"The value decade is upon us. If you can't sell a top-quality product at the world's lowest price, you're going to be out of the game."
-- Jack Welch, Executive

by Jami Petersen

Every retailer wants more customers to spend more money. But how do we attract new people to our stores and how do we get existing customers to spend? Guest author, Lisa Fedele, has some easy and inexpensive solutions to keep scrapbooking the brains of your consumers. You can also attract new ones with little effort on your part. Read more in today's SMART article.
 

Jami Petersen
newsletters@a-z.com

Tombow

Miss the Kokuyo Dot’n’Roller?

Tombow’s MONO Adhesive Dots are the perfect replacement!

The easy grip applicator allows for a smooth application for either a straight or curved line. The unique diamond dot pattern adhesive will not string or break, and its simple drop-in cartridge makes refilling easy. So what are you waiting for? Give them a shot.

We just know that you’re going to love them!
 

Press Releases

News you can use about the latest media coverage of hot trends, noteworthy events and dynamic industry leaders. Learn more about the current headlines in arts and crafts by clicking on the title of each article segment.
 

Anna Griffin has announced the release of three brand new Holiday collections and their first ever Halloween collection.

The Esmerelda Collection is a spooky assortment of papers dressed-up with velvet bats, glittered cobwebs, and dark damasks prints that create the perfect ingredients for this year’s tricks and treats. Eerie embellishments decked in scary scenery bring this fearfully fun collection to life, perfect for capturing Halloween get-togethers for both young and old!

The Calisto Collection is a nature-inspired collection comprised of poinsettia petal reds, evergreen and gold. Calisto brings the outdoors in with a collection of decorative kraft papers and embellishments dressed in nature’s true colors and elements. Imagery of Frasier firs, pine and holly reminiscent of winter’s landscape create the perfect backdrop for holiday masterpieces.

The Holiday Traditions Collection is a nod to seasons past bringing the time-honored palette of rich reds, antique greens and gold to life with an exquisite collage of old world imagery combined with sophisticated French elements. A beautifully unique combination of art taking reference from heirloom ornaments, candy canes, sheet music and vintage botanical illustrations will inspire classic Christmas crafting at its finest.

The Cecile Collection brings dreams of a white Christmas to life with snow-covered scenery dusted in glitter. A glamorous collection of platinum and vanilla draped in silver and gold celebrates the luxurious side of the season with the delicate décor of antique glass ornaments and fluttering snowflakes, Cecile is high-end all the way!

Sakura

Koi Water Color Field Sketch Kits are portable sets, perfect to take along on hikes, vacations, or lunch breaks in the city. Koi Water Colors blend easily to create an endless color range. The kits are available in 12, 18 and 24 colors.

Each set contains a Koi Water Brush with a two-piece barrel handle to carry water. Small, medium, and large brushes can be purchased individually.

Contact your wholesaler for details. http://www.sakuraofamerica.com/Watercolors-Set
- see video demo!

by Lisa Fedele

Your store is beautiful with great samples throughout, instructors and team members are trained, the class schedule is online, handouts in store—you are ready to serve your existing customers. Your toughest jobs are getting new customers to keep your business thriving and achieving a higher activity rate from your existing customers. Here are some marketing tactics that will benefit you daily.

Like many retailers you may have stopped expensive mailings to your customer base in favor of email newsletters. Your email list is likely only reaching 30% of your existing customers. How can you achieve a higher activity rate with current customers and attract new customers daily? There are many expensive tactics, but I have some easy and inexpensive solutions that you can embrace in these economic times.

If you want customers to shop more often you need them to be thinking scrapbooking more often get a “share of mind” and to think of you when they think of scrapbooking be “front of mind”. Before we review tactics please consider that all communication with your customers requires a call to action — more on this in another newsletter. Here are some tactics:

Current Customers

Always hand-out something at the Point of Sale (POS) that will make your customer return earlier than she may have otherwise. Remember to include a call to action with on every piece. Examples: a coupon that expires after 14 days; newsletter of events or classes; preview of new product arriving soon from one of your partner manufacturers; two for one event; bring a new customer contest; contest requiring a ballot (allow one per day) attendance at draw required to win; a free crop night.

Start mailing again but don’t mail to your whole mailing list. Here is an effective method: download information from your POS system and identify which customers have not visited in 6 months or more; decide what your monthly budget can be for mailing; start mailing to a batch of “inactive” customers monthly until you have reached them all; mail in a manner where you will get undeliverable mail back so you can update your list; consider a postcard, my favorite was a picture of the earth from space with my logo and the caption “Where on Earth have you Been”—the call to action a starburst on the front with details on the back. Always check with the postmaster before having postcards printed to be sure you conform to the least expensive method of mailing. You need not get postcards printed though to mail to 100 customers a month, a stuffed envelope will do.

