Business SMART:

Some Things Really Are Free
 

By: Dennis A. Conforto
Chairman & CEO of A-Z Media Group, Inc.

dennisHave you ever noticed that when you pay nothing, you usually get nothing? Free is almost never free. There is always some catch in the end, and if something really is free, it usually has no value.

Finally, there’s something that is truly free, has no catch and has real value. It can help you grow and can even be a profit center for your scrapbooking business.

There are hundreds of thousands of women who want to stay up on the latest scrapbooking ideas, tools and products, and they love learning more about their craft. Yet as a retailer, it is hard to keep up with the latest trends, products and tools constantly being introduced by some 500+ scrapbooking manufacturers.

Of course, your best customers are educated customers. The more they know the more they buy, and the more they buy the better business can be for you. In fact, the more you can keep scrapbooking at the forefront of their thoughts, the better it is for your retail store.

One of the ways many scrapbooking retailers try to stay in contact with their best customers is through a store newsletter. The challenge with this is that newsletters are usually only produced once a month, sometimes less. So how can you keep scrapbooking at the front of the consumer’s mind every week? How can you do it for free? How can you help educate them, thus making them even more valuable to your store’s revenue stream?

Scrapbooking.com Magazine has created the perfect partnership program for retailers, no matter where they are around the globe. It’s fast, simple and best of all, it’s free! By placing one of our free weekly e-newsletter special links on your store’s website or on your own e-newsletter, you will be encouraging your customers to keep up with the latest and greatest trends in the world of scrapbooking.

Now, why would a retail store owner want to promote a link from Scrapbooking.com Magazine within their own website or e-newsletter? The reason is simple: our entire business model is designed to drive traffic to retail stores like yours. Manufacturers invest in the web pages of our magazine to promote their brands, which are found in retail stores. What you might not have noticed, however, is that each of our articles ends with a link inviting the reader to find their nearest scrapbooking store.

Let me give you 10 reasons why placing our free link on your site and newsletter is good business for you, and why you want your customers to have access to our weekly newsletters:

1. Consumers are looking for new ideas all the time. We have what they are looking for and our newsletter and magazine is free to them and to you.
2. Our newsletter promotes scrapbooking to your client base every week. Reminding them about the category is critical to having greater mind share, thus creating greater market share.
3. Our newsletter gives your readers new ideas to consider along with instructions and supply lists for new projects. The more they consider doing something, the more likely they are to actually do it.
4. The more new ideas we give them, the more they will shop. Traffic to your store is key to your daily and weekly success.
5. The more they shop, the more they buy; and the more they buy the more you sell.
6. The more products you sell the higher your profits, and profits are the lifeforce of your business. Selling is only the tool to reach the goal of being profitable.
7. Greater profits allow you to bring more new products into your store. It also means you can invest more into growing your business and improving the look and feel of your store.
8. More new products keeps your store fresh and keeps your oldest customers coming back.
9. Our newsletters have a tell-a-friend feature that allows for viral marketing to ensure that even more prospective consumers are getting the message about scrapbooking within your marketplace.
10. Viral marketing of our newsletter within your marketplace allows us to create more newbies to refer even more business to your store.

While your primary job as a retailer is to sell products, our primary job is to help remind your customers every week that you are there waiting to serve their needs. We remind them with projects that have step-by-step instructions. We share with them the great brands that are part of the industry, and stories about those brands. Your customers can even print out a shopping list of what they need to create a project, making it easier for you and them to shop in your store.

We even have a retail store directory that gives the consumer your store name and lets them know you are close by. It’s our version of the white pages of a telephone directory. If you want, you can upgrade that free, basic store listing and, for a small fee, add your store logo, hours, marketing text, a link to your website, a Map Quest link, and even a savings coupon.

Partner with us and let us help you grow the message of scrapbooking within your marketplace. We have the content about the product, and you have the product. It’s really the perfect partnership. Those stores that are active in their relationship with us have seen the positive difference we have made in their business, and we can do the same for you.

We are here to grow your business and we have the perfect free marketing tool for you to link to. Simply visit http://a-zmedia.c.topica.com/maapyF8ab7HgTaaaaaabafpPOf/, pick the image you think will look best on your website, and allow us to help you grow your scrapbooking business. There is nothing quite like a perfect partnership, especially when it’s free!

If you would like to comment directly to Dennis about this article or have him address a subject matter in future articles feel free to email him directly at dconforto@a-z.com.