Gift Basket Marketing Blog

What's The Buzz

2006-05-30T14:30:00.000-07:00

DO you want to know what the BUZZ is?

Well I’m the "Talk of the town" because my business has just been published on the front page of Business Owners' Idea Cafe, the premiere small business destination.
They were impressed by my profile and published my story as a role model to inspire other entrepreneurs.

Check it out http://www.businessownersideacafe.com/

Well, I’ve freed up some time to celebrate, savor the moment and give myself credit for this accomplishment.

Having a cafe latte, after taking the day off.

Since The Wall Street Journal, Business Week and other major publications pays attention to what's happening at Idea Cafe. I think this will give my business a big buzz and put me at the spotlight.

All dressed up for a fun night with a few girls in town.

You also can be the big buzz in your town

Unless you feel it is absolutely necessary to run large, expensive newspaper or magazine ads, you can attract business just as successfully by running small, inexpensive, in routine newspaper or magazine ads. You might not look as important as the purchaser of full-page ads, but you’ll definitely end up making more money.

Don’t forget, consistency is one of the most important factors in marketing. You can achieve consistency with small ads as well as large ones. The size of your ads does NOT produce the consumer confidence that consistency does. This secret will save you impressive sums of cash.

Start sponsoring some charity events or write several articles with catchy headline about the event and submit them as press release to all medias to get more publicity with the press

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Online entrepreneur Joyce O. Oladipo, "The Giftpreneur Queen," publishes the award-winning 'Gift Basket Success' ezine with 750 subscribers.If you're ready to jump-start your marketing, make more money, and havemore fun in your Gift Basket business, get your FREE tips now at www.GiftBasketQueenSecrets.com

Five Keys To Telemarketing Success

2006-05-19T15:35:00.001-07:00

Five Keys To Telemarketing Success
by Joyce Oladipo, "The Giftpreneur Queen"

Telephone can be used to effectively market your business.
Some people have difficulties telling people about their business over the phones.
Here are five guidelines and tips that you can use to grown your business.

1. Have A Script

The real key to effective telephone marketing is having a script. Top of the head answering is not a good idea. A script, an outline, notes, flip cards, some written
tools to help you stay on track are important. Most of the best telemarketing companies create scripts for their business. This scripts are used by there their staff to bring in more business.

2. Courtesy Pays

Courtesy is a very important aspect of telemarketing. The person you are trying to do business with is someone you’re not in main contact with, you can't see you; they can only react to what you are saying and how you're saying it.

3. Don’t Take No As An Offence

Not every one you call would be interesting in your business. So don’t take no personally. It might be that it not what they want at that time. Sometime they can shut you up by hanging up you just have know how to deal with these; don’t let it put you in a shell. Don't take it personally.

4. Practice Makes Perfect

Practice makes perfect, or at least better. You need to call continuously maybe at least twenty or twenty-five calls of a particular type with a particular offer before even beginning to be judgmental about your calling, yourself, your skills or the results. If you've never used a telephone this way before you'll be understandably uncomfortable with the process.

5. Call, Just Call

Until you pick up the phone and call, that's when you will no if it works. Until you keep on calling that when you get perfect.

It's always important to remember that you were not made perfect in a day. Everything you now how to do were once difficult and uncomfortable for you.
Stretching your comfort zones and mastering new skills is an important reoccurring part of living to be enjoyed not feared.

Learning telemarketing skills, mastering them and being able to teach them to others is a way to greatly enhance your value and worth and be able to increase the sales and
profits of just about any business you're involved with.

Unfortunately, I've discovered that many businesses don't like using this tool or because of the DO NOT CALL LIST, they think people no longer use it. For many reasons thatis correct.

But there is one marketing tool every business should 'legally' be using "the phone" in order to grow their business.

Online entrepreneur Joyce O. Oladipo, "The Giftpreneur Queen," publishes the award-winning 'Gift Basket Success' ezine with 750 subscribers.If you're ready to jump-start your marketing, make more money, and havemore fun in your Gift Basket business, get your FREE tips now at www.GiftBasketQueenSecrets.com

8 Fantastic Ways To Multiply Your Sales

2006-05-19T09:21:00.000-07:00

8 Fantastic Ways To Multiply Your Sales
by Joyce Oladipo, "The Giftpreneur Queen"

1. Follow Up With Your Prospects

When you sell your first gift basket, always follow up with the
customer. You can follow-up with a "thank you” note or email and mention any other service or products you provide. It’s good to follow up form time to time.

2. Upsell To YOur Customers

You could upsell to your customers. When they place their other you can tell them about addition thing you can add to the basket. Like a nice greeting card and if it’s for a corporate company you can add some customize items like ribbon or included the brochure or business cards in the basket. These are things you can add to their original order.

3. Ask For Referrals

Tell your customers if they refer four other customers to use your service or visit your web site, they will receive a full rebate of their purchase price. This will turn one sale into three sales.

