so this suggestion seems a bit odd to me. But more texts are sent per day than pieces of mail delivered by the U.S. Postal Service. So, why not give it a try?
The author of this article suggests: To prepare for this technological ad campaign, offer customers 10% off their gifting needs for their e-mail address. This is the start of building your e-mailing list. Once your list is built (and you've learned how to text message!), you're ready to go.
Here's some success stories: A national ice cream store recently sent text messages to its customers with a coupon good for one free cone but only on the day of the text message. To receive the free cone, they had to show the text on their cell phone. The response was overwhelming. A pizza parlor in Utah sent a text offering a chance to win a pizza party. Over 1,000 people responded. That is almost unheard of with any other promotional advertising. And at the Democratic National Convention, delegates were asked to send text messages to encourage voter registration! The Obama campaign used text messaging to announce the vice-presidential candidate and continues to use text messaging to get information to supporters.
I find this to be a fascinating concept and will think about ways to implement text messaging in my business. Please send your comments and ideas about this unconventional, inexpensive, but apparently effective method for marketing.
Cooperative Marketing Initiatives Valentines Day
As we begin planning for 2010, it is a good idea to think about our marketing strategies for the upcoming year. Since many business owners are looking for ways to cut costs, this might be a good time to get together with other business owners in your community and make plans to increase marketing efforts to your customer base.
For example, all of the businesses in your neighborhood could join together to initiate a marketing program for Valentines Day. Select a day in early February when all of the businesses will offer special promotions to bring customers to the stores to preview their Valentine offerings. As a gift basket business owner, you might offer samples of chocolate candies that you'll be using in your Valentine designs. The local florist could give away a rose or other type of flowers that might be an alternative to the traditional gift of roses. A local restaurant might tasting from their Valentine menus. All businesses could offer coupons for future purchases to customers who stop by on the Valentines Preview Day. Even the local dentist could get in on the campaign by offering a discount for teeth cleaning and a beautiful smile for the holiday of love!
Now is the time to think creatively about how you can increase your customer base and your sales. By working cooperatively with your neighbors, you can continue to attract customers while sharing the costs for your efforts.
Gift Baskets for the Politicians
A friend of mine who was very involved in this years elections is looking for a new job and shed like to help out some the politicians who she supported. We talked about her checking out the offices of those politicians who won their elections on November 11th. The assumption is that those local offices will need to keep operations running even when the winner takes on his/her new responsibilities.
It occurred to me that these same politicians might be a source of business for gift basket businesses this holiday season. For the winners, there are probably many people who need to be thanked and acknowledged for their support. A gourmet gift basket would be a perfect way of saying thanks.
Why not take a gourmet basket to that local office along with your business cards and a menu of baskets that you offer. Before you go, try to get the name of the person who runs that office, then leave your basket and information with him/her. The local addresses for the politicians in your city are available on the internet. Who knows: you might get a holiday order!
Email Addresses for Holiday Email Campaigns
With reports that consumer spending may decrease this season, gift basket retailers still have time to jump on the email marketing train. In an article posted by The Associated Press, Kurt Peters, editor-in-chief of trade publication Internet Retailer, noted that stores can easily react to a sharp sales slowdown in a matter of hours by sending out e-mail blasts, which is faster and more cost-effective than redoing a mailer to consumers. Julie M. Katz, another Forrester analyst, estimates that it costs about $2 for every thousand e-mails sent. The Direct Marketers Association estimates that marketers reap $45.06 in return on investment for every dollar they spend on e-mail campaigns. That compares with $7.28 for catalogs and $15.55 for direct mail pieces.
The first thing you must do is collect email addresses from your current customer base. If you don't already have these on file, start calling customers right away to collect those addresses. When they have some down time, you can call 5-10 customers per day. Your email program includes a way for you to create a Group List where you simply type in all of these addresses. Then, when you're ready to advertise your gourmet baskets or run a special promotion, you type a single email and send that to the group list that you created.
You can even build unique group lists that target your special customers. For example, build a separate list for your corporate accounts, or customers who usually spend a certain amount on their holiday gift baskets, or customers who often order baskets that include particular brands of gourmet items that we carry. Then you can target those groups with very specific email promotions that appeal to their particular needs.
Use email marketing this season to boost your holiday sales. With a minimal amount of effort, you can create special email groups that include customers who will be gratified to receive your messages that are relevant to their buying habits.
Say Thanks To Your Gift Basket Customers
So it seems obvious: we need to say thank you to our customers. But how often do we really do this? How often in our busy day do we forget (or neglect) to acknowledge our customers support and loyalty?
I'm sorry to admit that I might forget too often! I get caught up in the daily activities of running my business, the details involved when managing, supervising, creating, and shipping, handling the bookkeeping, keeping up with inventory (and on and on and on). An article that I read on managesmarter.com (an on-line resource for sales and marketing professionals) reminded me about how important those thank you's are and how easy it can be to express our appreciation to customers.
