The contest idea has been brewing for some time now. As most of you know (or could imagine), I am possibly the most time-crunched woman on the planet. Oh, yes, there was that woman in Iowa who had that huge litter (7? 8?) of children, but heck, her whole town showed up to feed babies and do diaper-duty. I still have a new business to nurture, while keeping the spouse and five chirruns in clean underwear. So, to solve my "dilemma", I'm tossing it out to the crafty vixens who read this blog. Clementine needs a mailing list. I have to pay a service, but last time I checked, I have, oh, mebbe sixty e-mail addys. I need people on my e-mail list, you need to win cool stuff... here's the wacky plan:
Send me (clementinesdrygoods at yahoo dot com) three valid e-mails, of people you know who wouldn't get pissed about a fabric/yarn shop sending them sales/event info. I will put your name in the pink hat (yep, the one with the big, velvet peonies on it) and for every set of three you e-mail to me, plonk, in goes your name. Send me three more. Plonk. In you go again. More = better. It doesn't matter if the person isn't local. That's the glorious thing about the interwebs. The UPS man goes everywhere.
I suppose you are curious about what's (possibly) in it for you? This is the great part. I'm making fabric packs up for the fiber festival in June, so one of the prizes is a gob of pretty fabrics from the new Midwest Modern collection (or your choice of black/white/brights or warm Kaffe prints) totalling three yards. Another prize is handpainted sock yarn, should one of the winners be a knitter. Another prize is a book. Actually there are several craft-related books I intend on awarding. I'm not even sure when I'll quit. The local toy shop has an e-mail list of thousands. It makes my few dozen look pretty paltry. Beef it up for me, good women, and you shall be rewarded.
My apologies for not showing you the fabric bundles (they aren't made yet), the handpainted yarnlove (supposed to arrive soon), or the books (Amy Butler's coffee-table drool book, an Anna Zilbourg sock book, and a patchworking book are all up for grabs), but I'll get some photos up tomorrow for you. Need I mention extra points for passing the word out? Just leave me a comment telling me how many times you name-dropped, and plonk, there goes your name in again.
Please no gigging me for my laziness. I know it, you know it... hell, I think it's just been made very public, by moi. This really is the best way, and you guys rock for helping a knitta out. Prize pics tomorrow! C
p.s. if yahoo sends you a message about e-mailing me at embarqmail, ignore it. I'm still available at the addy I gave you (and it's the one I use at home)
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3 comments:
I don't know if I'll be able to contribute any addresses, but I can contribute one name that will make more difference in your business than a hundred thousand name email list:
Seth Godin
The man is a marketing and business genius . . . and I'm not saying that because I'm a marketing-type. I'm saying that because I'm a customer (and having spent sizable amounts of money in my day, I'm pretty serious about who I deal with and how they treat me). I've read his stuff, and he's right.
He's not about manipulation and subterfuge (like a lot of salesmen I've run into), but about actually building a business and making a living by turning your efforts towards things that people actually want, and showing you ways to contact them that not only go counter to common practice, but actually work. Quality, not quantity, is the name of the marketing game.
I'd start you off with either The Purple Cow, or Permission Marketing. But, if you see something that floats your boat higher (like Small is the New Big), then by all means, go for it. You're a smart woman, and you'll be able to really use what he has to say. (And build your business without annoying very many people in the process, and do so more quickly than the conventional wisdom makes possible. ;o)
you want I take that auto message off for you?
Ok, so, do we actually HAVE to ASK them if they'd be whizzed off? Like, can we just troll the net getting crafty type e-mails and fill you full of them???? And I heartily second what Annalea said about Seth Godin. Not that I'm a marketing type, but I recently found his blog and it's really fascinating -- in marketing or not. I'm betting Boris might find it a good read on occasion too!
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