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Written by Santa Walter Roach
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Wednesday, 29 April 2009 09:32 |
Marketing Santa: Getting New Clients at a Fair Price
Testimonials and word of mouth are the single best way for new Santa Bookings to arrive for an Event Santa, or for a Mall Santa to receive a good contract rate according to established wisdom. It could take as much as a decade for the retired, full-time event Santa to gradually reach 60 or more bookings in the season by waiting to be found. On the other hand, hard-sell techniques for marketing Santa for maximum bookings just seem to be wrong, since Santa is not a pushy kind of personality. So the best option may be a gentle approach that ties in testimonials with your promises of what you will deliver as a quality experience. To achieve the best results, the three recommendations for Santa (which should be a written plan) are:
1. develop your persona to a professional level in appearance as well as in knowledge,
2. establish at least a BLOG web page for Internet presence, and
3. order and distribute appropriate print materials such as business cards and fliers.
More sophisticated plan contents are available at http://marketing-mentor.com through Ilise Benum, who helped parse and shape these ideas with her insights published in "2009 Grow Your Business: Marketing Plan + Calendar". It was a sound investment that is well worth the nominal cost.
First, you have to have the Santa persona well-established. That includes suit, boots, belt, beard and hair, and accessories such as a Santa sack, premiums as give-aways to kids, stories and monologues ready to tell. It is best to write out and rehearse Santa's monologues. Chat with fellow Santas for recommendations for suits and accessories which may cost from several humdred dollars to a couple of thousand dollars. Professional-quality photos are needed, with several head and face shots, chest shots, and full-length shots in a variety of poses. Pick ONE head or face shot that is identifiably you, and use it as your main photo throughout the internet and on print media. Get photos of you in your casual Santa attire as well. You may be able to get the photos in trade with a professional photographer, or find a wedding photographer who can work you in. You may need to plan on spending $150 to $500.
Marketing means more of the development of your 'personal brand' than simply quoting rates of pay. Once the costume and accessories are in place, and the stories and monologues are developed and well-practiced, then you are ready for the bare-bones minimum in web marketing: a BLOG.
One way to achieve a web presence is with a free blog site; there are several out there. Two free examples may be seen at http://santawalter.blogspot.com and http://santawalter.wordpress.com. They are very easy to use, since it resembles the process of sending emails and has help screens to assist. (I have way too many so I can share about them.) There are several free templates you may select under the APPEARANCE tab on the DASHBOARD. You may ignore categories, tags, etc., until you are ready for them. The most recent BLOG post is generally on the top, with the oldest on the bottom. Wordpress.com also has the ability to make static pages as well, so you can have a "Contact" or "About" menu tab.
Printed business cards are a must, but may be your only printed materials. (Mine are 3" x 4" club cards at $68 for 1,000, for which I am grateful to Santa Gary Casey.) Santa Ron Breach, among others, sells business cards; HotCards.com has a custom-sized 'club' card 3" x 4" if you are a "do-it-your-self graphic designer". Actually, it might be best to connect with a local printing firm nearby for good-will and word-of-mouth. Brochures, postcards, 'club' cards, and tri-fold brochures are nice; however, they can become expensive in a hurry. Yet if they bring in clients they can be worth it. If they are in your plan; buy them. One reason to have them is to have something to offer when cold-calling prospects, "May I send you my ___ ?" Or you might mail a postcard first and follow up with, "Have you received the ____?"
In conclusion, a bare-bones marketing plan (which should be in writing, by the way) should have: 1) a well-developed Santa persona with appropriate costume, accessories, and monologues; 2) an Internet presence of at least a BLOG with regular postings, photos, contact information, and testimonials; and 3) appropriate business cards, brochures, fliers, postcards, or other print media. At a minimum, these three supply credibility to prospects who may turn into clients. And having all of this 'sooner is better than later'. For additional options, in-depth discussion, and explanations, Ilise Benum's website is excellent: http://marketing-mentor.com.
