Follow us on Facebook!

Yup - we did it! We are officially on Facebook!!! As excited as you must be to look at our pictures and read our wall posts, we actually do have more serious intentions with our fun, and new Facebook page. This brings us to a very valid and important question... Why should businesses be on a predominately social platform? It's simple; brand awareness and gorilla marketing! But how do you build and maintain a successful Facebook page that will ultimately bring in more business???

We turned to our friend, the world wide web. There are thousands of opinions and studies done on this very topic. It wasn't hard to learn about the many possibilities we could venture into when it comes to Facebook marketing. It seems that Facebook marketing is much more complicated then traditional online marketing (click, read, purchase). The layers to Facebook marketing are a little thicker, but ultimately lead to the same result. Those layers or "Phases" are as follows:

Awareness, Education, Engagement, Action, and of course Repeat Engagement. Like we said, there are many articles on this subject but after sifting through them all, the following article summed it up best! This article is where we adapted the "5 Phases" of Facebook marketing. Read it for yourself, I think you will agree, makes sense right!

The 5 Phases of The Facebook Sales Funnel

In addition to marketing on a Facebook Fan Page, there is a HUGE added bonus that isn't even in the "5 Phases" listed above. It's a proven fact that Facebook pages increase your Google ranking! Because Facebook (and Twitter) is one of the top sites online, anything linking directly back to your website on these platforms will have a direct effect on your Google ranking, and in most cases get you to the coveted Page 1. To smaller businesses this is huge because who wants to "Pay per Click"!?!? Why not take advantage of the many ways of FREE search engine optimization. Whoa, whoa, whoa... Now we're getting into a whole other topic! We will touch on SEO (Search Engine Optimization) in a later post we promise.

Back to the topic of choice: We now understand the method to the madness and are excited to put our "AP" face (and mark) on Facebook. We hope you learned a little something in this post too. That's what we're here for; helping our Customers promote their business/organization in any way we can!

P.S. Don't forget to FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK! (there is a link on the right of this page)

Trend Alert: Hand Sanitizer Giveaways

Looking for an inexpensive, useful, and trendy product to give away to your customers and colleagues? You heard it here, hand sanitizers are the way to go! These anti-germ, anti-flu, and pocket friendly promotional giveaways are actually rivaling pens as the most popular product to put your logo on.

They come in an array of sizes, colors, and shapes. From spray pens, to spray cards and of course the traditional mini plastic bottle you really can't go wrong. Check out some of our faves!

Poppe Hand Sanitizer Spray
Antibacterial Pocket Sprayer with Clip Cap
Customer Label Sanitizer in a Clip

Prices can range from as little as $0.85 per, up to $3.00 per, depending on your quantities and imprint specs. If your interested in promoting your brand with the latest trend give us a call, we will be happy to show you more options!

Career Day with SAHS

Last week Ayers Promotions participated in the Indian Valley Chamber of Commerce (IVC of C) annual Career Day. Students from Souderton Area High School had signed up to shadow and learn about local businesses and careers that interest them for their future career.

We had the pleasure of meeting and spending the day with two young gentlemen who were interested in graphic design. Graphic design is a very intricate part to our promotional product and apparel business, so it was a "no brainer" for them to come visit us!

During the course of our day we explained the basic operation of our business and in more detail how graphic design plays a huge role in our daily activity. We then sat them down and asked them to draw their own Souderton High School T-shirt. They came up with their own unique and creative design on paper, and then when they were done we asked them to then create it on the screen! After a little assistance from us, they designed their very own Souderton T-shirt using our Adobe Creative Suite (CS3) software.

These two students passed with FLYING colors! We were so impressed with their creativity, we immediately sent the designs to the SAHS School Store coordinator to view. (The SAHS School Store sells apparel and products decorated with Souderton logos for students to purchase and show their school spirit! Ayers Promotions provides these designs and goods for them to sell throughout the school year.) We were then asked to print T-shirts with the designs they created to sell in the SAHS School Store for all students to buy! Talk about a day well spent for these students! They will actually be able to wear their very own design!!

We were so happy with the sucess of this day, we will be partaking in Career Day for years to come! Thank you to the Chamber for letting us be a part of this fantastic day!

"GO GREEN" EARTH DAY SPECIAL

DID YOU KNOW.... the annual cost to US Retailers for paper and plastic bags is estimated at $4 BILLION?

Where do they come up with the money for that? Right out of YOUR pockets in the form of higher prices!

Reusable Shopping Bags are the ANSWER!

