Hosting an Event for Customer Appreciation and Public Awareness

It is important that businesses show their customers that they are appreciated by hosting an event that is fun and gets them involved in meeting other people as well. The goal is to continue your relationship with your existing customers which helps in retaining their loyalty and in the long run getting more referrals. I read in a marketing journal that 80% of your business comes from 20% of your existing clientele. The other 20% will be new prospects and referrals from existing customers. It is extremely important to meet new people all the time while at the same time strengthening existing relationships. This can be done through hosting a fun event in which your customers will help you get the word out for you to new prospects. Once your attendees are at the event you can ask them to join your email list and by doing that they get entered into a drawing for prizes. This is a great way to reach out to potential prospects. Once the event has passed you can continue reaching out via email by providing your email database informed by educating them about your product and services through an e-newsletter.

Cost vs. Efficiency

My Grandfather always said..."You get what you pay for"...yesterday evening I confirmed it. As I was trying to save the planet by creating less waste and recycling my ink cartridge...by having it refilled..I ended up dissolutioned and wasting my time. Time is money. I had a huge spillage of ink all over the place ..it was a complete disaster. I had to go buy a brand new ink cartridge to save my day and complete my business tasks. Will not try that again.

This goes for services as well...just because you pay less does not mean you will get the best service..so make sure to ask for references or testimonials before the buy in.

Marketing Your Website

As some of you may or may not know. My career background is marketing/Design. I have been in the business of marketing for over 10 years and just recently have begun to design websites for some of my clients. Tips that I can share for creating a website is do not accept to have your website to have a subdomain name. This process does not give you the exposure as if having your own domain name. It makes it harder for the search engines to find your website unless your graphic designer has implemented the proper tags within your internal website so that the search engines such as google, yahoo etc. can find you. For instance...subdomains can be hosted by lets say a design company ...making it less expensive for the client but, expensive if you think about the outcome...this would be an example of main domain http://www.websN.com...a subdomain can be hosted under this maybe being yours and it would have the title of http://www.websN.com/johndoe

This would not give your company the importance it needs as a web presence and as far as professionalism goes...therefore...why not pay a little extra and go for the http://www.johndoe.com effect.

Another tip to ask your graphic designer is how many websites they currently maintain and do they update them monthly. This is also very important because each time you add content or refresh your website...the search engines get to crawl through your website looking for keywords and other descriptive content that will get picked up when someone is doing a search. The more often it is refreshed the better it will show up online.

Here is one of the websites I have designed and update on a monthly basis. I also check to see how this website shows up when searching on the web....not doing too bad without paying for dynamic ads.

http://www.santaanitagallery.com
in McAllen, Texas which is a host for the McAllen Artwalk.

Support Breast Cancer Month-NEW Women Wine Glass Charms

Support Breast Cancer Month-NEW Women Wine Glass Charms
SeeMore photos of these wine glass charms.


Just came up with these new Designs reproduced from my Women Series Paintings.

Check them out. With each purchase, a donation will be made directly to the American Cancer Society to help raise funds for more research.

Find out More About Breast Cancer Awareness...

I met these Young Designers and Entrapeneurs this weekend!

I met these wonderful young designers and entrapeneurs over the weekend. Their jewelry designs are fabulous and candy -licious. I had to buy some for my young fans and cousins. Great jewelry for young girls and teenagers. Great gifts for the holidays. Check them out and add them as your friends on myspace...I did.

It is great to see young productive teenagers following a dream. Please support them.

http://www.myspace.com/alamodeapparel