Feeling Organic?

When the Tisbert family, owners of Valley Dream Organic Produce Farm, announced one sunny August afternoon that they'd always wanted to sponsor some sort of festival, I didn't allow them to think twice. I jumped in and said "I'll take care of it" and away we went. Not two months later the family and I stood in a vast hay-field in the rain ... shivering ... freezing our butts off ... and grinning ear to ear. Success. Rainy, freezy, fabulous success! Now I'm well aware that everyone in town isn't necessarily living the organic lifestyle. Actually, according to treehugger.com only 58% of consumers prefer organic foods, and only about half of that actually go so far as to purchase organic foods. (Sorry for the factoid - I was honestly curious) Anyone who attended the festival will tell you, this wasn't some crunchy granola sales pitch trying to push the organic lifestyle. No - this was a big fat fabulous party designed to celebrate something that is very important to the Tisbert family and incidentally has become very important to me: supporting local growers, local businesses, local artists.

Despite unconscionably low temperatures, constant drizzle and plenty of mud, nearly 20 local vendors showed up to make the best of what the festival had to offer. On a poor-weather day like this, vendor and entertainment no shows are usually an event's greatest downfall. Not in this case. I was thrilled and amazed to see 90% of our vendors turn out, and both entertainers - despite the misery of the situation. Every one of them put on a wide smile (and a pair of muck boots)and got to work setting out their wares, whether it be canned produce, steaming hot beverages or hand-made arts and crafts. TWO woodworkers arrived, both setting up shop with extensive furniture displays as well as workbenches and tools. I was amazed to see the lengths to which each of our event vendors went to make the best of the day and provide the best experience for those brave souls who arrived to partake in the festivities.

Speaking of brave souls - did you SEE the Potato Sack Fashion Show!? The rivalry was narrowed to only the most serious of competitors - an ice cold downpour will do that - and the competition was on. From hand-sewn purses and hairbands to a wedding gown with a train, each of our fashion show entrants gave it their all and had an absolute blast doing it. It was SO HARD choosing just one winner and one runner up - I wanted to award everyone for their hard work and dedication! Special thanks to everyone who struggled through cutting and stitching that miserable itchy burlap - even if you didn't make it to the show.

Peter "Professor Fairbanks" Miller strummed a wicked fiddle - he's my new favorite musician. Tammy Fletcher rocked the house. It was fabulous to see community members Deb Nevil and Stephen Morabito out there cuttin' the ... grass, and enjoying the music. Raffle prizes were awarded to ecstatic neighbors, contest winners jumped for joy - applesauce everywhere, by the way.

Despite the understandably low attendance - we saw roughly 80 people that day, everyone involved is raring to get involved again next year. Will there be a next year? Do you even need to ask?

Is Online Marketing Right for You?

How do you know whether your business needs online marketing? First and foremost, you need to answer some questions about your business.

1. What are you selling? Are you selling a product? A service? Or an upcoming event?

Flat out, services are hard to sell. You can be the best landscaper in New England but the fact will always remain that unless a consumer is already looking to hire a landscaper they won't have much use for your service - especially considering the current economy. In today's economic climate, even the most steadfast consumers are morphing into do-it-yourselfers. Of course, hiring a professional photographer for your daughter's wedding will yield you higher quality photos of her special day - but considering that all of us have access to a camera, perhaps even a really GOOD camera, why not save the $3500? I'm not saying it's the right thing ... but it is the reality of the situation.

If you do provide a service, not all hope is lost. Document your successes. Take a photograph of a service well-rendered. Contact past clients and ask them for a short testimonial describing the quality of your work. Consumers want to see something concrete, so even though you may be an auto mechanic, you still need to give them what they want.

Products are much easier to sell due to the fact that photographs can be posted and prices are usually concrete. Even though a consumer might have no need for yet another hand-woven scarf, they're going to see photographs with a wide variety of hand-woven scarf styles and get the pang. You know the pang. The pang is that thing that has you adding candy bars and magazines to your pile of groceries at the check out line. We're ALL susceptible to the pang.

