Dear Friends in the Lighting Business:

Quoizel Fall Tab Provides
eBlast Opportunity
Quoizel has come up with an innovative eblast program to support their tab program. The program is supported by Valassis – a major provider of Shared Mail Packages, Free Standing Inserts, Coupons, and Solo Mail Programs. Valassis is eblasting homeowners this fall to promote Quoizel’s fall tab. The program provides lighting showrooms with an opportunity to capture thousands of names – here’s how.

1) You have to be a Quoizel Tab customer to take advantage of this program. Talk to your rep about participating with a “no-print” tab. No-print means that you will make the tab order and Quoizel provides you with digital files of the tab that you can then put up on your website.

2) Depending on the size of your order, Quoizel will make available a certain number of eblast addresses. These are targeted to your geographic area. These names are notified in advance that they are about to receive a mailing with special lighting values and that if the recipient does not want to receive the promotion, they should opt-out.

3) Valassis can only send the email once. So it’s important to have a great offer to increase open rates and to get recipients to click to your website. Talk to your Quoizel rep about this.

4) When customers do click thru to your website, you must have an email gathering tool such as Constant Contact or iContact to gather emails. We find that customers are happy to provide their name, phone number and email in order to get access to a printable coupon.

Since gathering emails is a top priority in marketing products and services, we think the Quoizel Fall Tab eblast is a good program. However, the opt-in is not strong and there will be some complaints about spamming. The goal is to have the emailing tools in place to collect emails from those who are interested.

iPod Lamps Prove
To Be Hot Sellers

For years, we’ve told lighting showrooms to lay low during the back-to-school time period. But with new media like eblasts available, we put together a Back-To-School iPod Lamp campaign for Bright Light Design Center and Annapolis Lighting. Moms like iPods – and both companies reported complete sell-outs of the desk lamps. By the time you read this, it will be too late to run a back-to-school program, however, we recommend that you get some in stock. They could be the next big gift item for the holidays. And who knows, if they are popular for back-to-school shoppers, maybe Moms will buy them anytime as gifts for their kids.

Click to view ad larger.

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Video Marketing
I’ve spoken about video marketing before, but the situation keeps evolving. Here are are some great new ideas to consider.

Clark Communications Group is now setting up YouTube Channels for clients, which allow us to place video content on our client websites. You don’t have to invest in your own creative, since the American Lighting Association has provided lighting showroom owners with over 50 videos with lighting tips from many manufacturers. Once your YouTube Channel is set up, we add the ALA videos to your playlist. Then we place a YouTube custom player on your website and your web visitors can view the videos without ever leaving your site.

Another benefit? The keywords used in your YouTube Channel will drive traffic to your site and increase the amount of time visitors spend on your website.

Here’s an example of a custom YouTube Player we set up for
Brecher’s Lighting in Kentucky.

Connecticut Lighting Centers is often featured in local news segments,
which are then uploaded to their YouTube Channel.

We’ve set up our own Lightads video channel so you can see what other showrooms are doing.

Call us about setting up a YouTube Channel and Player for your site – the upfront time of 2 – 3 hours of work will bring visitors to your website and promote your expertise as lighting professionals.

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Decorative Lighting Database
If you don’t have a database, get one! A database of product allows customers to view tens of thousands of products on your site – piquing their interest and motivating them to come into your store. There are multiple providers in the market, including Lights America, FazTrack, and XO Lights. As customers become more web oriented in gathering information, a decorative lighting database is essential for driving traffic and sales.

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$5,000 Home Lighting Makeover Contest
From ALA
Finally, if you haven’t already done so, it’s time to start gathering up your entries for ALA’s $5,000 Home Lighting Makeover Contest to send to ALA. We’ve found that the best method for handling paper entries is to assign one of your staff to enter them into an Excel spreadsheet (3 columns: first name, last name, email address) and then use that method to deliver the entries to ALA. IMPORTANT! Remember to keep a copy of these names – they are your valuable customers and you can utilize their information to start building an email database for future marketing programs.

Give me a call and I will happy to talk with you in-depth about your website and email marketing programs.

Dave Clark
Clark Communications Group
800-886-2522
cell: 802-369-6687
"The Brightest Ads in the Lighting Business"