Dec

30

How to Make Sure You Have Enough Gift Basket-Making Items to Satisfy Customers

Filed Under Product/Supply Problems | Comments Off

What’s your timetable for buying items needed for each gift basket occasion?

This decision is one that can make or break your ability to create quality designs for customers who depend on you for special event gifts.

For example, Valentine’s Day merchandise is best ordered by early January, Mother’s Day items by early April, and Father’s Day gifts by early May.

You’ll find this type of pre-planning critical to your success in 2011 due to lean inventory practices by some wholesalers and increased retail competition.

This is one of the topics to be explained in full during the teleseminar, 7 Super-Important Secrets to Know and Follow Before You Start Making Gift Baskets for Fun or Profit on Tuesday, January 11. Full details are listed at GiftBasketRadio.com, and a free gift is yours if you sign up by today.

Happy New Year!

Dec

23

How to Line Up New Year’s Basket Orders Now

Filed Under New Year | Comments Off

I didn’t realize the popularity of New Year’s gift baskets until 1995 when I showed them on the Food Network.

The audience of 23 million viewers were shown gifts arranged on a silver tray, packaged in an aluminized ice bucket, and included in an inverted top hat.

The 268 orders placed during the three days following the broadcast filled my bank account, depleted my inventory, and taught me a huge lesson: offer customers New Year’s gift baskets with the same persistence as I offer Christmas gift baskets.

In other words, if you let New Year’s Day baskets slip by, you’re missing a huge part of revenue and also doing your customers a huge disservice by not making them available.

Many customers will order New Year’s baskets for two reasons. They:

  • Didn’t have the budget for all the Christmas gift baskets they wanted.
  • Forgot to send some friends and family members a Christmas gift.

Your mission now is to begin promoting New Year’s baskets on your site, Facebook page, and through direct mail. Other marketing ideas are found in my special holiday gift to you, 20 Top Tips for Gift Basket Makers, which you can download through this link.

Dec

16

Three Ways to Get Those Orders You’re Waiting For

Filed Under Planning | Comments Off

Right now, you’re monitoring the phone and watching your Email to learn if the customers you’ve contacted will soon place gift basket orders.

And it’s not coming.

Is there anything you can do right now to get those customers off the fence and into the order line? Here are three things to do as soon as you can.

1. Call them directly.

No, you’re not pushy. In fact, the call is a service that helps them get this all-important task off their desk. Remember that your customers are busy people. A call from you helps them finalize this one detail. You get the order; they get appreciation from receivers.

2. Participate in Friday’s free shipping day.

I mention this upcoming event in an article at GiftBasketBusiness.com. If you participate, your offer can be contained within a certain geographic location rather than provide free shipping globally. There are other ways to modify this offer, as 18 of my designer clients will pursue. Be sure to let clients know about your one day event.

3. Make them aware of your deadline.

Most of us won’t be making and delivering gift baskets in a Santa-like frenzy, cranking out custom designs and getting them to addresses by Christmas morning. No, we’ve long realized that setting a deadline day encourages early orders or at least orders that arrive before our posted deadlines. Be sure that customers know your schedule.

There’s not much time left to put one or all of these practices in motion. Take action now, because your customers deserve to make family and friends happy with your beautiful gifts made just for them.

IMPORTANT CHANGE: As of January 2011 this newsletter, Basket Biz, will be delivered through a new system rather than through the method you receive it now. Sign up here today for the new, updated newsletter.

What’s the difference between the old and new? The new delivery method of Basket Biz will include videos and audios directly in the newsletter, where the old method will not.

Thank you in advance for your continued subscription to Basket Biz, the free newsletter that connects you with the latest tips, trends, and ideas to make gift baskets and grow a successful business.

Dec

9

How the Holidays Help to Boost Your Business Next Year

Filed Under Competition, Display Techniques | Comments Off

Holidays are not only a beautiful time to enjoy the sights and sounds of the season, it’s also a time to see gift basket designing at its best and most bountiful.

This is when you see how your designs stack up next to the competition.

  • Do they use design elements you’ve not considered? Take note of that styling for future implementation in a manner you see fit.
  • Are their baskets and containers the type you haven’t seen in the past? Make mental note of those vessels to search for them through wholesale sources.
  • Can customers choose their own products for custom designs? Perhaps you can offer the same in some capacity at your store or online.

Consider this season as more than what the media tells you it is. It’s certainly a time to be with family and friends, giving and receiving when seeing each other.

It’s also the perfect season to view the artistry offered by competitors who sell gift baskets so you can set a great plan to capture more sales next year.

LAST CHANCE FOR TONIGHT’S TELESEMINAR: Join me this evening (Thursday) at 8:15 pm EST to hear nine secrets I learned to finally work for myself, making gorgeous gift baskets on a full time basis without depending on outside employers and how you can do the same.

Can’t attend the hour-long event? Sign up, and you’ll receive the audio CD by mail, which is sent out to you the very next day. Click here for more information and to register.

Dec

2

Three Things Every Gift Basket Website Must Have for the Holidays

Filed Under Web Site Design/Maintenance | Comments Off

Is your website all decked out to promote your holiday gift baskets for individual and corporate giving?

Here’s what my designer clients make sure their sites include:

1. One page exclusively for corporate customers.

2. A ‘contact me’ page for prospects who don’t have time to call.

3. A toll-free number that they rent for one month that produces lots of calls and resulting sales.

The more attributes you include on your site to show that you are ready and able to fulfill orders and reward referrals, the more business you’ll encourage, even from people who’ve never ordered from you in the past.

As one designer stated to me by Email:

“The bells and whistles on my site convince visitors that I’m their only source for gift baskets to send to their family and friends as well as recommend to their bosses. Once they call me, multiple orders are a done deal!”

Be sure to do what’s realistically possible to encourage the people who visit you online to order within minutes of arriving on your site. Offering an incentive may do the trick, or perhaps an in-person presentation will work for corporate clients.

What’s on your website this holiday to gain accounts that’s not available during non-holiday months?

THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE: My Website Review and Marketing Plan Review programs will no longer be available as of December 31. These programs, which are designed exclusively for gift basket businesses, are being replaced by new programs that are much higher in price. So, if you’ve been sitting on the fence about having your website or marketing plan checked out by me, now’s the time.

Here’s where to find more information, and be sure to sign up before the December 31 deadline.

Website Review
http://www.giftbasketbusiness.com/web-site-help.htm

Marketing Plan Review
http://www.giftbasketbusiness.com/marketing-plans.htm