How to Grow Your Party Rental Biz

Well...if you read my newsletters at all....you'll know how I feel about this. 90% of my sales marketing is done through a newsletter....and 75% of my rental marketing. I'm always amazed when people tell me they don't think a newsletter will work well for them. Why not? You're an expert on entertainment....don't you think people could use your help?

Setting up a newsletter is fairly easy. You'll need a newsletter service with an autoresponder. I use Intellicontact for mine. It's very easy to set up a form for sign ups on your website.. Sometimes it helps to offer an incentive. Maybe a chance for a free party or something. Just make sure that if you do this...follow through and actually give away a party. That's just one more story for your newsletter.

I actually do two different sets of writings. When people sign up for my pricelist they get a series of preplanned emails that tell all about our business. I write these one time....and you can write a year's worth of short letters if you want.....they go out at a preplanned time to the customer.

Then....you have your actual newsletter. I usually do my rental news about once a month although my goal this year is to be way more consistant with my newsletters. Decide what your goal is when a customer subscribes to your letter. Is it a quick sale? A possible customer who will tell others about you? A great rental? Probably your goal will be all of the above.

And you can achieve the goal easily if you do the right type of letter. Keep your letter informative. Offer information beneficial to the customer. You might offer theme party ideas, decorating ideas or tips on specialized parties. BUT...in addition to tips...you want to drive the customer to your website or get them thinking about doing business with you...AND you want some quick sales from your newsletter.

Here's a format that might work: Write a generic letter listing some entertainment ideas for different types of events. Change events for each newsletter so there's always something to look forward to. Include games, recipes or anything else your readers might enjoy. Include some links to affiliate products you sell...books on planning parties, decorating websites, kids games.

And finally....focus a couple of paragraphs on specific items that you offer that might be beneficial to your customers.

Everytime you talk to a prospective client, make sure you ask permission to add their email to your newsletter list. I add about 20 a week to mine...and you'd better believe it's a great way to promote your business!


Tips for increasing profits this week:

Set a monthly expense budget...not to be broken under any circumstance!
Do it right the first time! Don't cut costs if it's going to mean a project won't be done right. Look for quality in all that you do.
Save on Ink and Toner....have you realized how much we spend on ink each year? Go to one of the new Ink refill places that seem to be showing up everwhere...and save a fortune on your printing costs.

That's it for today! Watch out for our next newsletter for tips on Blogging for $$$$.

For more info on growing your business, visit Grow Your Party Rental Biz

Party Rental Marketing Tips

What do you do when you need to market in the winter...and you have NO extra money? Well, that seems to happen to many of us. Our answer is to use internet marketing.

I don't mean just Google and pay per click although these are great ways to market. But another really great marketing technique is called "article marketing".

Article marketing is a great way to get links to your website without having to pay for it. It's fairly simple. You write an article about party planning, parties, picnics etc. It doesn't have to be long, only around 500 words. At the bottom of the article you add your name and company info. Also a link back to your website.

And you start submitting your article to ezines. Probably one of the best is Ezine Articles. Another I use quite frequently is Go Articles. Now, keep in mind that anyone can use your article as long as they include your contact information.

Google pays alot of attention to Ezine Articles when it's ranking websites. And anytime someone else picks up your article it's just one more way to link back to your website.

Another great marketing tool that doesn't cost a dime is to write a press release. You can actually submit press releases online that can get picked up by different newsgroups...again, increasing links back to your site and therefore your page rank goes up.

Your press release can also get picked up by outside sources and end up in print magazines. So....start writing!