4. Have A Club Card Program

When you sell a gift basket, always mention your club card so that they can get commission if they do recommend your service. This will multiply the sale you just made.

5. Cross Sell With Others

You could cross promote your product with other businesses' products in a package deal. You can create flyer for your gift basket which other can advertise with their product or services. An event planner can be a good person to work with.

6. Include Coupons For Other Products

When you ship out or deliver your gift basket, include a coupon for other related gift baskets you are sell in the package. This will attract them to buy more products from you.

7. Sell Gift Certificates

Sell gift certificates for your gift baskets. People will definitely come and use their certificate.

8. Add Promotion Products

Send your customers free products with their gift basket. The freebies should have your ad printed on them. It could be bumper stickers, ball caps, t-shirts etc. This will allow other people to see your ad and order.

Online entrepreneur Joyce O. Oladipo, "The Giftpreneur Queen," publishes the award-winning 'Gift Basket Success' ezine with 750 subscribers.If you're ready to jump-start your marketing, make more money, and havemore fun in your Gift Basket business, get your FREE tips now at www.GiftBasketQueenSecrets.com

Use Your Answering Machine To Get You More Clients

2006-05-12T07:54:00.000-07:00

Use Your Answering Machine To Get You More Clients
by Joyce Oladipo, "The Giftpreneur Queen"

Another effective marketing tool is your answering machine. Most gift basket business owner use it to entertain callers.

Some messages people usually use to entertain are:

“This is the Bobby’s residence. Sorry we are not at home right now. Please leave a message after the tone“
“You have just reach 058 434 43433. I’m not available at the moment…..“

This is not a professional way of doing business and it would not help you get more customers. You should record what you do and the service you provide. It must be used as another way to position yourself as an expert.

Market yourself with your voice

You are going to have a marketing message on your answer machine. Clients that call you are interesting in you business so they would be interested in listen to a message that interest them if you not available.

Answering Machine Script

So, instead of saying, “This is the Bobby’s residence. Sorry we are not at home right now. Please leave a message after the tone“.
Why not say “Hello, Thank you for calling to discuss how to improve your business and get more clients. It’s Joyce Oladipo, The Giftpreneur Queen.”

“I’m quite busy at the moment but your call is extremely important to me. So at the tone, please leave your name, telephone number and a detailed message slowly and clearly and I’ll guarantee getting back to you.”

“All my gift baskets are designed to improve your business and bring you more clients. You can also go to my website to immediately download a report titled ’10 Way to attract more clients to your business’ from www.giftbasketqueensecrets.com”

“Thanks for calling The Giftpreneur Queen and I look forward to speaking with you later.”
The email has a CALL TO ACTION in it; to leave a message and visit your website. So whatever you call to action may be; to sign up for your newsletter, to visit your website, call for a free consultation, or email you to set up an appointment.
Try and use your answer machine in a productive way. It can be used as a way to get and retain new clients. Remember to keep it relatively short or clients will not want to call back.

Online entrepreneur Joyce O. Oladipo, "The Giftpreneur Queen," publishes the award-winning 'Gift Basket Success' ezine with 750 subscribers.If you're ready to jump-start your marketing, make more money, and havemore fun in your Gift Basket business, get your FREE tips now at www.GiftBasketQueenSecrets.com

Inspirational Email I Received Today from other Giftpreneur’s

2006-05-05T06:34:00.000-07:00

Dear Joyce;

At the start of my letters I wish to thank you very much on the report of The Six Deadly Gift Basket Business Marketing…

I received it a week ago and I am enjoying reading it.
In spite of that English is not my mother tongue it is easy for me to follow what is written and to understand it.
You explain the material in a clear way, easy and very interesting.
Your examples are very helpful in order to comprehend what you try to convey.
I am learning from the material much and I am confident that this mini-course along with the recommendations and tips that I will receive from you will help me improve systems of my marketing and sell much more.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Dahlia Sztrigler.
P.S. The name The Giftpreneur Queen suits you very much.

Hi Joyce,

I was completely impressed with the amount of information that was included in this report, many key points that had never crossed my mind. I would recommend this report to anyone that is just starting out or is just thinking about starting a gift basket business. I anticipate my sales to be strong and the image of my company to be that much stronger as well.

Sincerely,
Dreana

You can send your feedback through this link www.giftbasketqueensecrets.com/feedback.html in order to get more publicity for your business.

I would be publishing these feedbacks on my site in a few weeks. Over 1000 people visit my site everyday and it inspires them to know you’re in the gift basket business too.

Online entrepreneur Joyce O. Oladipo, "The Giftpreneur Queen," publishes the award-winning 'Gift Basket Success' ezine with 400 subscribers.If you're ready to jump-start your marketing, make more money, and havemore fun in your Gift Basket business, get your FREE tips now at www.GiftBasketQueenSecrets.com

How To Get Free TV Ads

2006-05-05T06:13:00.000-07:00

How To Get Free TV Ads
by Joyce Oladipo, "The Giftpreneur Queen"

Here is another interesting marketing idea.