- SAVE the environment
- Get your name seen time and time again
- Instill good will with a useful product
- Increase brand-favor with end users. (53% of end-users have a MORE favorable impression of an advertiser after receiving a bag.)

APRIL SPECIAL: Place an order for select reusable shopping bags and receive END column pricing!

EARTH DAY SPECIAL: Place an order for select bags of 200 pieces or more by April 22, 2009 and get pricing even BETTER then END column pricing!!

See more specials of the month online at www.ayerspromotions.com or call us today at 215.822.2366

*Normal set up and shipping charges apply.

Ecuadent 2009

The Blogger has recently returned from Ecuador and wanted to post a blog to let you all know how the trip went. First, with the help of many friends, family, customers and suppliers, I more than doubled my goal for contributions to Ecuadent. Thank you very much. I appreciate your help and generosity and, I'm sure I can say that Ecuadent appreciates it as well. For more info on Ecuadent see www.ecuadent.org. As for the trip, during the 5 days that we were working, we saw more than 1000 kids. We treated 926 of them during our long, sometimes 10-12 hour days. Not only was it a lot of work, it was also an eye opening experience. The level of poverty was something that I will never forget. There were houses with dirt floors, no windows or doors, no running water, etc., etc. We Americans don't realize how good we have it. I am guilty of that as well but, the best part of the trip was hanging with the kids. Although I went there with the understanding that I would be doing sterilization, my job description shifted when the sterilization dude from the previous year showed up. It was a relief for me and very welcome as I wanted to be with the kids. I became known as the "clown doctor". Because I had to wear scrubs, the kids thought I was a doctor too. The clown part comes from the fact that I was juggling, yo-yo'ing and generally being goofy. My job was to get the kids in, get them through triage and then get them to the rooms where they needed to be. As I told the others, I had the best job there. I fought and got beat up by boys with inflatable batons, I danced the girls to their seats and taught a bunch of Ecuadorian kids how to yo-yo. It was awesome!! It was undoubtedly the most personally rewarding thing I have ever done. What I saw and experienced, would cause even the hardest of men to melt. One kid with cerebral palsy came in and I had to carry him off the bus and then from station to station. He came with a dilapidated wheelchair and when we brought in a new one for him, his mom cried, I cried, heck I think everyone was crying at one point or another. It still brings tears to my eyes when I think of it. If you haven't volunteered your time, I would encourage you to do so. We all have skills that can be passed and taught to others and, I guarantee, it will definitely be rewarding and surely will put a smile on your face as well as those you are passing it to. I can't wait to go back next year.
-Rob

Ayers Promotions is "Going Green" in 2009!

With the start of 2009, Ayers Promotions has decided to join the revolution and focus our efforts on "GOING GREEN". We are committed to energy conservation and to the reduction of waste. Throughout the year, we will be promoting many of our eco-friendly, green promotional products in hopes that you join with us in this ever so important subject! Each month, stay tuned for our featured "GO GREEN" product. For the month of February, our "GO GREEN" product is reusable water bottles.

Check out this website, we found it's cold hard facts enough of a dose to shock anyone into seeing why "GOING GREEN" is so important! WEBECOIST

Taking a Blogging Break

Hey y'all,
For those of you who don't know it, I am outta here on Wednesday to head to Ecuador, South America to take part in a dental/medical mission with Ecuadent (for more info see http://www.ecuadent.org/). I am very much looking forward to this adventure and to helping out the team in any way that I can. To those of you that contributed and helped me more than double my goal, I thank you for your extreme generosity. For those of you that still wish to donate on my behalf, or not even, you can do it through their website and can also get the address from the site as well. In order to prepare, last week I underwent extensive training (OK, maybe it wasn't so extensive) so that I can do the sterilization process while I am there. I'd also like to thank the staff at Weaver, Reckner, Reinhart in Souderton for their time in training me as well as the donations that they so graciously passed on to me. When in Ecuador, we will be heading to the province of Esmeraldes and expect to see, in total, around 800+ kids while we are there. Cleft pallet and other dental issues are prevalent due to the lack of fluoride and access to all we have here in the states. I am sure that it will be a rewarding and definitely, eye opening experience. On a different note, Ayers Promotions is continuing our push to Go Green!! If you've seen my previous blog, Go Green, you have read some interesting things about just one issue facing us, plastic water bottles. Well now we are taking steps to go to the next level and beyond. Our marketing department has come up with some things that we will be implementing here at the showroom so that we are doing our part and has also come up with a plan to raise awareness so that we can all do our part for the good of the whole. Keep a look out for the next AP blog and expect for me to be taking a blogging break while I am away. I will be sure to blog about the trip when I return. The best to you all.
-Rob