Tips from dealers - SUPER creative ideas

SUPER Creative Ideas from dealers who think outside the circle!

• Visit camping/hunting/outdoor retail shops, campgrounds, and Boy/Girl Scouts about the Camping Adventure. The later could be fundraiser opportunity. 
• A dealer parks his vehicle on the side of the road with a banner giving his company name and phone number.
• Include your brochure or promotional card (with website), when paying personal bills.
• Organize your own craft shows
• Organize, or be apart, of home parties
• Try setting up on location at birthday parties and offer the books made on the spot with a minimum of 10 books purchased. One dealer doing this lets the kids make their own book. He charges $10 a book and the kids love it.
• One dealer worked with a company called Party-Time, which made gift baskets for children and adults. She provided books to them for $4 below retail.
• One dealer has his mom walk around the mall with his daughter asking everyone if they had seen "those great personalized books over there?"
• A dealer worked with her local newspaper's kids' page. Kids sent in a list of books read during the week and a drawing was held for a free book.
• Make a book for a disc jockey or television personality and you'll probably get a lot of free publicity.
• Make and send a book for someone famous.
• A dealer received a lot of publicity from an essay contest he sponsored using the topic, "Why reading is exciting!"
• Ask local businesses to insert a flyer in their employees' paychecks. Use payroll deduction forms when selling to the employees of a large company.
• When PBS has their local fund raising program, work out an arrangement to give the station $3 (or a figure agreeable to both of you) for every book sold. This is very inexpensive publicity.
• A dealer worked with an Indian reservation with My School Fun Book. He found it worked well to put "your family" in place of friends' names and "northeast Wisconsin" in place of hometown to save time in typing in variables for these books. This may work for other books if friends are not known by the purchaser.
• One dealer called us to explain a special fundraiser she is doing with a school. Once the funds are secured, then they will be used to buy My School Fun Book for the kindergarten children in that school. The books are to be given out at first parent teacher conference. This is a novel idea because the dealer has a double opportunity to sell her Create-A-Books.
• Look into offering this book on the back of candle or balloon packages as a premium incentive.
• Send out a newsletter or direct mailing using the guest list from a campground. These campers can tie in their recent visit to the campground in the My Camping Adventure book.
• One dealer found working with a department store around Mother's Day produced good sales.
• Some dealers have been very successful with Lord and Taylor's because of the upscale image of the store. Dealers have also had success working with Sears and Price Club.
• Set up next to the food court in your mall for added exposure.