Category Archives: Marketing

Decorative Concrete Engraving and the 4th of July

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Of course you are marketing your business in the Independence Day Parades. Well, why not?

You are worth a slot on the float list and there is still time to get ready. Even Chevy Trucks and This Old House give mention to parades and parade floats.

The quick and easy parade float includes YOU,  your best walking shoes, a T-Shirt with your Company name and phone number on it (or a sign pinned to your shirt — front and back), and a couple HUGE bags of wrapped candy that you toss to kids along the way.

You could pull your Mongoose around in the kids’ little Red Flyer wagon.

Or get in gear and decorate your truck. Just don’t forget the CANDY. And take your kids, or borrow some.

If you absolutely REFUSE to be a self-contained parade float, you could donate a generous gift card to one of the float theme winners. Be on hand when it is awarded to take advantage of a photo-op with the local paper. If you can’t get together with the paper, be on hand with your own camera, then post the photo on your Facebook page. Present the gift card in a nice greeting card and envelope, signed by your company, of course.

There are other celebration festivities that you SHOULD not miss with your little deck of gift cards. You know the community will have a Miss Parade, maybe even a Little Miss Parade chosen at every event, Independence Day and others. You can get your name mentioned over and over through the events by simply donating a gift card — the larger the amount, the more mention you can expect. But, definitely, getting on the donor list with even a $25 gift card for anything from book stores, clothing stores, restaurants, I-tunes, is good for you.

Donor lists are often acknowledged in local print media (unique advertising), some broadcasting media and on sponsoring websites. You can even add a blurb to all of your internet marketing — website, social media, email marketing mentioning that you were one of the sponsors/donors for the event.

Somewhere in the area that you serve with decorative concrete engraving there is an event with a parade. They don’t charge you to advertise yourself in the parade. If you follow the parade’s theme on your parade float, you may even win a prize. Of course, the best prize is the one that involves embedding yourself and your business in the minds of the people viewing the parade. That is always a winner for you.

Get ready and have a wonderful 4th of July while you are at it.

 

Seven Reasons to Farm the Farmers’ Market for an Autumn Harvest of Decorative Concrete

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As produce is beginning to show up on the summer scene, Farmers’ Markets are kicking into high gear across the country.

What’s nice about using the Farmers’ Market as a marketing venue?

  1. You don’t have to plan or commit months in advance to get a spot as you would for a home show
  2. The spaces are usually quite economical
  3. You get to market to all kinds of people, both shoppers and other vendors, in a relaxed, but buying mood
  4. You will be unique among the garden produce, small animals, poultry, crafts, food (lots of baked goods) and other services who see the venue as a place to contact people.
  5. The markets are usually one day a week
  6. They are open air, but early in the morning before heat makes brains shut down.
  7. You get an early shot at some good produce and maybe a chicken or bunny or puppy or free kitten for your own yard.

    Keep your booth simple and appealing. Bring a lawn chair and umbrella if you aren’t in a park with trees. Be ready to visit with passers-by.  Personal Marketing at the Farmers’ Market is a ‘tested’ method.

    If you make small things like stepping stones, this is a good place to show them off and maybe sell some. Set out your tri-fold brochures; they’ll get picked up.  Print out a few pages of the Idea Book and frame them so people can see what you do.

    Create a guest book that permits people to give you their contact information. You can follow-up with a note or email to help the business relationship grow into business or referrals. Keep it casual and summer-cool.

    Some of the people you contact won’t make a decision this season. By staying in soft contact with them, you will be on their mind in the winter which is fine for finishing their indoor concrete. Many patios and driveways have been engraved after a homeowner had a basement floor beautified.

    Go farming at the Farmer’s Market — grow some decorative concrete engraving business.

    Swinging with MailChimp — Email Marketing for Decorative Concrete

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    Using Email Marketing for Decorative Concrete

    Engrave-A-Crete’s Discovery and Training Seminar includes a fast-paced, useful, guerrilla marketing session. The intention is to demonstrate options that the students can readily apply to their decorative concrete engraving marketing program. The emphasis of the first session is on Internet marketing — your next customer is very likely going to look for you using a smart phone. Almost certainly, they will check up and follow through with you using their main computer.

    Recently, Paul added an email marketing component to the other ideas he gives students. He suggested starting with MailChimp.com. I had always used a different service; now I’m intrigued and want to test this product/service. I learned why MailChimp will work well for marketing decorative concrete engraving.

    • The service is free for 1000 names and up to 12,000 emails per month. Those numbers are more than ample for beginning engravers.
    • Google recommends MailChimp and it is easy to add to a gmail (google-email) address. However, you don’t have to have a gmail account to use MailChimp. Just use an email address that you promise to check.
    • MailChimp has taken a firm stance about any appearance of spamming, to the point of being extremely picky about the sort of email business they accept. That position leads to a very high deliverability rate.

    You already know you need a website and you want to give visitors an opportunity to contact you so they will become your customers. Having a form on your Contact Us page lets them leave their contact information. MailChimp will give you code to add to your website so a nice form shows up on the Contact Us page.  Now you can send them an email on a regular basis telling about your business. Tell them when you add new tools, learn a new decorative concrete technique or why your favorite technique is your favorite.

    MailChimp will let you do all of that with a plain email or an attractive template. They have a convenient and easy to understand dashboard where you choose all of the extras you want. Writing your message is like any other email. The recommendations are set up to help you succeed. There is help on the website to answer your questions, plus some tutorial videos.

