topic du jour: tooting your own horn

Good morning! Thanks to all who have commented on previous days' posts. It is great to hear from all sides of the industry. A couple of retailer comments about how they find new lines made me think about how much thought and efforts promotions take. And I don't mean just promoting a special, I mean getting your name, your line, your store out there and at the forefront of people's minds. Since so much pre-qualifying gets done via the internet these days, it has become more important than ever to make your business stand out from the masses so that a retailer will visit your booth at a trade show like NSS, or a customer will go into your shop to buy what they're looking for.

So today's topic is: tooting your own horn. How do you do it? What works for you? And retailers, how DO you decide which trade show booths to stop by? Do you prefer e-mails containing lots of info, or more general e-mails that direct you elsewhere for info? And is consistency (e.g., 1x per month) more important than timing (hitting a store during their primary buying season)? What about those direct mail pieces? And manufacturers: as consumers, what gets you into a shop?

At hen and barley press we use e-mail marketing (as you all now know!) often. This form of marketing has generated more results--both in sales and traffic at trade shows--than any other form of marketing we've ever done (and we've done them all--postcards, ads, etc.). We find the e-mails that describe a need created by a trend or current buying habit, and then position our products as filling that need, work best. We also try to include lots of photos of finished products in our e-mails and on our website--photos of actual product seem to have more of an impact than a PDF of a design turned into a Jpeg. We've also found our association with A Fresh Bunch and the ISA to be a huge benefit. The "one-stop shopping" that these group sites provide seems to be a help to retailers, and has really helped promote our brand.

As a consumer, I do love getting e-newsletters from our retailers as well as local shops I frequent. Sometimes I've signed up for these, sometimes I haven't, but as someone whose company depends upon staying abreast of the retail indsutry for survival, the more of these I read, the more insight I have. One of our retailers, Papers & Presents in MA, does a DARLING weekly picks e-mail. Short, to the point, and always with a few eye-catching photos, it hits the spot. If I lived in MA, you can bet I'd be there shopping for camp goodies (the subject of this week's pick).

Let's hear it: how do you toot your own horn?

Topic du jour: What works in this economy?

Good morning, all. I woke up this morning to several e-mails from reps asking about some of hen and barley's current specials, and then noted that some of my daily blog reading was covering specials & promotions being run by both manufacturers and retailers in our industry.

With that in mind, it made me wonder: What works in this economy? Retailers, what things are you doing for your customers that help generate sales, and how can manufacturers support these efforts? Manufacturers, what are you doing to generate sales? What's working for you? Would our industry gain anything if as many manufacturers as possible banded together and offered similar promotions?

I am not asking anyone to reveal deep dark trade secrets, so I so hope that we'll get some comments on this one. In our offices, we try to talk to retailers, really listen to what their needs are and then develop promotions accordingly, but since we can't talk to everyone, even then it can feel like throwing darts at a board. And to properly develop and promote your promotions it takes time and lots of communication to get the word out, so wouldn't it be lovely if we all knew what retailers really want? And retailers, wouldn't it be lovely if the promotions arriving in your...ahem...e-mail inboxes were just what you were looking for?

What have we done (that has seemed to work)?

- At NSS the 6 manufacturers in the A Fresh Bunch booth standardized their opening order minimums and waived minimums if a retailer wrote with everyone in the booth.
- Outisde of NSS, hen and barley press has waived minimums on orders and re-orders since it seems that our retailers want to minimize inventory on their shelves and order less product more often.
- hen and barley press has focused on products that are less expensive for retailers & customers to purchase, as well as programs that don't require the retailers to carry inventory.

So, let's hear it: What works in this economy?

topic du jour: Trade Shows

Okay, everyone, it's time to gather your thoughts. There's been so much interest in the last blog post that it seems that perhaps retailers and manufacturers alike are clamoring for an opportunity to hear more from each other on some of the hot topics and issues in our industry.

With that in mind, we'd like to devote each day this week to a new topic. We're going to start with one that our company has thought about, struggled with and thought about some more, but we're hopeful that you'll all give us some suggestions on questions you have. The questions can be issues our industry as a whole faces, or they can be things retailers would like to hear from a broad spectrum of manufacturers (or vise versa).

The discussions won't be meaningful without comments from all of you, and we're going to start out not moderating comments so that everyone who comments is heard. That said, we're trusting everyone to play nice: no naming names, please. Points can certainly be made by speaking in general terms, and remember we're all in this together.

Here goes: the topic du jour is Trade Shows. Let us start by saying that we loved attending the National Stationery Show and have met many fabulous people there and at other markets, some of whom have become dear friends and trusted colleagues. But, our experience has been that trade shows have changed in recent years from sales vehicles to marketing vehicles, and this fundamental shift makes the cost of attending prohibitive sometimes. And while we worry that we're missing our retailers and they us when we don't attend, the majority of our current customers don't seem to attend any shows regularly.

So, a few questions:
- If you attended any trade shows this year, as a retailer or a manufacturer, we ask you: Why?
- If you didn't, why didn't you?
- Retailers, manufacturers so often hear that not attending a trade show, particularly NSS, will instantly make you a pariah in the industry. Is this really a dealbreaker for retailers?
- Retailers, if you use sources other than trade shows for placing orders and finding new lines, what are those sources? Sales reps? Internet search? Sites like Etsy?

For our part, we attended both the Atlanta Gift Market and NSS this year. This was feasible this year because we were part of collective booths that significantly reduced our show costs, thereby enabling us to focus on the marketing opportunities aspects of the shows rather than stressing about covering our booth expenses via sales. In years past, before these group booth opportunities presented themselves, we did skip some shows, deciding to use the money not spent on trade shows on developing new products. Our business still grew during this time, primarily with the help of sales reps, and our experience was that retailers understood our having a limited budget as long as we were still developing new products. All that said, we plan to return to both Atlanta and NSS next year, definitely part of collective booths. The group booths allow us to be there, have a presence, and connect face to face with retailers and new reps. Even if we don't write one order, it's still money well spent. We would not, however, have the luxury of having that attitude if we had our own booths at the shows.

What about all of you? Tell us what your thoughts on trade shows are.

Completely Custom

Hey retailers! Looking for a way to turn your store into a custom design studio? We've got a great program that can help you do just that.

Completely Custom is the hot, new must-have program that turns your store into a custom design studio.

It's more than just personalization, it's Completely Custom!

- No inventory to manage
- Small footprint - 8.5" square x 14" tall acrylic easel holds all the pages
- Over 14 products offered, something for every occasion: note cards, labels, invitations, gifts, calendars and more
- Hundreds of designs + different color combinations = 1,000s of design options (our everyday math calculations tell us over 14,000, to be exact)
- Reasonable price points and everything offered in low quantities for gift giving
- Brilliantly simple order form the customer can fill out themselves

Bottom line? Custom design that anyone can do, on products customers love, all at non-custom prices.

Just in time for the National Stationery Show, our newest addition to Completely Custom is ready! Meet Semi-Custom, 36 patterns, including our most popular imprintables patterns, for use on 6 different products with personalization. It's less decision-making than Completely Custom, but still a wee bit custom...it's Semi-Custom! And all of this from one easel!

See it in person in Booth #2547. We'll be there along with members of A Fresh Bunch.

On our desk this week...

Counting down the days until the National Stationery Show next week!

Retailers, come on over to booth #2547 to see all of our fabulous products in person. We'll be joined there by several other must-see, must-have manufacturers, so be sure to stop by for fresh ideas and awesome products we're sure your customers will love!

We'll be blogging from the show, so come back each day next week for eyewitness reports from the country's premiere market for social stationery and all the fun stuff that comes with it.