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Using Lapel Pins to Effectively Market Your Next Big Event

March 15th, 2010

Creating brand awareness is one of the main goals of companies across the globe. Without public knowledge of a product, service or event, businesses seldom see the type of accomplishment associated with a well-promoted advertisement campaign.

There are a number of ways to get the word out about an upcoming charity auction, tradeshow, award ceremony, or company function without spending a fortune on a Public Relations firm.

Word-of-mouth marketing using custom lapel pins is an ingenious and affordable option for any budget. In addition to generating interest in public and private events, a well thought-out design can help corporations and non-profits achieve enormous success.

What Makes Lapel Pins Special

Due to their small size and level of portability, lapel pins are an ideal promotional tool. Not only are they easy to transport to and from different locations, they are often the type of promotional products item that speaks directly to the heart and soul of collectors. Viewed as a cherished keepsake from times past, antique lapel pins like those created for the Masons are highly sought after on eBay.

Ways You Can Promote Your Event Using a Lapel Pin

Some simple but effective ways to market your next event using lapel pins includes:

Attaching them to a business card, brochure or invitation. A well-designed and recognizable logo grabs the attention of the recipient and generates interest in whatever event it is that you are advertising.

Filling a fish bowl to the top with the custom product and have it sitting on the table next to you at the next trade show event that you attend. Make sure there is someone on hand to answer any questions that the public might have about the conference, recognition ceremony, or fundraiser that you are sponsoring. You may also want to monitor the number of lapel pins each person takes.

Wearing one on a hat, necktie, or t-shirt in the weeks leading up to the event. People will want to know what type of event that you are holding based solely on the appearance of a really amazing pin. When possible, slide a couple extra pins in your pocket or purse to hand out to the people that seem the most interested in your business or organization.

Cleverly placing a product in the public’s view is a steadfast way to get people interested in your brand, event, or fundraiser. In today’s competitive world, it pays to do your homework. By keeping up with current trends and designing the type of logo that is guaranteed to be recognizable, you will not have any trouble promoting your next big event through the use of lapel pins.

Caryn Smith is Manager of Lapel Pins R Us. When you need affordable, lapel pins created, visit http://www.lapelpinsrus.com today. Your order will be delivered in 10 days or less, guaranteed!

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Caryn Smith is Manager of Lapel Pins R Us. When you need affordable, lapel pins created, visit http://www.lapelpinsrus.com today. Your order will be delivered in 10 days or less, guaranteed!

Tags: award ceremony, fundraising, lapel pin, lapel pins, marketing pins, recognition pins, tradeshow
Posted in custom lapel pins |

4 Ways to Use Custom Lapel Pins in Real Estate Marketing

December 11th, 2009

http://www.lapelpinsrus.com

With the enormous amount of competition in the real estate industry, setting yourself apart is vital. Branding, advertising and promotion of your skills and credentials can mean attracting more sellers – and thus – earning more commissions. Most forms of marketing get outrageously expensive, but one method stretches to multiple channels while being extremely affordable. Here are just a few ways to use custom lapel pins in the real estate industry.

Promote Brokerage or Firm Affiliations

There’s a win-win that occurs when brokerages and real estate firms bestow branded lapel pins to their agents. Customers recognize and appreciate names such as Century 21, ReMax, Keller Williams, and other realty companies. They get comfort from knowing their Realtor is backed by a national corporation. Likewise, the firm receives positive marketing when agents wear lapel pins showing their firm’s logo.

Brand Your Own, Personal Service

While promoting the brand of your firm is important, distinguishing yourself from other Realtors within that firm is also vital. In addition to adhering to the policies and practices of your firm, create a complete branded persona for you and your assistants to work by. This should include lapel pins that bear your motto, your unique selling proposition and/or your contact information.

Employee Recognition

Has one of the agents in your firm produced above and beyond this month? Reward them with a permanent and visible award of their accomplishment. Lapel pins are a great motivational tool that helps push Realtors toward the next level.

Workshop & Class Promoters

Realtors and real estate firms aren’t the only ones who can benefit from affordable lapel pins. Workshop and class promoters can also. After completing one of your courses, you can award lapel pins to Realtors that allow them to show their new designation of Certified Buyers Representative, Certified e-Pro, etc. Just as with the brokerage and firm affiliations mentioned previously, this is wonderful win-win for you and your class attendees.

