Scrappy Marketing Solutions Blog

Marketing by Customer Review: Scrapbook.com

Another great marketing idea, this one from Scrapbook.com: Review A Product Win $25!

Scrapbook.com is giving away (3) $25 superstore-shopping-sprees to three lucky product reviewers! Here's what you need to do to be eligible to WIN:

1. Choose an E-book or digital product from the superstore that you own (or will soon own)
2. Go to that products page in the Scrapbook.com Superstore
3. Write a 50 word (minimum) review of the product (posted to the product page)

All reviews are eligible provided that they would likely be deemed helpful and informative by a person who does not yet own the product. That's it! Simple, right?

Clever marketing - offer an incentive to get your customers to dish on your products!  Since the contest does not imply the review must be positive, I don't see any ethical problems. Here's what I like about this promotion:

• it will (most likely) provide lots of reviews in their online storefront, which boosts the confidence level of "looky-loo's" - they see lots of reviews, they think a lot of people must shop here, they feel secure doing business with the site.
• they specified that the review must "likely be deemed helpful and informative by a person who does not yet own the product".  That kind of guideline will help someone write a review.
• they asked for reviews on their *digital* products.  What a great way to highlight a specific segment of their business!
• they included this promotion in their e-newsletter, which is also archived online - instant search engine mojo, and easy to pass the word along to friends (viral marketing)!

You could do something similar in your business:

• every other month, solicit reviews/testimonials about a specific type of product or service - paper one month, classes another month
• change up the incentive every so often - store credit one month, personal consulting session another month.
• have customers apply to be on a rotating "Review Board", of say, a three to six-month term.  During that term, they get special goodies for their service.
• definitely post about any kind of contest/promotion on your blog and in your newsletter

A Scrappy Marketer's Hat Tip to Scrapbook.com!

Marketing by Customer Review: Scrapbook.com

Another great marketing idea, this one from Scrapbook.com: Review A Product Win $25!

Scrapbook.com is giving away (3) $25 superstore-shopping-sprees to three lucky product reviewers!

Here’s what you need to do to be eligible to WIN:

1. Choose an E-book or digital product from the superstore that you own (or will soon own)
2. Go to that products page in the Scrapbook.com Superstore
3. Write a 50 word (minimum) review of the product (posted to the product page)

All reviews are eligible provided that they would likely be deemed helpful and informative by a person who does not yet own the product.
That’s it! Simple, right?

Clever marketing - offer an incentive to get your customers to dish on your products!  Since the contest does not imply the review must be positive, I don’t see any ethical problems.

Here’s what I like about this promotion:

• it will (most likely) provide lots of reviews in their online storefront, which boosts the confidence level of “looky-loo’s” - they see lots of reviews, they think a lot of people must shop here, they feel secure doing business with the site.
• they specified that the review must “likely be deemed helpful and informative by a person who does not yet own the product”.  That kind of guideline will help someone write a review.
• they asked for reviews on their *digital* products.  What a great way to highlight a specific segment of their business!
• they included this promotion in their e-newsletter, which is also archived online - instant search engine mojo, and easy to pass the word along to friends (viral marketing)!

You could do something similar in your business:

• every other month, solicit reviews/testimonials about a specific type of product or service - paper one month, classes another month
• change up the incentive every so often - store credit one month, personal consulting session another month.
• have customers apply to be on a rotating “Review Board”, of say, a three to six-month term.  During that term, they get special goodies for their service.
• definitely post about any kind of contest/promotion on your blog and in your newsletter

A Scrappy Marketer’s Hat Tip to Scrapbook.com!

Viral Scrapbook Marketing: Tinkering Ink Blinkies

I recently spotted a great grassroots/viral marketing idea on the Tinkering Ink BLOG. They are offering “blinkies” graphics for people to post in their message board signature lines (aka “sigs”). The little animated graphics scroll through various marketing slogans and feature some branded Tinkering Ink images.

TI goes a step further by providing coding instructions on their blog and on their message board, specifying how to post a blinkie to a message board sig.

THEN they go even another step further, and declare that they “will be hunting down Tinkering Ink blinkies online and giving away prize packs filled with Tinkering Ink goodies to random customers we find displaying our blinkie on their signature”. By choosing random winners (instead of submissions, or a talent contest), people are more likely to use the blinkie, in hopes that they could be noticed and chosen. And every time someone uses the TI blinkie, the marketing message is passed further down the pipeline.

A Scrappy Marketer’s Hat Tip to Tinkering Ink!

Scrapbooking Blogger Links

Monday in my Blogging 201 class, someone asked for some “good” scrapbook blogs to read.  I told him that Ali Edwards, Donna Downey, Cathy Zielske, and Scrapability’s blogs were all very popular, but for a more comprehensive list, I said I’d just post a list to my blog! 

I keep a public blogroll of scrapbooking blogs at Bloglines, which I have posted here.

I also have a del.icio.us linkroll on Scrapbooking Industry “Thought Leaders”.  Click the Comments link below to leave me a comment if you think anyone is missing from my Thought Leader list.