Posts by Blaise Lucey

How to Use YouTube, Email, and Facebook to Make $10,000

May 16, 2012 By Blaise Lucey Leave a Comment

Have you ever wanted to see a trumpet thrown off the back of a car going sixty miles an hour?

What about a trumpet holding up an entire car?

Well, you can.

More specifically, you can see just how well Torpedo Bags protect trumpets from this kind of trauma. That’s the whole point of the videos, according to Steve Kriesel.

Since founding the Minneapolis-based company more than 10 years ago, he has worked hard to create a loyal online community for these specialty bags with these quirky, homemade videos.

Still, the company’s Facebook Page proved to be a problem.

“Our Page was just terrible,” Steve says.

But, over the past few months, he changed his approach and gained almost 500 fans in two weeks and made more than $10,000 from marketing on Facebook.

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Filed Under: Social Media Marketing Tagged With: , , , , ,

How to Take RSVPs For Your Next Workshop Without Getting Stuck On the Phone All Day

May 11, 2012 By Blaise Lucey Leave a Comment

The workshop. A classic event for anyone looking to learn something in a professional environment. Generally a positive experience for everyone involved.

The registration process for said workshop… well, not so much.

Maybe you’re like the Cultural Arts Division of Austin, Texas, and can’t wait to find a better way to do things, a solution that allows you to customize each invitation and registration so attendees know what to expect – and even have the chance to tell you what subjects they want covered before the session.

And, do all of that without having to be on the phone all day.

If so, read on!

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Filed Under: Event Marketing Tagged With: , ,

The Dog with a Hole in His Heart: The Power of Storytelling for Nonprofits

May 9, 2012 By Blaise Lucey 2 Comments

This past Valentine’s Day, a dog was suffering from a hole in his heart.

Not a figurative hole, either.

At the time, Skywalker was training to be a service dog for an eight-year-old autistic boy. The boy was so eager to help out his four-legged friend, he offered his Tooth Fairy money to help pay for the surgery.

Skywalker’s family sought help from Fairy Dogparents, a Massachusetts-based nonprofit that helps families get the money they need to care for – and keep – their pets.

Thanks to a single email, Skywalker’s story reached more than 2,000 inboxes. In 12 hours, Fairy DogParents raised $6,000 for the surgery.

This isn’t uncommon, either. Founder Marlo Manning says that the organization has raised tens of thousands of dollars through email marketing since she first started Fairy DogParents in 2009.

The secret to getting donations, she says, is to use email to tell a story.

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Filed Under: Email Marketing Tagged With: , , ,

5 Ways to Market on Facebook That You Haven’t Thought Of

May 8, 2012 By Blaise Lucey 7 Comments

Jason Alvey and the rest of the Four Firkins crew… creatively marketing on Facebook.

Yeah, yeah, you’ve heard it all.

You know you’re supposed to pin your posts on Facebook. You even know all of the ins and outs of Timeline. Heck, you may even know how to run a social campaign to boost sales.

That’s good – as small businesses get familiar with Facebook marketing, the innovation starts kicking in.

Jason Alvey, the founder of The Four Firkins in Minneapolis, has worked hard with the rest of his team to make sure the beer store’s Facebook Page stays on the map. They do all of the traditional Facebook marketing strategies … and then some.

The staff posts photos and videos. They interact with fans on a daily basis and announce new beer shipments – sometimes exclusively through Facebook.

The Four Firkins team also does five things to grow their Facebook Page that are a little less common. Here are five strategies any small business or organization can take away from a glimpse at the Four Firkins Facebook Page:

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Filed Under: Social Media Marketing Tagged With: , , ,

A Florida Restaurant Finds a New Kind of Online Deal

May 5, 2012 By Blaise Lucey 1 Comment

This weekend, we’re at the National Restaurant Association Show 2012 in Chicago (if you’re around, come say hi to us at Booth #5927!) and wanted to celebrate by talking about online deals.

We know that most restaurants have thought about using some kind of online deal provider before.