Custom Lapel Pins are Versatile

When you place an order for custom lapel pins, you’re in control. The only limit is your imagination. You make the call on color, shape, size, and style to create the perfect accessory. Rather than a boring, off the shelf design, you can build your own masterpiece.

So what should you look for when deciding where to order your custom lapel pins? Look for a company that offers exceptional value including free design, molding, color proofs, artwork, and air shipping. When combined, these savings can quickly add up to hundreds of dollars on each order.

More than ever before, real estate professionals need a new, powerful way to reach potential clients. Lapel pins give you a creative yet affordable way to market yourself effectively in an overcrowded industry.

Caryn Smith is Manager of Lapel Pins R Us. When you need an affordable way to promote at trade shows, lapel pins are an excellent option. Visit http://www.lapelpinsrus.com today for custom lapel pins in just 10 days, guaranteed!

Caryn Smith is Manager of Lapel Pins R Us. Visit http://www.lapelpinsrus.com today for custom lapel pins in just 10 days.

Visit http://www.lapelpinsrus.com today for custom lapel pins in just 10 days, guaranteed!

Tags: lapel pins, marketing pins, promotional lapel pins, real estate pins, realtor pins
Posted in custom lapel pins |

Boost Nonprofit Marketing Efforts With Lapel Pins

April 16th, 2008

Loyalty. Appreciation. Connection. In order to maintain an active donor base, all nonprofits have to keep contributors loyal and feeling appreciated. In addition, bridging a connection with individual donors is also a vital step in ensuring repeat contributions. That’s what makes lapel pins such a wonderful and flexible marketing tool.

Whether used as a stand-alone device or in conjunction with other marketing programs, lapel pins help fill the needs of donors so they keep giving year after year.

Branding

Branding may sound like a corporate concept, but in today’s noisy world, branding is equally critical to the success of a nonprofit. Your organization is well-branded when someone can mention an icon or your tagline and people immediately think of your group.

Quick, what comes to mind when you see a pink ribbon pinned to someone’s lapel? Breast cancer. That’s branding. If I say “Where Girls Grow Strong”, do you think of The Girl Scouts? That’s branding.

Take the first step down the path of instant recognition by creating a lapel pin with your logo or your tag line. There are a multitude of ways the pins can be distributed, all of them furthering your organization’s branding and marketing efforts.

Fundraising

Include a stylish lapel pin with your annual appeal to encourage donor generosity. Alternately, you could offer a series of pins to recognize individuals as they reached incremental fundraising goals or donation levels.

Membership Development and Retention

Offering members a small, but high quality, token of your appreciation – just because – can go a long way towards maintaining their loyalty.

Welcome Gifts

Who doesn’t like a gift? Lapel pins make wonderful welcome gifts for new members. What a great way to say: “We’re grateful for your support!”

Anniversary Markers

Long-time members can be rewarded for their faithfulness with lapel pins that denote five, 10 even 50 years of membership.

Identification

Does your organization offer an online discussion group? Lapel pins are a great way to put a face to a name that you have seen on your computer screen. Provide lapel pins to members of your online community so they can connect and share a good word at tradeshows and other events.

Or, at your next meeting, use different color lapel pins for people from distinct geographic areas. Lapel pins can also be used to identify first-time attendees. This way, long-time members can seek out new comers and make them feel welcome.

Volunteer Recognition

A small, but meaningful, memento of recognition can go a long way towards making volunteers feel appreciated and keeping them committed to achieving your organization’s goals. Give volunteer awards according to a set schedule (number of hours volunteered or projects completed) or for new ideas generated. Similar to the membership idea above, years of volunteer service awards can also be given.

Memorialize Special Events

Do you host an annual conference, golf outing or other membership event? Create lapel pins in honor of each event.

Marketing touches everything a nonprofit organization does from fundraising and membership development to volunteer recognition and special events. When your organization is looking for a high quality, reasonably priced way to further your marketing efforts, lapel pins are the answer.

Caryn Smith is Manager of Lapel Pins R Us. When you need attractive, memorable lapel pins visit http://www.lapelpinsrus.com today for custom lapel pins in just 10 days, guaranteed!