TV is the most costly form of advertising. Nothing else even comes close. So, here is how you can negotiate with some independent TV and cable stations and get your get your business on TV for free? Here's one way.

Give a prize or become a sponsor of an event that will be running a lot of TV ads. For example: Every year there is Bridal Fair here in Luxembourg. By donating a prize your company logo or name appears on all printed advertising and in all TV ads.

You won't be alone but it's a great way to expose your company logo and name to a large number of people

Be sure to go the extra mile to create a product brand in your viewers mind or you've wasted your free TV ad time."

Online entrepreneur Joyce O. Oladipo, "The Giftpreneur Queen," publishes the award-winning 'Gift Basket Success' ezine with 750 subscribers.If you're ready to jump-start your marketing, make more money, and havemore fun in your Gift Basket business, get your FREE tips now at www.GiftBasketQueenSecrets.com

Mother's Day Inspirations

2006-05-02T14:18:00.000-07:00

My mother die a few years ago and as Mother's Day approaches I naturally thought of her and the values she has shared with me throughout my life.

Click on the link below to see an inspiring short movie.

This short movie encompasses many of those values. I thought it would be meaningful to you too, especially at this time of year.

May You Be Blessed

Online entrepreneur Joyce O. Oladipo, "The Giftpreneur Queen," publishes the award-winning 'Gift Basket Success' ezine with 400 subscribers.If you're ready to jump-start your marketing, make more money, and havemore fun in your Gift Basket business, get your FREE tips now at www.GiftBasketQueenSecrets.com

11 Steps to Catch More Opt-ins Than You’ve Ever Dreamt Of

2006-04-20T07:52:00.000-07:00

11 Steps to Catch More Opt-ins Than You’ve Ever Dreamt Of
by Joyce Oladipo, "The Giftpreneur Queen"

The first thing you must know is that when you have new visitors at your website, your #1 goal is to get them on your ezine list! With that you have permission to contact them again and again, educating them about your services and products. A lot of people make the mistake of just putting up a link that says "free newsletter". Trust me, No one cares if it free or not. Your business is like fishing. To get their attention you need to carefully craft an opt-in box that works like a big net, catching the exact type of "fish" you want as your ideal prospects and customers.Your opt-in box must not be at the bottom of your web pages. I have notice that I get more subscriptions when I have an opt-in box on the very first page.Here are eleven simple things you can use for your opt-in that will help increase your signups than ever before.

1. Position Yourself

As a gift basket business owner with your business online, you are competing with a ravenous pack of other business competitors, who what your customers. You need to convince your customers that you deliver the best service and they need to do business with you. This is where positioning is crucial. Your uniqueness is the pivotal point of all your marketing. Always position your uniqueness. Convince your customers why you are better, unique, and can fill their needs, then your email subscription will increase.

2. Create A Great HEADLINE

Most subscribers SKIM the content of the subscription - they don't read it word for word. So the headline of your opt-in box may be the ONLY thing they read. This can determine whether they sign up or not. So don't waste this space saying something like "Free Newsletter" or even worse... "Sign up for our mailing list." Ugh! Instead, tell them the MOST exciting thing your ezine will give them!

Examples:

"FINALLY: Learn How to Keep Customers Coming Back for More"
"Are You Ready to Blast Off Your SALES This Year?"
"Insider Secrets to Getting More Booking and Referrals"

3. A Raving Description of Your Ezine

Get a description for your ezine that gets prospects excited to sign up! The description needs to describe what they would be getting from your ezine and how it’s going to help them. People are generally thinking about themselves. Most people are thinking of “what’s in it for me?” We are all tuned into “WIIFM” station. Tell them what your information is going to DO for them as well as everything they‘ll GET. Examples: How-to articles, quick and easy tips, free resources, insider secrets. Aim for your description to be between 15 and 30 words.

4. Offer Them Something

People don’t just give email address without a reason nowadays, unless you offer them something in return. You can offer them a free report or eBook.
By giving them something they need you can increase your subscription.

5. Ask For Their NAME

To create a relationship with your subscribers you need to get their names along with their e-mails. This allows you to personalize your ezine to them. For example, if I have subscribed to your list, your e-mail would come to me saying, "Dear Joyce..." The subject line could even say, "Joyce, here’s your free top tip". It has been proven that having the recipient's name in the subject line of your e-mails can increase your open rates by 60%!The problem is, many people value their privacy and are hesitant to give you their full name. For this reason, test both way of getting their names and see what works better for you.

6. Ask For Their Primary EMAIL ADDRESS

Many people have a separate email address they use just for receiving newsletters and promotions. The problem is that they often get this email address from free e-mail services like Yahoo or Hotmail. These services filter e-mails like crazy, and their mailbox gets filled up quickly, so there's a good chance your e-mails won't even reach these recipients.I would say by simply asking for their primary e-mail address can make a great difference. ASKING them to enter their primary e-mail will get more quality e-mails on your list! (You'll also get less bounce-backs from undeliverable e-mails)

7. A BUTTON That Says "Subscribe" or "Sign Me Up Now"

Make it very clear what you want them to click on to activate their subscription once they type in their name and email. Don't use something confusing like a link that says "submit form". You can even add a little twist to it like “Gimme That Report” or "Subscribe MEE”.