Events are fun. Even if what you're selling is in actuality a service or product, why not make it into an event? Examples of events can be open houses, grand re-openings, welcome receptions ... it can even be as simple as a monthly or weekly promotion. "Place your order in the month of May and we'll throw in a honey-scented candle, on the house!" Consumers LOVE promotions.

2. Do you currently have an online presence?

I hate to say it kids, but it's the wave of right now - and considering all the do-it-yourself blog templates, the social networking sites, and the drag and drop web-building programs, you really have no excuse. Get online, and do it in a big way. It doesn't have to cost a lot. It doesn't have to be phony or pretentious. There are plenty of mom-and-pop or work-from-my-laptop-while-watching-the-Simpsons businesses out there who have polished, professional,full-service websites. The purpose of a website or other online presence is to give consumers an avenue for finding out about you. Unless you have a storefront on Church Street or are paying out daily/weekly/monthly for pricey print ads or radio commercials, people aren't going to know about you. If people don't know about you, people don't care about you. MAKE THEM CARE. An inexpensive, simple website and an hour spent online registering with google, yahoo, etc could make or break your business. And hey, it sure makes my job easier in terms of promoting you. I can post on PromoteVT all day long "Hey check out Joe, he makes pitchforks in a variety of pastel colors!" OR I can say "Joe's custom painted pitchforks are a must buy for Mother's Day. Check out Joe online at www.pastelpitchforks.com" See how I combined an EVENT and a WEBSITE?? Now if that doesn't make you want to buy a pastel pitchfork, I don't know what will.

Keep Those Ears Ringing

As a small business owner in Vermont I think it's so vital that I advertise my business, just a little, each and every day. Some days this can be as simple as meeting someone on the street and telling them about what I do. Some days I create ads and send them out via the Chamber of Commerce. I hold an account with a local radio station. They have two commercials for me on file, and at any time I can call up the producer and say "hey, please run commercial xyz three times this week." It doesn't cost me that much, and the option is always available. No one said you have to pay out consistently, every day or every week. The idea is to mix it up and constantly hit new demographics. Earlier this week I decided "what the hay" and put together a discount promo which I then emailed to a list of 200 potential clients. Maybe I'll get a call, maybe I won't, but it hardly puts me out to try. If business doesn't grow, then it sits stagnant. And lordy, we can't have that! I work in the service industry; aka: I don't sell a product, so for me to receive one phone call or email a week from a potential new client, even if I don't necessarily book them, I feel like I'm doing really well. Not all advertising works all the time, so the idea is to keep it constant. Keep my name out there. Keep people talking. Eventually ... at some point, a person who genuinely needs my help, and is willing to pursue it, will listen ...

which begs the question, have you advertised your business today?

January 11, 2010 - Tasty Persuasions Catering

Tasty Persuasions Catering
www.TastyPersuasions.com
Tina@TastyPersuasions.com

Tasty Persuasions Catering offers catering services at realistic prices. Their food quality is among Vermont's finest. Their menus are filled with entrees for all tastes. They have experience in catering all occasions from large corporate events and wedding receptions to small intimate engagements. Tasty Persuasions Catering provides a wide variety of catering services including wedding receptions, corporate breakfasts, board meetings, showers, holiday parties or company meals.

Their menu includes, but is not limited to, buffets, hors d'oeuvres, meal entrees, salads, starches, vegetables and desserts. Their services range from set-up buffets to full service catering.

From personal experience, I can tell you that Tina and her team is reliable, honest and a delight to work with! You won't be disappointed with the food or service!

Click HERE for menus.
They have a long list of references, and to view some testimonials, click HERE.

Call Tina at Tasty Persuasions Catering today to set up an appointment to go over the catering needs of your next event: 802-372-3123

January 5, 2010 - VT Web Properties

Check out VTWebProperties.com!
'Carbon neutral web design, development and hosting in Vermont.'

VT Web Properties consistently delivers creative, scalable web designs and solutions that reflect the personality, needs, and vision of our clients. The success of your online branding, communications and marketing strategy is our goal.

VT Web Properties create websites that work for you! They work with their clients to understand their business model before making assumptions about what solution to provide. Their web development process is a proven method to get a full understanding of their clients business model, strategy and goals and to create a site to match them.

They also create websites that work for the environment.