Tags: lapel pins, marketing pins, nonprofit, organization pins, promotional lapel pins
Posted in custom lapel pins |

Lead-Generating Trade Show Success Tips

April 16th, 2008

Trade shows provide an incredible marketing opportunity. Where else can you gather an entire arena or convention center full of people interested in what you do? For a modest investment, you can position yourself to rack up loads of leads. Why then do so many trade show exhibitors fail? Most often the reason lies in their lack of planning and creativity. To help you overcome the challenges that plague far too many exhibitors, here are five tips designed to boost your success rate.

Escape the Ordinary

When you’re in an environment full of competitors, differentiation becomes key. You have to make it easy for customers to choose you over everyone else in the room. That means you’ll want to stand out visually (to attract passersby) and also to make it immediately apparent why you are better or different than other options the customer has.

Bright colors, large posters, unusually shaped desks and tables, special effects such as lighting, large displays including inflatable mascots or product replicas, and other options capture attention. Having a sheet or brochure handy that outlines your unique selling points will keep visitors in your booth longer.

Have a Plan

If you walk into a trade show blindly, you’ll most likely be met with confusion. Think through the steps involved and develop a plan of action before you arrive at the show. For instance, where will visitors approach your booth from? Do you have a corner location? Are you on an aisle? Do you need to have multiple displays to grab their attention from different angles?

Why will they want to stop at your booth? Do you have something visually attractive or unique (as discussed above)? Have they been invited to come to your booth?

Once they stop, what will your process be? Do you have a way of qualifying leads quickly? Can you immediately assess what step in the buying process they’re in? Do you have preprinted materials to give them that are specific to their needs?

What will they leave with that will keep your company in their memory?

Pre-Promote Your Booth

As mentioned above, you might want to send a pre-promotional mailing or emailing that invites leads to your booth. Give them the date, time, location and your booth number. Let them know in advance that you’ll be giving something away that is of interest to them — then name the item.

Another way to take pre-promotion one step further is to include a lapel pin on your mailing card. Inform your leads that, if they visit your booth while wearing their lapel pin, they’ll get something special other attendees won’t get. Maybe you could enter their names into a drawing. Perhaps you could offer them discount coupons for your products or services. These techniques work extremely well because people love to be part of an exclusive crowd.

Make Memories

When visitors leave, you want them to remember who you are and what you do. This also can be accomplished with lapel pins or other promotional items such as buttons, ink pens, etc. If you skipped the pre-promotion, you might want to use lapel pins or the other items as your takeaway/giveaway.

Follow Up!

Within 24 to 48 hours of the show’s conclusion, you need to follow up with the leads you collected. Just like bread, leads go stale if not attended to quickly.

With a bit of planning and forethought, you can make your next trade show the most successful one yet!

Caryn Smith is Manager of Lapel Pins R Us. When you need affordable, memorable employee rewards with a high perceived value, lapel pins are an excellent option. Visit http://www.lapelpinsrus.com today for custom lapel pins in just 10 days, guaranteed!

Tags: lapel pins, marketing pins, promotional lapel pins, Trading Pins
Posted in custom lapel pins |

Cost Effective Promotional Ideas for New Franchises

April 16th, 2008

While franchises can be a more economical way of starting a business, the cash outlay is still great. Even with an established brand behind you, marketing your new franchise business can be expensive. Individual locations operate much like small businesses and this usually means budget restrictions. Especially during the first year, you’ll need to keep a reign on marketing costs. This means finding proven ways to build customer loyalty fast without wasting money. The name of the game is keeping your name on the minds of customers so they think of you first each time they have a need.

Coupons

Coupons are an excellent way to draw foot traffic to your location. By offering a discount at your specific store/branch, you attract customers you might not otherwise have had, encourage those who previously visited other locations to patronize yours and develop good will.

Mailing coupons is certainly a viable option, but you can also start a coupon exchange with other businesses. Your store will make available other non-competing business’ coupons and those same companies will make your coupons available. Another idea? Insert your coupons into local newspapers. While display advertising is normally quite expensive, inserts are generally much more economical.