8. Assure Their Privacy, right then and there

When a person visits your web site, they are often hesitant to give their email address. Since they don’t know you, they often fear the worst: that you could be an unscrupulous email harvester, who will turn around and sell their information. So to overcome this natural hesitation, place a prominent privacy notice near or below stating “Your privacy is important to us”. Mine says " *Your information will never be sold or disclosed to anyone*. (Feel free to use that yourself.)

9. Pass It Round Syndrome

Asking others to pass your ezine along to those who might find it interesting can increase your subscription rate dramatically. Chances are those who like it enough would click on the “subscribe” link which is placed at the bottom of the ezine to subscribe. The internet is all about sharing information, and we love to let others know about good places to learn from. If you have a great ezine, you will start seeing people share your content with others and your web site URL will get seen by more people.

10. Use Your Signature EVERYWHERE

Whether you are sending an email to your Aunt, friend, or are participating in an online discussion list, always include your web site URL and email address in your signature. This is automatic advertising of your business, and is an effective method of letting people knows that you’re online, and ready to receive request from them.

11. Tell Us What Your Ezine is WORTH

Studies show that giving your ezine or report a dollar value will increase your signup! For example, at the very top of my web site I told them the value of the Gift Basket Business Report, $97. Feel confident about what you deliver in your ezine and report.

Increase Your Marketing Result

2006-04-17T08:29:00.000-07:00

Increase Your Marketing Result
by Joyce Oladipo, "The Giftpreneur Queen"

Here are a few secrets to increase your marketing result.

1. Select the right market

Most business owners spend enough time in selecting who they are going to market to. You need to make sure you have a marketing target; your marketing target has to be manageable too. Some people think that they can reach a lot of people instead of reaching the most qualified people repetitively.

2. Shrink your Market

You need to shrink the size of your target so that you can continuously market to them all the time. It is immeasurably better to contact a prospect list of 1,000 people continuously than it is to mail to 10,000 one-time. You can use lead generation to shrink your target market. Market to a huge contact then follow up with those that show interest in your business.

If you have an extremely small target market, you can market the easy way by just contacting them at least once a month. If you have a huge list of prospects, then you should absolutely use lead generation advertising in order to shrink the size of your target market. Try sending a direct mail letter to those businesses that you think might be interested in your service. For example Lawyers, Therapists, Chiropractors, Tax consultant. Send these letters 10 days between each other and follow up with those that respond.

You can mail a full-color lead generation postcard to your prospects.

The purpose of this postcard is to get your prospects to either call a toll free recorded message or go to your web site for more information. You can also use a postcard to drive people to your web site. You either follow up with a sales letter or promotional materials by mail or have a sales letter on your web site.

Once again, remember that the only purpose of this postcard is to get prospects to respond. Direst mail post cards are lead generation tool and is not meant to sell your product.

One side of the postcard, you can add a full color picture that pertains to the prospect you're mailing to or to your offer.

On the address side, you're going to have:

1. A compelling headline

2. Some hot bullet points

3. A call or calls to action

Direct mail post cards is a simple, cheap and fast way to market to your target market.

These are a few tips of getting maximum marketing result for your gift basket business.

Online entrepreneur Joyce O. Oladipo, "The Giftpreneur Queen," publishesthe award-winning 'Gift Basket Success' ezine with 400 subscribers.If you're ready to jump-start your marketing, make more money, and havemore fun in your Gift Basket business, get your FREE tips now at www.GiftBasketQueenSecrets.com

Hold a “Weird Gift Basket Stories” Contest and Send the Results to the Press

2006-03-30T01:20:00.000-08:00

Hold a “Weird Gift Basket Stories” Contest and Send the Results to the Press
by Joyce Oladipo, "The Giftpreneur Queen"

The media goes crazy about weird and crazy news because they know that people enjoy reading, watching, and listening to weird things. Hold a “Weird Gif Basket Stories” like sending a gift basket to the wrong girlfriend, or child wouldn’t leave gift basket because it was full of yummy candies. Hold the contest with your customers other prospects by offering a price for the weirdest and strangest stories that has happened to people as a result of buying a gift basket.

Once you receive your stories you can:

1. Place them on your website
2. Create a small book to hand out at home shows
3. Record them and create a free audio to give away
4. Include then in your newsletter

However the most powerful use of the stories is to get free publicity by creating a buzz in the press about them. You can send a press release to the local newspaper, have the local television and radio channels interview the winners or have you as a guest.