    Reasons why you should consider email as your first line of communication with your prospective customers:

    1. Going around to all of their houses isn’t practical.
    2. If you want to telephone them, when is the right time to make a call they will welcome?
    3. Mailing them a letter or post card is expensive to do very often.
    4. Email marketing is a useful tool that lets you contact them, invites them to respond to you.
    5. Email can be used as you and the customer need it.
      • You can build the email and schedule the send time.
      • They can see it and remember you, mark it to read later, read it now, print it, remember you, delete it, remember you.
    6. Your investment in email marketing is time and attention in a consistent manner that is convenient for your customer.

    Two things to swing on– Email marketing for your decorative concrete business, and MailChimp as the tool to accomplish that marketing task.  If you have questions about how email marketing can work for decorative concrete, give us a call or email us.

    Google Alerts | A Simple Tool to Track Your Decorative Concrete Market

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    When you want ideas to blog about (you do have a blog don’t you?), you shouldn’t forget that you are writing for your audience, and the most effective content is content that enters into the conversation that your audience is already having.

    How do you do that?

    The web is huge, and there’s way more information to wade through than you would ever have time to wade through in a lifetime.

    Thankfully, Google has a tool that’ll help.

    Google Alerts is a service Google provides which allows you to receive an email whenever a particular word or phrase is indexed by the Google search engine.

    Simply go to the Google alerts page and fill out the short form with the keyword or phrase, such as “concrete stain,” choose what type of content you want a result from, how often you want Google to alert you, the quality of result you want, and where you want Google to send the results (your email).

    You don’t even need a free Google account to take advantage of this service, although, if you do have a Google account, you have a lot more options to manage the various alerts you choose to have sent to you.

    Once you start receiving alerts, pick and choose the best and most interesting issues, and write a short article on your blog about how your company addresses the issue raised.

    This is the most efficient way to keep “your ear to the ground” of the web and enter the conversation that people are already having.

    5 Reasons You Should Consider Decorative Concrete Engraving For Your Next Remodelling Project

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    Concrete is everywhere, and chances are, if you live in a constructed structure that isn’t a tent or a grass hut, concrete is part of that structure. Concrete usually comes from the mixing plant in some shade of gray, but it doesn’t have to stay that way.

    In fact, if Engrave-A-Crete is about one thing, it’s about saving the world from plain, dull, boring, gray concrete.

    Unfortunately, too many people don’t consider what can be done with concrete when they are planning a remodeling job. They look at the concrete as merely a building medium and not a canvas for personal expression, and they either cover it up with carpet, or tile and forget about it.

    Well, you don’t have to cover it up, and you don’t have to live with flat, cold, bare, gray, dull, boring, utilitarian, indecisive, unmoving, politically moderate concrete.

    Here are 5 reasons to consider decorative concrete staining and engraving for your next remodeling job.

    It Looks Amazing

    Decorative concrete staining and engraving looks beautiful, and you are limited only by your own imagination. With 30 beautiful Water Reducible Concentrate colors and 12 rich Reactive Acid Chemical colors from Concrete Resurrection, your concrete doesn’t have to stay gray. The Bello Imperial Flooring system offers a whole other level of color and design as an option as well.

    Add some real dimension to your floors with the concrete engraving tools from Engrave-A-Crete and you don’t have to settle for flat either. You can have a tile, brick, cobblestone, slate or even flagstone design cut into the concrete. Use a template with the KaleidoCrete or Blast Force system to cut any geometric or custom design you want into your floor.

    What’s more, every decorative concrete install is a custom job – anyone on your block could purchase the same carpet, tile or wood planking and have their flooring look like everyone else’s flooring, but your decorative concrete floor design is uniquely yours.

    Functional

    Concrete is incredibly versatile and resilient, which is why it’s used in every aspect of building from floors, to walls, to ceilings, to counter tops, and even furniture.

    It radiates heat evenly, making it an adequate building material for regulating ambient temperature.

    Concrete can be, and is, used everywhere and goes with everything… even china shops… and it can be decorated accordingly.

    You can stain and engrave a dining room floor to look opulent, a warehouse floor to look industrial, a kitchen floor to look complimentary with the rest of the house, or a kids bedroom floor to be bright and playful.

    The man-cave can be stained with the caveman’s team colors and the team logo can be engraved in the floor.

    Decorative concrete engraving can fulfill any aesthetic need you have.

    Economical

    Decorative concrete staining and engraving can be installed for anywhere from $6 – $11 per square foot.

    That makes it competitive with any other building material, and cheaper than most.

    Easy To Maintain

    Once sealed, stained and engraved, concrete will last for many many moons. It cleans very easily and spills are quickly wiped up without a trace left behind.

    Simple ongoing maintenance would be a reapplication of sealer once a year, and your concrete floor and design should last as long as you do.

    Environmentally Friendly

    Decorative concrete staining and engraving is environmentally friendly in more ways than one.

    It uses existing materials, so there is no waste of existing concrete flooring. It is economical so it wastes no extra dollars. It requires less maintenance than other types of flooring, so there is no extra time or materials wasted in maintaining the floor.

    Not to mention the materials manufactured by Concrete Resurrection are easy on the ecological environment and many carry the Decorative Concrete Professionals Green Certified seal of approval.

    So there you have it, 5 good reasons why you should consider decorative concrete staining and engraving on your next remodeling project.

    For ideas on both interior and exterior concrete surfaces, be sure to have a look at the Engrave-A-Crete Idea Book available as a free pdf download at http://engraveacrete.com/ideabook.