Posts Tagged articles
How to Best Give Personalized Gifts
Posted by Gallant in Promotional Ideas on October 7, 2009
Even though school is out and summer upon us, there still doesn’t seem to be any shortage of occasions to celebrate. But, who has time to keep the kids occupied in addition to searching for the perfect gift. One sure way to get an appropriate gift in a flash but still look like you put forth a lot of thought and effort is to incorporate your personal photos into the item. Pieces such as photo jewelry or photo dog tags are simple things yet they become something very special and personal. You’ll be amazed at how many choices can be found online as well as at many of your local stores.
We all go through those times of the year when one special occasion quickly follows another and every time you turn around, you have a pile of presents for which you suddenly need to shop. But all your gift giving worries are over, because now you can get all the one-of-a-kind mementos in one place. Simply provide some special pictures, chose the item you wish to create, and before you know it, a custom-made retirement gifts will be yours to bestow upon the recipient. You can even sit down at your computer with your child and create masterpieces for the entire family. Even places like grocery stores, drug stores and office supply and copy centers offer these items.
Important events such as a graduation, wedding or first communion can be commemorated with products as keepsake boxes for storing all of life’s little treasures and memories. Get holiday gifts for all your loved ones without having to run around all over town. Grandparents can never have enough pictures of the grandchildren, so they would simply love to receive gifts for mom that they can use every day that have pictures of their favorite people on them. There are so many items that can be personalized with your own pictures-magnets, key chains, plates, mouse pads and coasters, just to name a few.
Now when your child is invited to yet another friend’s birthday party, you can be confident that the from you will not be duplicated by anyone else. Just imagine how thrilled they will be when they open up a t-shirt or sweatshirt with a picture of themselves and your child printed on it. The end of the school year can be a real challenge when it comes to finding a meaningful personalized gifts for that favorite teacher. Items such as picture calendars, coffee mugs and tote bags are sure to be used and appreciated all year long.
If you want to give something special but you just don’t have the right picture or you are uncertain of which product to select, then simply purchase a gift certificate that the recipient can use to make something on their own. Gifts as these will certainly be cherished for a very long time. Unique and thoughtful presents from the important people in our lives make us truly treasure all the wonderful moments.
How to Save Your Job
Posted by Dan in Promotional Ideas on September 3, 2009
By the time you read this, I hope the market will be stabilizing, housing starts will be up, consumer confidence will start kicking in, your next big sale will be on the horizon and our industry will be clawing its way back from the muddy depths of the recession. Ah, that’s the optimist in me.
In reality, I know the economy has a way to go. The worst of it is the growing unemployment stats and our industry isn’t immune. In the past few months the downsizing dragon has been rearing its ugly head as lack of business has forced some companies to close factories and eliminate long-held positions. What can you do to protect your job? A natural tendency now is for people to lay low and try to blend in to avoid the ax. Wrong, says author Robin Fisher Roffer. Instead, she recommends you learn to be you—only better in 2009. Here are a few of Roffer’s suggestions from her book The Fearless Fish Out of Water: How to Succeed When You’re the Only One Like You:
1. Let go of your fears. While your first instinct might be to hide in your office and bury yourself in paperwork, don’t give in. Be visible. Speak up. Let your creative spark loose. Don’t let your fears keep you from achieving something great for your company. “Remember, being authentic as an employee isn’t about self-expression for its own sake; it’s about bringing all your unique gifts to the table in order to benefit your company,” says Roffer. “You have to put yourself out there completely and fearlessly in order to keep your organization alive and growing.”
2. Uncork your marketable personality traits. If you are a creative person or a good problem solver, strengthen those traits and let them work for you. If you come to work each day and just do your job the way you were trained but don’t look for better ways of doing things or ways to save your company money, you are doing the company and yourself a disservice. “Stifling these personality traits at work will only harm you in the long run,” she says. “Sure, to your higher-ups you might be known as the guy who does a good enough job and stays out of the drama, but think about how pleased your boss would be if you came to him with a money-saving idea right about now.”
3. Push your boundaries this year. Have you cloaked your personality to try to fit into the mold at your workplace? Have you tried to become what higher-ups expect? It’s time to be true to yourself. Rather than hide your attributes just to fit in, look for ways to make those attributes work for you. “If you’re convinced you’d accomplish more by taking an active role with customers rather than toiling behind the scenes, for example, approach your boss with the idea,” she says. “It may seem scary to make such a bold move in tenuous times, but leaders will appreciate any innovation that will get business moving right now.”