Examples of media release could be:

Granny Loves Gift Basket Too!
German Shepherd Got Gift Basket Goodies as a Thanks You Gift

Online entrepreneur Joyce O. Oladipo, "The Giftpreneur Queen," publishes
the award-winning 'Gift Basket Success' ezine with 400 subscribers.
If you're ready to jump-start your marketing, make more money, and have
more fun in your Gift Basket business, get your FREE tips now at www.GiftBasketQueenSecrets.com

2006-03-27T10:02:00.000-08:00

Why Don’t You Try? SPEAK OUT!
by Joyce Oladipo, "The Giftpreneur Queen"

Speaking in public increases your visibility, boosts your credibility, and establishes you as an expert in your field. It’s a powerful way of being in direct contact with potential clients. You might even find yourself closing a sale before you leave.

Find organisation to present to. There are so many business, and professional groups that are eagerly seeking free speakers for their meetings. Here are some suggestions:
• Chamber of Commerce networking events and workshops
• Trade and professional association meetings and conferences
• Lectures, workshops, conferences, and fairs hosted by educational institutions, community organizations, and affinity groups
• Live chats hosted by online services and web sites

Steps To Take Before Speaking Out

1. Create a few topics you would like to present to them. Your topics should be interesting, distinctive, and show off your specialized expertise.

2. Once you have a talk event scheduled, look for ways to get the most out of the opportunity. You can post the details on your web site, list the talk in your newsletter, or send a special bulletin to your contact list.

3. Ask the sponsoring group if you might also write an article for their newsletter. It can be distributed before the talk, an article will increase your attendance and if it was sent out after the afterwards, you may get inquiries from those who missed you and want to know where you will be speaking next.

4. Give them valuable educational information. Make sure the audience knows exactly what services you offer by giving the host a prepared introduction to read.

5. Collect contact information from the people who attend by holding a drawing for a book or tape, or offering them a free report or newsletter.

6. Finally, try circulating your own evaluation form, collecting feedback on your presentation, asking if your services might be of interest, and gathering names of other organizations where you might speak.

© 2006-2006 Joyce Oladipo

Online entrepreneur Joyce O. Oladipo, "The Giftpreneur Queen," publishes
the award-winning 'Gift Basket Success' ezine with 400 subscribers.
If you're ready to jump-start your marketing, make more money, and have
more fun in your Gift Basket business, get your FREE tips now at www.GiftBasketQueenSecrets.com

Start Blogging Now!

2006-03-20T08:46:00.001-08:00

Start Blogging Now!
by Joyce Oladipo, "The Giftpreneur Queen"

You call yourself a Giftpreneur and you're not blogging?

Well, what have you been doing?

You don't even need to have your own domain to blog. Blogger.com provides the service you need to start.

If you don’t have your own website, a free blog from Blogger.com is a good option. There is no reason why you can’t start marketing your business online with a blog.

I’m in the process of getting my own domain name blog, instead of using Blogger.com, not that I would stop using this one but I recommend that every Giftpreneur GET THEIR OWN domain for the sake of creating a businesslike and professional appearance.

Honestly, nothing is easier to set up than a blog, especially if you decide to install Wordpress on a Cpanel host or server like Datawebpro offers using Fantastico. This is the web server that I use and I would be using them to create my own domain name blog too.

You are just one click away to creating your own entries and having your own blog! It’s quite easy to set up.

Best of all, blogs are the fastest way to get free traffic to your Gift Basket Web Site.

So, have I gotten your attention yet?

If you read my Gift Basket Marketing Blog, you've probably noticed that I post every week.

I have a few reasons why I do that.

Well First of all, blog are quite easy to write they are more informal and conversational than a newsletter which tends to be more structured.

I am able to be myself and write articles that are of interest to the gift basket industry. It’s more out of the box articles.

Secondly, a blog is super easy to create.

You don’t have to know anything about HTML to have your own blog, there is nothing to upload to a server. Just write your message, click 'Publish' and your message is posted and available for the entire world to read.

That means that I can publish any tip I have that might interest other Giftpreneurs, I don't have to wait until my Gift Basket Success Newsletter is sent out to tell them about what I’ve just learnt. I just blog what I ever I want to say straight away.

So for example if you have any gift basket idea you want your customer to know about, or you are sponsoring an award you can just blog it.

Lastly, I've discovered just discover that the free traffic coming to my blog has increase dramatically. The more I post, the more traffic I get.

Now everything I know about I blog, no matter what.

It good to allow comments to be posted to your blog, you build a community, which makes your site much more interesting for visitors.

And when the site is more interesting, people stick around longer.

Something that encourages even more traffic are the RSS-to-Email "Blog Alerts" Which allow folks to subscribe to receive my blog posts via email, instead of using a feed or news reader.

Aweber offers this service, and has posted an article "Convert RSS to Email Newsletters Automatically" to show you how easy it is to set up.

If it’s difficult to write your posts find someone to write about various tips about gift basket or anything related to your service.

You can also target your post to the corporate industry as that’s where must of the money for gift basket comes from...

All you have to do is either stop taking long term vacations all the time, or find someone who is successful an online writer to write about various aspects of that topic...You can even write your blog when you are on vacation.

