This weekend my oldest daughter and I went undercover to promote my wedding magazine, Wedding Bliss. Yes, I'm not proud of it, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do to get your name out there. I can hear my grandma turning in her grave right now wondering, What in heaven's sake did you do, Teresa?!
Ok, it wasn't all that bad. We just pretended that Jessica was getting married next year so we could crash two bridal expos to promote my magazine. One was Saturday and the other on Sunday. We paid, so we really didn't crash them, but we did have alterior motives.
We brought copies of my magazine, hidden in a big purse. My plan was to go through the whole place and collect business cards from the vendors, get the free stuff (hey, get off my back, I did pay, ok?) and then on the way out, hand out the magazines to unsuspecting brides and run like hell out the door before the bridal expo police came after us.
So, on our first expo day, (Sat) it went well and I actually got up some nerve to mention my magazine to some vendors and offered some free advertising and I even saw the DJ that did my wedding six years ago who I didn't remember, but he had remembered me! That was some flattery(yes, I will take anything). My daughter kind of got caught up in the whole wedding thing after awhile and started saying that she wanted to get married, so I did have to slap her back to reality a couple of times.
When we got through all the vendors, it was time to pass out the magazines. I took out the magazines and I quickly passed them out to the brides while we headed towards the exit. All the while, my heart pumping so hard, it felt like it was going to jump out of my chest. We finally got to the front door and I'm all like Run! and I take off while my daughter is laughing at me, calling me a dork.
On Sunday, I decided to take a different approach. I decided that this time, I would not pass out and magazines and just talk to the vendors and tell them how wonderful they are and could we please network so I do not jump off a cliff out of depression because nobody knows about my magazine?
We were actually signed up for the early bird special, so we got to get free wine and hors d'oeuvres. So, we ate and drank the wine first and then we hit the vendor's booths. Everyone was great after the initial surprise of me bombarding them with a sales pitch at a bridal expo. I even saw my DJ buddy again who waved and yelled, Hi Tess! I had one vendor tell me that they would be happy to display my magazine in their studio and I could even bring in a magazine rack. (NOTE TO SELF: Where the hell do you get magazine racks??)
So, I didn't have to run away at Sunday's expo and I got a crap load of free stuff, including about a million pens, and I decided that I will definately be renting a booth next year. Now, get off my back and quit making me feel guilty already! Wait. Maybe that's my conscious yelling at me...
Sunday, September 20, 2009
My name is Bond-James Bond.
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11 comments:
That was funny! Kind of like me when I was running a daycare out of my home. I had business cards and everything. I went to a an expo for Childcare and passed them out to everyone! I felt like the I was going to get caught too!
Glad that it worked out for you!
YAY! The weekend sounded very productive. You are such a dynamo.
Good for you! You gotta do what you gotta do, and good for you for getting it done!
Hey, when you have a small business and your budget is thinner than dental floss, you gotta do what you gotta do. I think it's called geurilla marketing, maybe? Regardless, good for you!!
Oh my gosh this was hilarious. Hope you got some press and glad that the expo police didn't catch you.
Good on you - I think going undercover sounds rather exciting and, hey it worked! You now know its a suitable venue for next year, so really you were scouting ;)
gotta love that free stuff :P
Hope you got lots of potential advertisers signed up. Is your magazine a monthly? Maybe you could consider making it a bi-monthly or even a quarterly...? This way, you can always say that the magazine potentially has a longer "shelf-life." Try to offer copies to wedding planners, wedding shops, etc. This way, you can list these down as places where your magazine is distributed and very "targeted" as far as audience for your potential advertisers. :)
Good for you for being aggressive and marketing yourself!
I'm glad it worked out for you.
Smart thinking! So glad it worked out. I think that people know how hard it is for new businesses or any businesses that they are more open to networking than ever before. I just saw a link for magazine racks that were meant for home furniture, but I can't think of the store. Try to search for it. They weren't that expensive too. Good luck!
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