The websites VT Web Properties create do more than meet the needs of their clients - they reflect their values as well.

VT Web Properties couples great design with a commitment to the environment. Everything they do from design to hosting is carbon-neutral. VT Web Properties purchases carbon offsets to be a zero-emissions web development firm.

To learn more about their commitment to the environment, click here.

Be sure to explore VT Web Properties' outstanding portfolio, highlighting a few examples of their work by clicking here.

www.VTWebProperties.com
(802) 431-0284
FIND VT WEB PROPERTIES ON FACEBOOK! (Click here!)

5 more days!

5 more days! We've been booking more days and have been sending lots of emails to get the year filled with VT businesses! Be sure to check in Monday for our views on the benefits of marketing with social media!

An introduction...

Good evening! I wanted to introduce myself and let you know a little about promoteVT.com.

My name is Mauranda Dalziel. I live in Jericho, Vermont with my husband and daughter. I love my family, friends, working, meeting new people and laughing! I am the owner of VIP Consulting, LLC. We have 2 divisions: our Marking Division is aimed towards small business owners and our Events Division is geared towards brides and grooms-to-be as well as providing event planning services to many different types of events within Vermont. All of those involved in VIP Consulting absolutely LOVE our job! We have fun and know how to make a difference. We work very hard at what we do and take great pride in our excellent customer service and honesty. In addition to these 2 division, VIP Consulting, LLC is the home of promoteVT.com!

promoteVT.com is a new and exciting marketing campaign that will begin on January 10, 2010 to promote businesses in VT!

Take a look at our FAQs:

What we do:
We take your company information (what you do, who you are, why people need to know about you) and share that info with people on twitter, facebook and our blog for one day. Each and every day of the year (including holidays and weekends), we promote one business. Some days we will take pictures of ourselves with a product of a business, if available. Other days we might do video - or, we might just type a lot of cool stuff about a VT business. If you have a promotional or marketing item that you want me to take pictures of/with or hold up during the video, etc, send it to me and I’ll share it.
It’s a great ‘break the ice’ type of marketing strategy. Maybe the people that we are communicating with have never heard of you before, or maybe they have heard of you but don’t know what you do. Or - it could just be a refresher that you are a great company that they need to do business with. Either way, it’s targeting people in the area. We only promote VT businesses. The great slogan of ‘BUY LOCAL’ is huge for us. We are a VT business promoting other VT businesses.

How much does it cost:
Each day of the year, the costs goes up one dollar, starting at $1 on January 1st.
So, January 1 costs $1, January 31 costs $31, February 1 costs $32, December 31 costs $365. It’s really an easy system…

What if I want to book a day:
Give us a call at (802) 324-1201 or send an email to info@promoteVT.com. The days are selling fast, so call us TODAY!

How do I pay you:
Paypal is preferred. OR - you can mail us a check! When we chat I'll let you know the address if that's what works for you.

Why should I do this:
It doesn’t cost much and it WILL work! The beginning of the year costs less because we will have less people that we will be targeting, however, as we market ourselves along with other great and fabulous VT businesses, the word WILL get out and more people will be following us and keeping up with our blog. Therefore, as the year goes by, the cost goes up, as will the amount of people who are checking in to see what business we are promoting that day.

Will I really get any business:
I’d like to hope so! But, remember that one HUGE part of marketing your business is getting your name out there. This is just another way to do that. Your phone probably won’t ring off the hook the day that your business is promoted, however it will get your company into the minds of those following us. And, don’t forget - PEOPLE TALK!...A LOT!... So, one person who follows us might tell a friend who tells a family member who tells another friend, therefore, the word is out!

Do you promote anything else besides VT businesses:
YES! Of course we do! Maybe you are selling a home, a sports team is having a big game or a fundraiser is happening that you want promoted. We mainly are going to be promoting businesses, however we will also be GLAD to promote many other things.

What’s the fine print:
We like to have fun, enjoy our lives and our work. We enjoy talking with people of all shapes and sizes. We live in VT and know what VT is all about. We know that VT is a great place with happy business owners and we want to help them make lots of money and enjoy their work as well!

We look forward to 2010 in all that we do! Please be sure to keep in touch! We appreciate you visiting our blog!!!