By the way if you are interested in being featured in my “Inside Story”, let me know. I will be doing a teleseminar with successful Giftpreneur pretty soon.

To sum things up... Blogging is fun, it drives free traffic to ones site and it PAYS. What could be better than that?

Learn More about Blogging

There are lot of information about the benefits of blogging or how to set up and run a blog but here is an interesting book I ‘ve read.

Blogging to the Bank

Rob Benwell promise a system that would take could help you make a t least $500 in just 30 days.

His system seems to be easy to execute, he give a step-by-step tutorial on how to set yourself up and drive traffic to your new blog.

He even shows search engine results for one of his sites and shares information on how to test and track your own results.

I don’t really like the idea of getting an additional application to get more traffic.

But he did say that fresh content is far more effective for driving traffic to your blog and site.

His 39 page report was reduced to $47.00, but I've heard that he plans to raise the price back $99.95.

© 2006-2006 Joyce Oladipo

Online entrepreneur Joyce O. Oladipo, "The Giftpreneur Queen," publishes
the award-winning 'Gift Basket Success' ezine with 400 subscribers.
If you're ready to jump-start your marketing, make more money, and have
more fun in your Gift Basket business, get your FREE tips now at
www.GiftBasketQueenSecrets.com

5 Basics For Your Marketing Message

2006-03-13T09:54:00.000-08:00

5 Basics For Your Marketing Message
by Joyce Oladipo, "The Giftpreneur Queen"

Your marketing message is one of the most important elements of your marketing program. Most giftpreneur are confused about their marketing message. Some think it’s just a slogan and some thing it’s just a regurgitation of all their awards and how long they’ve been in business. Some even think it’s their vision and mission statement. Well I have to say it’s not about these.

Your marketing message is what grabs the attention of your customer; it tells them how you can solve their problem, why they should trust you and why they should choose to do business with you.

The key to creating a winning message it to make sure that it matches the wants and needs of those who receive it.

5 Steps to Creating Your Marketing Message

1. Identify Your Target Market

Every gift basket business owner must have a target market, even a local dry cleaner has a target market, which is probably all the professional people living within a five mile radius of their store. So the first question you want to ask yourself is “Who is your target market” Once you have narrow down your target market, it’s easier to craft a message to that target market.

2. Identify Their Problems

Identify your target market’s pain and suffering and tell them that you understand and empathise with them. People don’t care about you until they know you care about them. So try and identify their problems and come up with solutions. Do they need more customers? Do they hate shopping?

3. Present Your Solutions

The next step is to present your solution. How do you help them solve the problems you’ve identified? For example, if they hate shopping you take the hassle of gift shopping and still make them look great. If they want to increase their client satisfaction, you may want to set up and manage a client appreciation program for them. Always identify all the benefits of your solution and how those benefits will improve their life or business and take away the pain and anguish.

4. Present the Result

It’s not enough to talk about your solution; you have to prove it to them that your solution works. In this step you need to prove your results by giving testimonies. People love testimonies. The best testimonial are the ones that tells the prospect what life was like before using your service and what life was like after applying your solution. Your testimonies should be presented in 3 steps

• The problem
• The solution
• The results

If you are new to the business you can talk about problems you’ve solved for friends, maybe a wedding, or a charity even you work on.

5. What make You Different

This tells your customers why they should do business with you. Why should they create a system for their gift program, when someone can just go down the store and arrange something? Prospects want to hear you communicate your difference and those different needs to be specific, concise and most importantly, an emotionally connection with your target prospect. It needs to be something they care about.

Now you have a simple formula for creating an effective marketing message. Your marketing message should use all your external communication. It starts with knowing the wants, fears, problems, and needs of your target market and end by crafting a message that speaks to those problems in a compelling and believable way. You need to make it clear what’s in for them when they use your solution or do business with you.

© 2006-2006 Joyce Oladipo

Online entrepreneur Joyce Oladipo, "The Giftpreneur Queen," is creator of the
fastest growing ezine 'Marketing Strategies to Jumpstart Your Gift Basket Business.
To learn more about this step-by-step program, and to sign up for her
FREE how-to articles and FREE audio class, visit www.GiftBasketQueenSecrets.com

Not Attracting Enough Customers? Here’s Why

2006-03-04T03:45:00.000-08:00

Not Attracting Enough Customers? Here’s Why
by Joyce Oladipo, "The Giftpreneur Queen"

Not attracting enough customers to your gift basket business could be because you are not doing the right thing or you are doing the right thing wrong.
It could be you are marketing the wrong way. You might think that you must be adverting, building a beautiful website, and asking for more referrals, well this are good marketing efforts but they are just a small part of a complete gift basket marketing process.

Here is an outline of a good Gift Basket Marketing Model

1. Develop Your Sales and Marketing Plan

You have to be clear on your marketing message and to whom you are targeting your message. You need to know your ideal customers and what they really want. What problems are they facing and what result are they looking for. For example you can target real estate and focus on helping them build customer relation.