After all, those coupons seem to be everywhere these days: on Facebook, on Twitter, in your inbox.

Then again, maybe you’ve heard the horror stories.

Grant Galuppi, the owner of Galuppi’s, a restaurant in Pompano Beach, Florida, didn’t have a dismal experience when he first tried hosting a deal last year. But, then again, it wasn’t stellar, either.

“We offered a 50% discount, but then had to share half of that with the deal provider,” Grant says. “So we wanted to find something else.”

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Filed Under: Social Media Marketing Tagged With: , ,

Facebook Tries to Friend Stockholders, and This Week’s Other Hot Topics

May 4, 2012 By Blaise Lucey Leave a Comment

This May, some people may be getting ready for prom. Others may be getting ready for graduation. But on Wall Street, everyone’s getting ready for Facebook.

That’s right, the social network has actually set a date for an initial public offering (IPO) and it remains to be seen just how many friends Facebook will have among stockholders.

Social networks continue to gain traction elsewhere, too. Colleges are using Pinterest for educational purposes and a new study found that poor customer service on Facebook or Twitter can be a serious problem for businesses.

Learn about these topics and more in this week’s news breakdown!

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Filed Under: Fresh Insights Tagged With: ,

How One Author Got 32,529 eBook Downloads in 5 Days

May 4, 2012 By Blaise Lucey Leave a Comment

Kevin W. McCarthy, the CEO of On-Purpose Partners, had already published his book The On-Purpose Person.

Since its original publication two decades ago, it has sold over 200,000 copies.

However, it was this past April that he decided he wanted to reach a brand new audience by offering the book as a Kindle eBook.

By leveraging his existing business contacts and launching an online promotional campaign, Kevin managed to boost readership significantly – The On-Purpose Person reached #1 in the non-fiction category.

The secret? Kevin made the Kindle eBook free.

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Filed Under: Email Marketing, Social Media Marketing Tagged With: , , , , ,

One BIG Secret to Building Your Email List

May 1, 2012 By Blaise Lucey 2 Comments

It’s the best kept secret of building your email list.

Something so simple that it’s often overlooked.

And how couldn’t you overlook it? When most people are brainstorming ways that they can add new email addresses to their contact lists, it’s not long before the technology gets involved: the apps and the plug-ins, the tabs and, of course, the Facebook.

Jason Alvey, founder of The Four Firkins, a Minneapolis specialty beer store, says that a full one-third of the store’s list (8,400 emails) don’t come from any of these cutting-edge techniques.

Instead, they come from this highly advanced method of email collection:

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Filed Under: Email Marketing Tagged With: , , ,

[Q&A] How to Create Engaging Facebook Content (Without Going Crazy)

May 1, 2012 By Blaise Lucey 7 Comments

Nicole Arnold, founder of Little Cottage Services.

With some small businesses earning as much as $15,000 from Facebook, it’s clear that social media can be a great tool for growing an audience that leads to sales.

What’s not so clear, unfortunately, is how to do it. And how to do it consistently without losing your mind.

Every organization is different and every audience is different, but, really, the strategy is always the same: create engaging content and the fans will come.

I recently talked with Nicole Arnold, engagement marketer and founder of Little Cottage Services, on how small businesses and organizations can consistently create engaging content. Here’s a transcript of our discussion:

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Filed Under: Social Media Marketing Tagged With: , , ,

4 Ways Schools Are Taking Events Online

April 27, 2012 By Blaise Lucey Leave a Comment

Schools are almost synonymous with paperwork, from worksheets to sign-up sheets to report cards, but a few educational institutes are working hard to change that.

Email marketing has proven to be a great way to connect with families and students, but anyone who has been to a PTA meeting knows that events have a long way to go.

Whether it’s an after-school program or a fundraiser, school events often depend on Excel, a hundred envelopes full of RSVPs, and one bleary-eyed volunteer.

Some schools have decided to kick the trend in a big way.

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Filed Under: Event Marketing Tagged With: , , , ,
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