2010 Plans: Joint Advertisment handouts

MakingLaundryEasy · Joined: 29 Jan 2010 Posts: 22

Hey Anita, I read one of your older posts about working with other businesses so you can put your business info on one side and their info on the handout as well. I love that idea.

I think it might be something I can do with local businesses in my area. I do most our our graphic design work and that would be a great way to help one business while we help ourselves get more visibility in the community.

I love the tips here on the forum.... So the moral of the story is: What can we do for another complimentary business that would open advertisement doors that otherwise would not have been easily done?

Very Happy

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Anita · Posted: February 1, 2010, 1:56 am Post subject:

Oooh! Brainstorming! One of my favorite things to do!

But before I go on ... I wanted to make a couple of notes:

First thanks for the compliments on what you're finding here on the boards! I'm glad you're finding some of the help you need here!

Secondly ... as I was really reading, looking and whatnot over your site to help come up with some ideas ... I wanted to make note of a couple of things. There's two key features/benefits about the DC&G laundry carrier that I personally love:

1. Love the fact that you can lay out your tshirts at the bottom of the bag!! Love it! As a very busy mom who barely has the time to load and unload the washer and dryer not alone actually folding or hanging the clothes directly out of the dryer (that is what I'm supposed to do, right? lol!) That said, being able to lay out shirts and whatnot to avoid the wrinkles is awesome!

2. Being able to carry the clothing down the steps and still be able to see in front of you is a fabulous benefit! Coming from someone who has to carry clothing up and down two flights of stairs every time I do a load of laundry ... this would be nice! And as an added benefit ... no knuckle busting on the doorways! (So I guess that's three!)

Now onto the real question at hand ...

MakingLaundryEasy · Joined: 29 Jan 2010 Posts: 22

Ahhh... now we're having some fun! Very Happy

You had a few ideas that were a twist on general ideas that we had. I like the idea of creating joint advertising with them as well as checking to see if they had websites for a variety of uses.

The laundromats are a definite target market, but...what we've been finding is that those who go to laundromats are not very likely to spend $24.99 on something to carry their laundry. A few people we've spoken to who man the places felt this way. But then again it definitely depends on the area of the city. Certainly there is a market that is more likely to invest in something like this for the long term. So we need to continue to seek them out.

Next, you're right about the ability to lay clothes/shirts out flat. There are only three of us in the house at the moment and laundry keeps coming up way soon than we'd like. Translation... we barely get clothes put away by the time the laundry needs to be done again! Shocked

And the fact that our t-shirts stayed nice and unwrinkled was a nice surprise that we noticed as we began using our prototypes. It was like "hey, check this out... I found another cool thing about it!" Oh, and here's where the subtleties come in... the more we use it the more we keep finding cool little time-saving benefits from it.

The latest: We often take the clothes out of the dryer and place them in our DC&G carrier. Then we take it inside to our room and place it on the bed because we "plan" to put them away shortly... So that idea comes and goes and now it's time for bed... well what are we to do but pick up the handles and move it to the floor for the time (the clothes are easily moved with one hand, they're not getting shuffled around, and they're not getting dirty no matter where we put them).

Then in the morning we ask "Hey where are my white t-shirts?" "Ah, they're in the DC&G on the floor there..." so we bring it up to the bed again, grab a t-shirt (and some socks that are piled up on top while we're at it) and off we go...

So we'll be working on targeting those dry cleaners and the laundromats again with some new offers in the near future! I'll definitely let you know how it goes... (this sort of encouragement nicely puts some positive pressure on me to implement some useful ideas!) I like it!
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Visit our website to see how your laundry can be done even easier! Our Drop Click and Go laundry carrier makes your job less of a chore!

Anita · Posted: February 4, 2010, 1:23 am Post subject:

Happy to put on the positive pressure! Nothing wrong with that ... certainly keeps ya movin!

You guys certainly sound like me ... putting the clothes on the bed with every intention of getting them put away. Eh, that is until you're dragging your tired rearend into bed and sitting on the floor sounds so much better!