Coupons can be economically printed on colored paper with black ink or done in an elaborate fashion with glossy paper and four-color printing depending on your budget. You can even include a small code in the bottom corner in order to track which coupons get the best results.

Lapel Pins

Affordable and attractive, lapel pins have staying power. Customized lapel pins can be created with your corporate brand, your location, specific product replicas and more. And promotions with lapel pins are highly versatile.

Give them away during grand openings to add a little extra excitement to the day. Create a loyalty program involving lapel pins. Inform customers that, when they wear their lapel pin when visiting your location, they will receive 10% off (or some other benefit). You could even issue lapel pins as “customer of the month” awards. Customers who purchase X number of times or who buy X dollars worth of products each month receive a “preferred customer” lapel pin that entitles them to a particular perk.

Available in completely customizable sizes, shapes and colors; lapel pins are highly affordable and desirable.

Community Events

Community event sponsorships are a great way to support your local community, make a memorable impression on those in attendance and possibly gain some press coverage, too. Sponsorships are usually available at a variety of levels to accommodate most budgets.

There are many other franchise marketing ideas that have proven to increase traffic. Talk with franchisees in non-competing industries to get additional techniques. By exchanging marketing tips, you can quickly increase sales while keeping your promotions budget in check.

Tags: advertising pins, lapel pins, marketing pins, Promotional Products
Posted in Uncategorized |

Effective Methods for Building Your Brand… With Custom Lapel Pins

March 10th, 2008

If you want to know about branding, ask Dr. Kevin Lane Keller. As the E.B. Osborn professor of Marketing at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, Dr. Keller has consulted with a horde of Fortune 500 companies. As author of two of the best-selling branding books, he is a well-versed, highly experienced expert. During a personal appearance at a marketing seminar, Dr. Keller pointed out several effective methods of building a brand.

Before his presentation, Dr. Keller made a point to remind his audience that branding is not a one-time event. Rather, branding is an ongoing process. Branding also reaches farther than just your marketing department. The core values of your organization must be defined and then everything else should reinforce those values.

Walt Disney World is a great example. Their core values outline their intense desire to give every person who walks through the gates of one of their theme parks the happiest, most fun experience of their lives. They are geared to be the best in every aspect, and nothing less will do. These values are instilled in every minute detail of the parks from the calculated positioning of the trashcans to the smiling faces and cheery dispositions of every employee.

When developing your brand, Dr. Keller recommends you follow a similar strategy to that of Disney. He recommends connecting with people, being distinctive and standing out from the crowd. One good way to do that is by offering faster service, better quality or a larger selection than your competition.

Dr. Keller also advises that all efforts should be focused on getting your customers to think of you often. This is most easily accomplished with imaginative ideas that make a memorable impact at every touch point. For instance, promotional products bearing your logo can be given out to customers. Whenever the customer uses the calculator or ink pen, wears the lapel pin, sees the magnet, etc., s/he will think of your company.

Creating mental associations between the customer and your brand at every opportunity is also important. From the way your telephone is answered to the type of bags retail stores use to the way your employees dress – these are all underlying signals of your brand. Each time a customer comes in contact with your organization, the entire experience needs to reflect your business’ core values.

Lapel pins are an excellent vehicle for reaching customers and reinforcing brand image within and outside your company. Because they are completely customizable, lapel pins can be designed with your organization’s logo, with some type of product identity or practically anything else suitable to your brand. These can then be given to customers through promotional mailings, at grand openings, during sales and more.

Create lapel pins for internal branding as well. For instance, employees may receive a lapel pin to commemorate years of service, for reaching specific goals, for generating ideas that led to savings for your firm and more.

Make a quick list of your business values and then tape that sheet of paper to your computer monitor. Every time you make a decision, create a new product or service, change a policy or develop a promotion, weigh it against your values to be sure your brand rings true.

Caryn Smith is Manager of Lapel Pins R Us. When you need promotional advertising products including custom-designed lapel pins, contact Lapel Pins R Us for creative ideas. Visit http://www.lapelpinsrus.com today for custom lapel pins in just 10 days, guaranteed!

Tags: company pins, custom pins, lapel pin, lapel pins, marketing pins, promotional lapel pins
Posted in custom lapel pins |