Encourage your customers to add, or verify, their email address in your system. It is a challenge sometimes to get customers to give this information in the first place. Check the privacy code in your state or province. Here is my suggestion when acquiring email id’s from first time customers: the first time a customer visits just ask for the email address “May I please have your email”, you will be surprised how many will just give it to you; avoid giving a big explanation that requires them to think about it; if they say no then you can explain how you use the information.

Customers who do not give you their email may be more inclined to do so once they know you better. Always ask again after a few months and ask often so you are updating old and obsolete emails. Don’t let your list go stale. Here are a couple suggestions, I’m sure you will think of many yourself; conduct a contest that requires that they verify their email with you to be entered to win; select a contest or other motivator to keep this a permanent part of your check-out process.

With all you do to offer classes, events, promotions and sales keeping working at keeping Scrapbooking a large “share of mind” with your customers is a big job. I recommend partnering with manufacturers and other service providers in the industry to boost scrapbooking’s share of mind among your customers. Privacy laws will not permit you to share your list with another business but if you encourage your customers to sign-up for industry newsletters they will have scrapbooking on the brain more often and when they do they will think of you. Here are some you can partner with: manufacturers with newsletters; online magazines such as Scrapbooking.com; designers and more.

Of course I am partial to Scrapbooking.com as a partner. Scrapbooking.com sends weekly emails full of product reviews, samples, ideas, contests, articles and more to its consumer base. So I’ll include my pitch here, include in your check-out hand out a suggestion to your customers to sign-up for scrapbooking.com’s newsletter or better yet, have customers sign-up right at the cash on a your terminal — you take care of selling scrapbooking.com will take care of content. Together we will help you to achieve “share of mind” with your customers.

The Memory Tradeshow

The Memory Tradeshow is the premiere market for scrapbooking and related products, family history and digital imaging.

It is the most important gathering of this industry regionally, and it’s attracting executives from all sectors: manufacturers, retailers, distributors, suppliers, sales reps, designers and press. The show’s goal is to provide the highest ROI show within the industry with a greater focus on the business of the memory industry, education and best business practices.

Learn more and save >>

Thirty-six New Die and Punch Templates Expand Highly Detailed Product Lines

Spellbinders™ Paper Arts, LLC, an award-winning inventor, manufacturer and marketer of cutting edge tools for crafters, has introduced 30 new die templates and six (6) new Presto Punch™ templates.

“We are introducing 36 incredible new template designs that will inspire our crafters to even greater creativity,” said Tobianne Hall, Vice President of Marketing. “Among our newly designed templates, Spellbinders offers Halloween and Christmas seasonal designs, a brand new line of Nestabilities® Decorative Elements, six new Presto Punch designs, and more. We can’t wait to see all the beautiful projects that will be created using our latest template designs!”

Spellbinders’ new die templates include:

Nestabilities Decorative Elements – each set of exquisitely detailed, decorative elements includes four to five die templates that co-ordinate with existing Spellbinders die templates in the Circle, Oval, and Square families.
Nestabilities Line – two fun geometric shapes and four exciting Labels.
Shapeabilities® Line – a trendy group of new designs including two Nested Shapeabilities with a beautiful, embossed embellishment, and three Shapeabilities with four die templates per set.
Seasonal Halloween Line – two spooky Nested Shapeabilities and four scary Shapeabilities (four to six shapes each).
Seasonal Christmas Line - one wintery Nestabilities, two Nested Shapeabilities, one Shapeabilities Pendant, and one Shapeabilities with five holiday shapes.
Additionally, six new Presto Punch template designs will be introduced to add excitement to the launching of the Presto Punch machine. Included are scalloped shapes of Spellbinders’ most popular template designs, as well as a lovely collection of birds, Fleur de Lis and a seasonal set of Holiday Joy.

Suggested Retail Pricing (SRP) for the new die template designs ranges from $19.99 - $24.99. The SRP for the new Presto Punch template designs ranges from $9.99 - $14.99.

About Spellbinders Paper Arts
Spellbinders™ Paper Arts entered the craft and hobby market in 2003 with the introduction of the Wizard® Universal Craft Tool and a unique, patented collection of dies unlike any introduced before - or since. Always on the cutting edge in introducing innovative tools to the market, the Presto Punch™ is the company's latest offering for crafters. Presto Punch makes punching easy, is portable and economical, and stores in a fraction of the space of traditional punches. Spellbinders' products allow crafters, hobbyists, artists and teachers to create one-of-a-kind, beautiful paper art projects.

The company manufactures, markets, and sells the Presto Punch, the Wizard, and a family of dies including more than 250 patented and patent-pending products under the following trade names: Nestabilities®, Shapeabilities®, Impressabilities™, Borderabilities® Petite, Borderabilities® Grand, and Shapeabilities® Nested Sets.