Anita · Posted: February 4, 2010, 1:25 am Post subject:

Oh! And one more note about the business cards thing ... has to be mentioned here. The FREE cards they offer have been a fantastic starting place for me! Especially if you're going to hand them out willy-nilly all over the place. And, would also be better if you already have business cards ... you don't want a big expense all over again Wink

The free ones are where I started. From there, you are officially on Vistaprint's mailing list Wink

(Hint Hint) and they send out awesome specials ALL THE TIME. I have *never ever* spent full price on a single thing I've purchased from Vistaprint in almost 10 years - and let me tell you - I've made a ton of purchases Wink

Take care,
Anita Razz

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MakingLaundryEasy · Joined: 29 Jan 2010 Posts: 22

Awesome information, I'm beginning to regret not finding this site a long time ago! But you're right, there are tons of steps and they can only be done a few at a time.. so now I'm ready for these new steps!

I'm going to reread this when I have more time so I can digest everything.
Thank you very much Anita!
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http://www.drop-click-and-go.com
Visit our website to see how your laundry can be done even easier! Our Drop Click and Go laundry carrier makes your job less of a chore!

Anita · Posted: February 4, 2010, 7:23 pm Post subject:

Thanks! More than happy to help - love helping!

Yes, take everything one step at a time ... otherwise you'll get so overwhelmed you won't know where to turn ... and thats just not good.

Once you get a chance to digest things and begin taking your first step ... let us know! We can help you along if you'd like. I'm shocked no one else has jumped in yet, lol! I know one girl (Val) is on a bit of a mini-vacation and another one (Lauren) has been quite busy catching up after having a sick family but I know they'll be along soon enough Wink

They love helping out too and they're very good at it. There's many others who will be a great deal of help ... it's what we do! Very Happy

Take care,
Anita Razz

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BusyMomma · Posted: February 11, 2010, 8:34 pm Post subject:

I just wanted to touch on some of the places to market locally for you that popped in my head. I'm actually thinking many of the other tips anita has been giving you, we could start new posts. You can ask her and Lauren how much I like to keep stuff seperate. It works for me so I don't lose awesome ideas or overlooking something great. Laughing

But marketing locally... appliance stores hit me immediately. Try to find out if they would be willing to purchase in bulk for a discount and give them away with new washer and dryer set purchases.

Now I'm not sure how big your town is. I'm south of Seattle, but the town I live in and right around me are quite small. Everyone has festivals, farmers markets, and street fairs. I would definitely be looking into those. Also look for ways you can cross market this product as something else. My parents have a HUGE garden. Something like this would work AWESOME to carry the produce into the house. They could fit everything in it and it would be better for their backs than carrying baskets out in front of them. So just another way to market and maybe you could get some produce stands to market for you as well.

Cross promoting...one easy way to get some joint promotions going with locals is to show them your site and let them know your traffic stats. Start building your SEO so it is pulling in local traffic. Then you can put up a page with recommendations for places to shop or get services and you can also send thei info out in your newsletter when you build it up.

Definitely look at giveaways with local companies and even big corporations. Any large apartment complexes in your area that have a community washroom? Ask the manager if they have a newsletter they pass out and if you can do a giveaway for the apartments. They can fill out the form in the managers office. Depending on your advertising budget, you could give the manager one to use so they are talking it up as well and getting more people to sign up.

Senior assisted living communities. We have a ton of them around here. Some really big one's too that are many floors. Those on upper floors are very capable of living on their own, they just need checked in on. If you could get a giveaway there, maybe even do a little demo for them one morning and giveaway one then and have others sign up for more. You may get residual sales as they buy more for their family members for the holidays.

Ok, that gives you a bunch more to look into. lol I'm a personal trainer so half my business is local marketing. Plus my mom and I had a cafe for quite a while and I was on our towns biz board. Local promotions floweth for me. Very Happy

Best of luck and I'll try to break down some of the things that Anita was talking about into smaller posts to build on even more.
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MakingLaundryEasy · Joined: 29 Jan 2010 Posts: 22

Those were some excellent ideas, we had considered them as giveaways for large stores but haven't had the time to get to it... but this is very good, I hadn't thought of senior assisted living communities.. We also should be able to reach out to apartment managers...

We've gotten so caught up with the daily activities in life that we've had trouble getting moving on ideas!

Great stuff, thanks! Very Happy

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http://www.drop-click-and-go.com
Visit our website to see how your laundry can be done even easier! Our Drop Click and Go laundry carrier makes your job less of a chore!