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Santa Walter Roach is a '75 graduate of Cornell University, School of Hotel Administration, and a '96 graduate of San Jose State University, School of Education. He has taught adults and children continuously spanning the past 20+ years, and currently teaches a sixth grade, self-contained, multiple-subject class of 12-year olds. He has been a professional Santa for 5 seasons. He admits that he sometimes goes way overboard with publishing of websites, and currently manages over a dozen domains. His Santa domains include:
• http://santawalter.com
• http://santabusinessschool.com
• http://santasgazette.com
• http://santassociety.org
• http://santasnorcal.org
• http://santa4events.com
• http://santawalter.blogspot.com
• http://santawalter.wordpress.com
• http://santawalter.ning.com
• http://santawalter.multiply.com
In addition, Santa Walter is active on several social media sites among which are:
• http://facebook.com
• http://biznik.com
• http://linkedin.com
• http://plaxo.com
• http://santawalter.multiply.com
• http://aorbsanta.ning.com
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Written by Santa Walter
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Friday, 24 April 2009 14:10 |
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If anyone has ever mentioned to you that you should have a blog, do you ask for more information? Should every Santa have a blog? In order to decide IF you should have a blog or not, it helps knowing how and why blogs came about. While Wikipedia is peer-published; nevertheless, it's article on Blog Marketing is interesting: "Blog marketing is the term used to describe internet marketing via web blogs. These blogs differ from corporate websites because they feature daily or weekly posts, often around a single topic." Blogs are webpages Just like any other web page, a blog loads a web page from a host server through your connection server to your browser. It is a different kind of web page; visitors can and are encouraged to leave comments. It resembles a forum or bulletin board where the owner creates a new entry at the top of a long page, with all previous entries below in descending date order. Each blog entry can have interactive comments from the visitor. Blogs are not usually "home pages" Home pages are the landing page of a web site, which customarily has the structure: http://www.domain-name.com. Usually, a web page is pretty static, with content that changes periodically; however, not dynamically. As Word Press and other BLOG software have become more sophisticated, the differences are blurring somewhat.
Blogs Work Well for Marketing "Blogs are published as two-way conversations that are more personal than web sites and are humanized by the voice of the very human blog publisher who is generally the one actually publishing content and responding feedback from readers." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog_marketing. If each Santa examines the idea of blogs, then each can decide whether to blog or not to blog. If the goal is to market Santa's services, then a blog is a natural tool to use. It is really easy to do, as well, with the advent of free blog sites from BLOGGER (BlogSpot by Google) and WordPress.COM. |
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Written by Administrator
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Saturday, 07 July 2007 02:54 |
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The Santa Business Community Portal is now online. There, you will find a constant source of information about the activities of contributors powering collective body of knowledge. Please register so you can share your expertise along with Santa Walter and other experts. Some other sources of support are available. The Santa's Gazette: Jingle Press Online promises an interesting overview of feature articles, community accomplishments, learning topics, and project updates each month. Also, check out SantasSociety. This aggregated RSS feed brings together news from all over the Santa world. 
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Last Updated on Tuesday, 10 March 2009 11:22 |
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Written by Santa Walter
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Tuesday, 10 March 2009 10:06 |
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During the "off-season", Santa needs to identify areas of improvement for the coming season, and then go to wrok on polishing the presence and presentation of the persona of Santa. One really good way is to attend local, regional, and national gatherings. Those who are able to attend Celebrate Santa 2009 Convention in Gatinburg have many opportunities available. 
There are vendors offering all sorts of items to support Santa during the season as well as year-round. From the suit, accessories, and casual year-round wear for Santa to Mrs. Claus's and Elf's costume needs are avaialable for window shopping and for purchase. The appearance of Santa is really important, from the beard, belt, boots, novelties to hand out to children. Equally important are such intangibles as the 'twinkle in the eye', Santa's caring personality, and listening skills. There is more to being Santa than putting on the suit and sitting in the chair for photos. Additionally, the monologues or the stories he tells make a difference as well. In conclusion, one of the best things a Santa can do to improve himself is to attend local, regional, and national gatherings. Celebrate Santa 2009 Convention is one of the best opportunities for those who are able to go. |
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Last Updated on Tuesday, 10 March 2009 10:55 |
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