Author Andrea Nierenberg lists eight opportunities to say thank you to our customers. Here are some of her suggestions about when to say THANKS:
1. Every time a customer does business with you! Get some note cards printed with your business name and include a short note with every order you ship. It can be a simple note: Thanks for your business. I hope you're delighted with your order. You (or the person who designed the gift basket) can sign the note. Use the customers first name for a more personal touch.
2. Every time a customer offers a comment or suggestion! This is invaluable feedback for a business owner that can help you change what you're doing and thereby do a better job. We need to go out of our way to let customers know that we appreciate these comments and encourage them to do it often.
3. When customers are patient or not so patient! Sometimes, we make mistakes and hopefully, our customers understand this. If they've been patient with us, despite mistakes we made, we certainly need to say thanks! Whether they respond with understanding or voice their dissatisfaction, its time to write a note and let them know we appreciate their feedback. Even when were at fault, an acknowledgment of the error, an apology and a hope you'll give us the opportunity to serve you in the future can go a long way.
Every day take 15 minutes at the beginning or end of the day and write three short goodwill notes: one to a prospect, one to a client and one to a friend. Just say Hi, send an article, or say thanks just make it specific. When you do this, at the end of the week you'll have made 15 goodwill contacts, and at the end of the year, 750. Think of the business seeds you'll have planted. Some of this could germinate into additional business.
Keep Customers Loyal When Times Are Tough
Here are a few of the ideas that are worth considering and wont cost any money, just a little bit of your time.
* Stay in touch with your best customers on a regular basis. Find out how they prefer to hear from you: a phone call, an email or even a personal visit. If you're calling or visiting, find out what time of day is most convenient for them. Be prepared to tell them something that will interest them: a new product that you know they'll like; a special sale on items you know they use; a reminder about an upcoming holiday that they'll want to remember with a gift to someone special. Know your customers! Don't waste their time with information that is irrelevant to their particular interests and needs.
* Let your customers know that you care! Make sure that you stay in touch even if these customers are not placing regular orders. Times are tough right now; buyers are cautious. Let them know that you're thinking of them and will be available to help them out when they're ready to buy. Although your business may be suffering too, be a person who they look forward to speaking with.
By keeping up with your customers even when you might be feeling a little stressed, you will be making an investment in the future of your company.
Meals in a Basket Gift Baskets
Research showed that many consumers are buying specialty foods that they can consume at home, I suggested baskets that include products for a full meal.
Much to my surprise, I read an article in the most recent issue of Rave Reviews Magazine (Volume 5, Issue 5) called Now Serving Meals in a Basket.
* Convenience Factors: Your job as a gift basket professionals is to make life easier for your customers and give convenience in the gifts for the recipients. The author states that Meal in a Basket can do all of this by providing the food, beverage, table and ambiance.
* Excitement Factors: A Meal in a Basket is a fun gift to receive. It is sure to delight any one with a busy schedule!
Say Thanks to Your Best Gift Basket Customers
In the October issue of Gourmet Retailer Magazine, Maggie Bayless wrote an article about how customer satisfaction is measured when they shop at her store.
Basically, the system includes a survey technique which asks customers how likely is it that you would recommend our company to friends or colleagues?. The premise is that the promoters, those customers who would highly recommend that business to others, are a great source of information about what is being done well and what could be done to make the shopping experience even better. According to the author, we can be asking these customers lots of questions about how we can improve our businesses.
This led me to think that often times, especially when we are very busy, we forget to acknowledge this very important part of our customer base. These are the customers to whom we need to pay attention!
During this holiday season, no matter how busy (or stressed) you may be, take a moment to contact your customers and thank them for their continued business and support. This might be done in the form of a phone call, an email, or a holiday greeting card. You might also include a thank you and as a special customer, we will keeping you informed of our monthly specials. see marketing materials for thank you notes.
Office
If you work in an office, there are always birthday's, baby showers, secretaries day, birthdays, anniversaries, gift baskets for new babies, for times of sorrow, promotions, Christmas, Graduation, New home, get well and special events throughout the year. Show your coworkers a catalog and have them place an order with you. No matter what your price range and what the occasion there is a gift basket that will fit the buyer's needs and be perfect for the receiver. Everybody loves gift baskets!
Waiting Rooms
Waiting rooms are a great place to leave a flyer or catalogs. Doctors and dentists are often happy to let La Bella Baskets entrepreneurs leave a few copies of their catalog or flyer with contact information for patients to read. Also consider unusual places to leave your catalogs like auto repair waiting rooms. Such places usually offer nothing of interest to women in their lobbies, making your catalog the most entertaining read as ladies wait for extended periods of time. see marketing materials for catalog
