Tuesday, October 5, 2010

POD's Can Run Contests Too... But How?


It may seem impossible for Print On Demand Shop Owners (POD) to run contests and or promotions due to the inability of creating promotional and discount codes, but there may be a way to work around this. How, You may be asking? Get clever! Think of ways to use what you CAN do with Print On Demand Shops, to your advantage. Below is a list to get you started.


Ideas For Shop Keepers To Run Promotions/Contest With Their POD Store
:

Limited Time Discount Categories/Sections
: Shop Keepers usually organize their store by categories/sections to make it easier for shoppers to locate a specific product(s). An example of this would be, a category listed just for "Humor T-shirts". Why not create a category that allows customers to receive a certain percentage off? Print On Demand Shop Keepers use a "mark-up" on their merchandise in order to receive a percentage of what they sell. By lowering that "mark-up" percentage on a small amount of merchandise for a limited time, and placing them in an easily recognizable category/section, allows the shop keeper to create a discount section in their store. Ex: 5% Off These 5 Items For ONLY 5 days! This makes it easy and efficient to promote and possibly make more sales during the period of the discount.

Run Fun and Engaging Contests: Shop Keepers can usually receive a discount for purchasing their own products. Use this, to run fun, exciting, and engaging contests, and have one of your merchandise be the prize. An example would be, "Come up with the funniest slogan to put on a t-shirt and win that Tee!" The shop keeper pays for the winning prize via their shop keepers money, at a discount price, to give shoppers the ability to win FREE merchandise! Also, use your social media sites to promote and get the word out about your contests and you should see more followers/friends/likers, plus hopefully some sales.

Team Up: Contact other shop keepers and create a fun contest or promotional offering to your shoppers, as a collective team. Promote each others work by offering a free item/promotion from each others shops. A great example of this just happened recently on Twitter, called the #TeeParty. These fellow shop keepers (some non POD's) got together to create an awesome way to promote their work as a team:
@saucewear, @ThrivingInk, @OthelloInd, @Fresh_Dough@crocktees@GritFX @WolvesVsLions @BeAGirl_Today @AngrySpade

To learn more about the #TeeParty visit sauceweartees.com

There you have it, a few ideas to get you started on creating fun and clever contests and promotions via a Print On Demand Store.

Oh and remember, when promoting these contests to use the referral system your Print On Demand site offers to earn even more extra cash!

Let us know by leaving us a comment below, How do you run contests and promotions via your POD shop?


Written by, Amanda Ryan, Creature Creations, Personalized Photo Gifts

4 comments:

  1. I've done some giveaways before...usually for "sample packs" of small items like stickers and cards. I've done a few larger items and found that the pay-off usually isn't worth the price.

    However, I've thought about a "Team Up" idea that I've been mulling about and wanting to try. I thought about getting together with a few other artists who sell through the same PODS I do and each chipping in to give away one larger item (winners choice) from one of our shops. For instance, if 4 people chipped in $5 then you could offer a $20 giveaway the winner could spend at one of the shops and all four shops would get promoted. Or you could combine smaller items to make a bigger giveaway--for instance offer 4 different tile coasters in similar colors to make an eclectic set to give away.

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  2. Looks like you have a very awesome idea there Gale! Appreciate you taking the time to share it with us! Another great contest idea could be that you offer 5-10% off certain items within your POD shops by marking those particular items down for only a limited time... If you do decide on doing something, we'd love to hear about it :) Thanks Gale - Amanda R.

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  3. I've done some limited time discounts, but have most success with just offering a free tee to a random winner. Would like to offer coupons, but unfortunately not able to do that with my POD so the limited discount is a great alternative. I find that offering contests will then drive traffic to the site for people to see what this free tee is all about. At least that's the idea... and the more exposure is what it's all about in the end.

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  4. Awesome Tobin that you have offered discounts for a limited time... and it would be awesome if some time down the road we could be able, as POD shopkeepers, have the option of using codes (besides the ones offered to everyone through their particular POD). Another great way to get more traffic with re-visiting customers aka loyal customers, is by offering contests through having people join social media sites that you are on, (ex- follow you on twitter, etc.) or use a hashtag on twitter. People will then be geared to seeing what else you have to offer once the contest/discount has finished. You're right exposure, exposure, exposure!

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