2. Get Your Target Market Attention and Get Them To Want to Know More

Use attention grabbing marketing to get yourself notice. Advertise the solution to their problem. You can do this in headlines, on radio show, television, direct mail- flyers, brochures, or newspaper ads. For example a good headline might be “How to Improve you Customer Satisfaction and get More Referrals”. Always make sure your ad leads to getting their name, address or email address to start a lasting relationship

3. Educate and Inform You Customers without Selling

This steps hold to key to your success. Educating you customers establishes your relationship and trust. And it gives you the unique edge over your competitors. Must giftpreneur skip this step and jump to the sales. People are tried of sales pitch. You can write articles and reports for local newspapers.

4. Upsell Your Customers Negotiate Price

Now that the customer trusts you and they now know they need your help. All you have to do is be a listening ear; your customer would always tell you how to sell to them. When you listen to them you would know what emotional button to push to close the sales. You need to find a good feature in you business that will appeal to your customer. To upsell always recommend a complimentary service for example a reminder or a month subscription for your gift basket.

5. Exceed Customers Expectation

Always try and exceed you customer’s expectation. Most customers today have a low service of expectation as a result of their day-to-day experience with business. This makes it simple for you to go beyond what they expect and do something extra special. It is also wise to under promise but more than you competitor and over deliver.

6. Make It Easy For Customers to Give Referrals

Try and get referrals straight after the sales. Consider giving them incentive for referring their friends and families to use your service

Where Can You Go Wrong

If you skip any of these steps you would not get a good result from you marketing effort. It takes knowledge, experience and patience to learn how to successful move from step 1 to the next. Each step has it own unique strategies. Try and work on getting your customers attention and providing them with information. If these two steps are mastered, the others will become simpler

© 2006-2006 Joyce Oladipo

Online entrepreneur Joyce Oladipo, "The Giftpreneur Queen," is creator of the
fastest growing ezine 'Marketing Strategies to Jumpstart Your Gift Basket Business.
To learn more about this step-by-step program, and to sign up for her
FREE how-to articles and FREE audio class, visit www.GiftBasketQueenSecrets.com

"Gift Basket Success " Ezine

2006-02-26T04:17:00.000-08:00

"Gift Basket Success" Ezine
by Joyce Oladipo, "The Giftpreneur Queen"

"Join over ,400 other Gift Basket Business owners and still growing ezine.

In my "Gift Basket Success" Ezine, we'll cover these subjects and much more -- all with my personal savvy, sassy flavor, style and SIZZLE:

• "What's Great... And What Brings More Buying Customers"
I'll give you "no-holds-barred" marketing tips on all the latest "fads" along with more traditional business building resources.

• TRAFFIC... TRAFFIC... TRAFFIC!
We all need it... we all want it! I'll spend a lot of time on many different, legitimate ways to get more targeted traffic to your website. I'll also clue you in on the nonsense people pass off as legitimate traffic building techniques so you can hang onto your wallet instead of wasting your money on useless crap!

• Blocked and have no clues !
If you're struggling with a tough question - ASK ME! I'm sure others have the same questions... Though I can't answer your questions individually, I can answer them in the newsletter so that everyone benefits!

• Straight From The Trenches!
You get my personal insights and a first-hand look into my businesses, thoughts, feelings, and the lessons I learn as we all move down the trail to financial independence on the Internet - together!

• The "Inside Story" From People Who Are DOING It!
I'll give you access to some of the brightest Giftpreneur minds through expert, "Insider" interviews. These pros will share their secrets for making "real" money online!

• Got a comment for me? "Love it" / "Hate it" Mail?
I would love to know what hay how I can best serve you, and make you dream come true.

How is this newsletter different?

We're going to use a whole lot of really cool new tools to get the information to you in ways you can use immediately. That means this newsletter won't look like those dry old grammar school science book... with a bunch of boring text that'll have you dozing in minutes.

I'm going to use the latest tools to BRIGHTEN YOU DAY and deliver the profit-pulling messages to you in an exciting and useful way every single week!

I promise to make every newsletter as fully-packed-information as possible.

Sign Up NOW

© 2006-2006 Joyce Oladipo

Online entrepreneur Joyce Oladipo, "The Giftpreneur Queen," is creator of the
fastest growing ezine 'Marketing Strategies to Jumpstart Your Gift Basket Business.
To learn more about this step-by-step program, and to sign up for her
FREE how-to articles and FREE audio class, visit www.GiftBasketQueenSecrets.com

20 ways to attract new customers

2006-02-26T04:07:00.000-08:00

20 ways to attract new customers
by Joyce Oladipo, "The Giftpreneur Queen"

It’s not really easy to find and keep customer quickly and consistently.