4. Go to the top with good ideas. If you have some ideas that can save or make the company money, don’t keep them bottled up. Your boss doesn’t have all the ideas and neither does the company president or owner. Good ideas come from people at all levels. Ask for some time with higher-ups to share those ideas. “Read the company website,” suggests Roffer. “Listen carefully to team pep talks from higher-ups. If you can manage it, introduce yourself at company events and ask at the appropriate juncture in your conversation, ‘What’s keeping you up at night?’ The answer should reveal the challenge they need to meet or the special project they want to put into motion. You could be the person to support their efforts.”
5. Learn to communicate in a common language. Yes, you’ve got some great ideas but stop, take a breath and figure out what’s important to the person to whom you are selling those ideas. “While there isn’t exactly a wrong way to be at the office, there is a wrong way to express your ideas,” notes Roffer. “Sometimes an idea that seems perfectly clear to you might not be so obvious to those around you. A successful fearless fish will stand in the shoes of the person she is pitching and explain with visual words and concrete examples how the idea will benefit the business.”
6. Identify your fearless advocate (and become one). It’s easier to feel confident when someone you admire is cheering you on. If you don’t have that cheerleader or advocate now, find someone in your office with whom you can connect. Perhaps you can even establish a mentoring type of relationship that will benefit you both. “Once you’ve found an advocate, you should start advocating for someone as well,” says Roffer. “Be a leader to the newly arriving fish out of water at your office. Compassionate leadership benefits everyone. Learning from younger or less experienced people spurs evolution and creates staying power for the senior members of the team. For the fish out of water, an added benefit is that by generously sharing your own expertise, you become involved and integral.”
Recession Defense
Posted by Dan in Promotional Ideas on September 3, 2009
Four Ways To Keep Your Customer Service Top-Notch And Indispensible
Flexible Workforce
In the face of staff cuts, cross-train employees so they can fill a variety of roles.
Spoil Your Staff
Uncertainty about their jobs can shatter employee morale, so offer work schedule flexibility and other rewards to compensate.
Invest In Low-Cost Technology
Consider purchasing small pieces of new equipment that make your workers’ lives easier.
Play Favorites
Keep your best customers happy with fast service, extra attention and flexible rules.
Website + Control = Success
Posted by Gallant in Business Tips on May 21, 2009
BY DAN LEVIN
It was 1994 when a neighbor volunteered to create a Web site for our newly founded promotional products company. Back then, Prodigy was bigger than AOL, AltaVista was king of the search engines, and Google was just an idea forming in a couple of college kids’ minds.
Our neighbor managed our Web site for us for that first year, and we saw zero results. I remember thinking, “Is this whole Internet thing just a fad?” But lucky for us, we knew in our hearts that it wasn’t and that there was real potential to help expand our business. So, we decided at that moment to take control of our site. It proved to be one of our greatest business decisions. Looking back, I don’t know where we would be today had we not taken the leap of faith that helped separate us from our competitors and gain a lasting advantage in the marketplace.
We took control of our Web site in 1995 and now have a strong, vibrant Internet presence. We get to benefit from the beauty of an active Web site that works for us even when we’re not working. Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week and 365 days a year — it’s there for our clients. So, while I’m at home spending time with my family, our site is humming along, attracting new customers and providing valuable information and services to our existing clients. It elevates our company by making it more efficient and convenient. Our clients get to choose when they want to interface with us, whether they’re having their morning coffee at their laptops or wrapping up a long day of work at the office.
We’ve grown with the Web, and we’ve established the type of relationship with our clients we could never have imagined in 1994. Through our sites, blogs, forms, e-mails, social media links, online store, surveys and a host of other channels, we maintain a constant line of communication with our customers that helps direct our business and evolve our company into the responsive, flexible promotional agency that we are today.
Jeff Jarvis, author of the book “What Would Google Do,” suggests that smart businesses should go beyond the basic use of the Web to push a message. Quality online operations provide you with a means for listening to your clients and can even function as a vehicle for active collaboration. In the past, customers were mostly valued for their deep pockets, but now technology enables us to tap their potential as sources for information, guidance and insight through comment forms and surveys. Such value is incalculable.
It’s essential that your site offers at least some of the following features: a blog, social media links, surveys, forms, events and e-mail marketing. Together, these components help you not only reach clients but also involve them in your business’s future. Customers — if given the opportunity — will gladly contribute to your development and ultimate success. That’s why we’ve found having a Web site that we can control so vital to our business success.
Taking active control of your Web site means constantly updating all aspects of your site for relevancy and accuracy. Doing so is far more feasible than many people assume, and your familiarity with our industry’s terrain is too useful to waste. Don’t leave everything up to a random Web designer who knows little about your business and even less about its customers. No one is better equipped to meet your customers’ needs than you are, so your involvement in the execution of the digital platform must be a priority.
There are three common options for achieving ongoing control over an effective site, listed here from most to least complex.
Option 1: Develop an in-house Web design and programming department. Keep in mind that quality designers and programmers are very expensive to retain, and for a really strong Web presence, you’ll need a designer, a PHP and MYSQL programmer, and a search engine optimization (SEO) expert. This is the most difficult and expensive option, and it’s probably best left to large organizations.
Option 2: Outsource your Web design and programming to an external firm. A good one will cost quite a bit of money up-front, and all future modifications will be tied to its team. You can also have the firm create the site in a program such as Dreamweaver. Then you can purchase the program’s sister software; in the case of Dreamweaver, that would be “Contribute,” which costs roughly $150 and is designed to allow you to make minor updates and exercise some control over the site’s operation yourself. However, the learning curve is steep, and you will need to learn at least basic Web coding in HTML and FTP. This option is less expensive than the first, but it still involves significant ongoing costs in terms of programmer time and expertise.
Option 3: Use a content-management solution, such as Accrisoft. Such vendors charge a much lower initial design fee and provide the site’s basic “skin,” or the overall look and feel. From there, you take complete control of your site through a user-friendly content-management system and control panel. This option allows you to begin with a very inexpensive version and add as you grow, implementing modules along the way such as e-commerce, billing, employee intranet, podcasts, forums, photo albums, proposals and an array of other features. For many organizations, the low cost and high flexibility of this option makes it the most attractive.
Technology providers in the promotional products industry — including Essent Corp., SAGE/Quick Technologies, ASI, Distributor Central, Epromo and more — offer options for building and maintaining Web sites. These services vary from basic stock sites to ones you can update yourself without any knowledge of Web coding. Be sure to compare services and prices to find the best match for your business.
Whichever choice you make, the only way that you’ll realize the full potential of your Internet investment is by taking full control of your Web site and setting it up in a way that allows you to be in constant communication with your clients. As we move forward into this era of globalization and interconnectedness, the way we communicate with our clients will determine our success. Lace up your shoes and embrace the race, or you’re likely to be left behind.
Dan Levin is the president of Gallant Gifts, which is celebrating its 15th anniversary in 2009. For more information, visit www.gallantgifts.com. Click here to learn about Gallant’s Simply Selling Program. And check out Accrisoft’s Web site here for a special offer for Corporate Logo readers.
Web Terms to Know
So, you’re ready to create a Web site for your distributorship. Now what? Which features are important for your site, and what is the purpose of all these tools? Below is a brief explanation of some of the many online tools you may want to use. Remember, whatever you decide, a good Web site will be constantly updated for accuracy and relevancy.
Blog — A blog is like an online journal, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other content, such as graphics or video.
E-Commerce — Allows customers to place orders online.
Employee Intranet — An intranet is a back-end community similar to what suppliers offer their distributors. Intranets include tools such as fliers, forms, training, communications, human resources information and more.
Forms — Forms allow a site’s owner to interact with its users. This may include contact forms, contests, newsletters and surveys.
Forums — Forums are online posting sites where people can have an interactive “discussion” through their posts. They may be used for service needs or for generating and discussing creative ideas.
Live Chat — This is the ability to have a live instant-message conversation with customers or prospects visiting your Web site.
Online Billing — This is the ability to e-mail clients invoices and receipts.
Online Events — Client events can be anything from specials and online presentations to podcasts or webinars.
Podcast — A podcast is an online radio or video broadcast.
Social Media or Social Networking Sites — Based on networking and socializing, these Web sites allow people to create profiles and post pictures or updates, such as Twitter, Facebook, FURL, Digg, Myspace, LinkedIn, etc.
Surveys — Online surveys are an easy way get feedback from customers and Web browsers (potential customers) who visit your site. They can be made to pop up automatically after one places an online order or clicks away from your site, or they can be links on your site.
Gallant Gets Published!
Posted by Gallant in Business Tips, Press Releases on May 8, 2009
Gallant, Inc. President Dan Levin is proud to announce a recent article of his will be published in an upcoming edition of Corporate Logo. You can view the article online at the link below and read about how important it is for your company to have a web presence.