Here are a few strategies you can use to jumpstart your Gift basket business to another level

1. Narrow down your niche
2. Create an educational based website to teach customers.
3. Focus on the top 5 or 10 customers for referral
4. Offer a guarantee
5. Don’t sell, focus on how your service can best solve their problems and value to then
6. Take about how your service can benefit them not how you would benefit them.
7. Ask client for memorable testimonies
8. Make a list of centre of influence
9. Make customers feel special
10. Strive for 100 referral customer based.
11. Put your expertise on and sell it. (People love information)
12. Set up a script that works and memorize them.
13. Book your follow up call
14. Become a speaker
15. Create client case studies
16. Come up with a clever #800 number
17. Brand yourself
18. Use an email signature as a customer attraction strategy
19. Have a powerful voice mail message that attract customers
20. Write articles on you expertise

© 2006-2006 Joyce Oladipo

Online entrepreneur Joyce Oladipo, "The Giftpreneur Queen," is creator of the
fastest growing ezine 'Marketing Strategies to Jumpstart Your Gift Basket Business.
To learn more about this step-by-step program, and to sign up for her
FREE how-to articles and FREE audio class, visit www.GiftBasketQueenSecrets.com

Find Customers Easily for Your Gift Basket

2006-02-17T15:01:00.000-08:00

Find Customer Easily for You Gift Basket
by Joyce Oladipo, "The Giftpreneur Queen"

Have you ever needed a hair cut or dye done and wondered where could you get be the hair dresser? I bet you wouldn’t just wonder into a shop randomly? Probably not!
I would say out of experience that the best way to find the best hairdresser would be to ask a friend, relative, or co-worker for the name of their hairdresser and whether or not they are satisfied with their service and customer service.

So the big question is what does this have to do your gift basket business and how would it bring in targeted customers easily to buy you product?

Well it Got Absolutely Everything to do with your business . . .

Sometime you get new customers through your marketing and advertising efforts but there is also another way to get customers…referrals.

Why is this so important to your business?

Four BIG reasons to use referral

1. Ask for referral
Referral is a powerful way to get new customer. People who referrals trust your service. Those who come through refer then to buy from you because they trust the person who referred them, and you are able to capitalize on it.
Whenever you are fortunate enough to get a referred customer to buy your basket they would buy what they come for if not much more, Why? It because they already came in with a buying attitude, which is simply based on trust.

2. Customer replenishing

You need to continuously find new customer because old customers do stop buy over a period of time. Referral helps to increase your customer base.

3. Referral cost little

Referred customer cost less to acquire than expensive, traditional advertising such as newspaper, radio, or TV.

4. Referrals do refer

Referred customers are more likely to refer their friends, co-workers, and relatives to you, since someone else referred them.

Here are a few examples of a referral system
1. The Old Fashioned Contest referral
2. Thank You" Referral
3. Free Give-a-Gift referral
4. Send the Bill" Referral

© 2006-2006 Joyce Oladipo

Online entrepreneur Joyce Oladipo, "The Giftpreneur Queen," is creator of the
fastest growing ezine 'Marketing Strategies to Jumpstart Your Gift Basket Business.
To learn more about this step-by-step program, and to sign up for her
FREE how-to articles and FREE audio class, visit www.GiftBasketQueenSecrets.com

50 Places Your URL Should Be Seen or Heard:

2006-02-07T13:34:00.000-08:00

50 Places Your URL Should Be Seen or Heard
by Joyce Oladipo, "The Giftpreneur Queen"

􀂉 Answering Machine
􀂉 Address labels
􀂉 Billboards
􀂉 Billing Statements
􀂉 Brochures
􀂉 Business Cards
􀂉 Bumper Stickers
􀂉 Catalogs
􀂉 CD ROM Presentations
􀂉 Christmas Cards
􀂉 Classifieds
􀂉 Clothing
􀂉 Company/Personal Cars
􀂉 Coupons
􀂉 Co-Workers
􀂉 Checks
􀂉 Envelopes
􀂉 Emails
􀂉 Existing customers
􀂉 Fax sheets
􀂉 Flyers
􀂉 Freebies & Giveaways
􀂉 Friends
􀂉 Interviews
􀂉 Invoices
􀂉 Leaflets
􀂉 Media Kits
􀂉 Newsletters
􀂉 Newspaper Ads
􀂉 On Hold Messages
􀂉 Packaging
􀂉 Personal Mail
􀂉 Phonebook Listings
􀂉 Postcards
􀂉 Posters
􀂉 Press Releases
􀂉 Print Ads
􀂉 Products
􀂉 Promotional Materials
􀂉 Radio Ads
􀂉 Receipts
􀂉 Reorder Forms
􀂉 Sales Letters
􀂉 Stationery
􀂉 Storefront
􀂉 Television Ads
􀂉 Thank You Cards
􀂉 Trade Shows
􀂉 Uniforms & Hats
􀂉 Your Home

© 2006-2006 Joyce Oladipo

Online entrepreneur Joyce Oladipo, "The Giftpreneur Queen," is creator of the
fastest growing ezine 'Marketing Strategies to Jumpstart Your Gift Basket Business.
To learn more about this step-by-step program, and to sign up for her
FREE how-to articles and FREE audio class, visit www.GiftBasketQueenSecrets.com