New Neighborhood Values Postcard mailings for May.

New Neighborhood Values Postcard  mailings for May.

Fountain Valley: Next up for our Fountain Valley mailing will be 80911, south of Fontaine on either side of Fountain Mesa Rd. Approximately 1560 addresses. Ten cents per address covers postage, layout (if needed), printing and delivery to post office. Target date, around May 7.

Austin Bluffs area: This will be our first Neighborhood Values mailing in 80918. Approximately 1800 addresses at 13 cents per address included layout (if needed), printing, postage and delivery to the post office. Target date, May 15th.

Call Easy Street Designs at 719-390-5080 to reserve your spot, or email EasyStreetOders@yahoo.com.

More details available Here.

Facebook's new search tool - Graph Search

By Ed Duffy

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerburg did a pretty good job of hyping up the "major announcement" that took place today at Facebook headquarters. While market reaction was less than jubilant, the new search tool he announced will add significant value to users and to advertisers.

The search tool called "Graph Search" will allow users to search the Facebook site for public posts, likes, pictures, interests and more, as well as items posted by their Facebook friends. Up to now, when you posted a picture of the Grand Canyon, your post would move its way down the timeline and perhaps after a few days, might never have been seen by anyone again. Now if one of your friends searches Facebook for Grand Canyon, your post will come up. It's actually kind of surprising that it took them this long. Site search is pretty routine for most sites. Perhaps they were trying to work out the best way to collect and monetize search data.

In any case, the new feature will make the site more interesting and useful to users and make posts for things like business pages more valuable by giving them new life. That new product announcement you posted 6 months ago is now much more likely to be viewed by many more people. No doubt advertisers will also be able to make use of new data as well, targeting people who searched for Mexican restaurants in a specific locale for example.

The roll out will be gradual. The feature will become available to a few hundred thousand users immediately, with more added as they work the bugs out. At first the search will focus on people, photos, places and interests. As a business user, it might be wise to share your business posts on your personal page, using comments which include the name of the business, location and product.

With hundreds of millions of users worldwide, the question for Facebook has always been how to monetize all those eyeballs. This new feature, by itself, may not have an immediate huge impact on earnings, but it's another incremental increase in value. They don't necessarily have to hit home runs so long as they keep getting hits. I think this one is a hit.

Advertise to new Fort Carson area residents and feel great about it

The Student2Student program at Fountain/Fort Carson High School in Fountain, Colorado is offering local businesses the opportunity to promote themselves, while getting free distribution and supporting military families.

Click here for more details.

If you're in other parts of the country, you can get more information and find out if there's a Student2Student program in your area Here. 

Easy Street Designs has a number of inexpensive products that would be ideal for this kind of welcome bag, including magnetic business card notepads, calendars, magnets, pens, hacky sacs and more. Of course we can also print up your coupons, flyers, brochures, "important area numbers" postcards or whatever you like. Remember, part of the mission of the program is to make incoming families familiar with what's available in the community, including your business.

Easy Street Designs would like to encourage your participation by offering 10% off your order if it's for the District 8 Welcome goody bags. We'll even arrange to have them pick it up if you like. The district says they go through about 200 or more bags in a school year, so we'll make 200 the minimum quantity for this offer.  Our prices are already pretty low, so for example, given this deal you could get 200 half-page, full color glossy flyers for $23.40 + tax. Add to that free distribution to brand new residents and it's a no brainer.

Easy Street Designs, 109 Kiva Rd, Colorado Springs, CO
M-F 8:30am to 6pm, Sat 10am -2pm
719-390-5080, EasyStreetOrders@yahoo.com

Applied Irrationality

The first in a series of articles examining the marketing aspect of insights presented by Dan Ariely in his book "Predictably Irrational"

Give them something to not choose.

Dan Ariely's research, expressed in his book "Predictably Irrational", reveals some very interesting tendencies in how people, in general, value things.

One is that, given three choices, people will be more likely to choose the middle option.

Another is that in a group of three objects or images, people are more likely to pick one that is similar to, but better than one of the others. For example, if you had three hammers, two red and one blue, one red hammer has a cheap looking handle, the blue and other red hammer have nice looking, comfort grip handles. You can expect the red, nice handled hammer to be the best seller of the three, all else being equal.

We are also vulnerable to the power of suggestion. Baselines can be set for us. For example, you are in a restaurant where the steak costs $45. You may opt for the hamburger, but you see the $14 price tag as a bargain.

So what's the marketing take-away?

Giving people choices is not just good for them, it's good for you. Having more than one variation of an item gives the consumer something upon which to base a comparison.

Without such a basis they might be more comfortable not making a choice at all, since you gave them an ultimatum "it's this hammer or no hammer". You may sell very few low end hammers, but if they increase sales of higher end hammers just by their presence, it's worth the shelf space.

The same dynamic is true on the higher end. Having a high priced, top of the line choice may not result in lots of high end sales, but it just might increase the mid-priced sales.

You have to consider each section of your product or service mix to be an integrated display. Look at total sales at least as closely as individual item sales. To what extent are the products that aren't selling driving sales of those that are? Removing a particular product due to slow turnover may end up costing you sales.

Making the most of it:

It's important to recognize that market behavior is what it is. It's not what you think it is. It's not what you think it should be. It's not about what you think you would do in a given situation. The stats don't lie. Behavioral trends change with the market place. The more people are wary of a particular quirk, the less it expresses itself. What works today may not work so well in 5 years. That's what continuing research is for and that's what keeps it fun.

For more insights into the irrational, visit www.predictablyirrational.com

Time Rich and Cash Poor?

The troubles in the mortgage and real estate markets have spilled over into other parts of the economy. If you've found business is off a bit and you have more time than cash for marketing right now, here are some things to keep in mind.

Two things you DO NOT want to do:
Don't waste time worrying about what you can't afford to do. There are plenty of things you can afford to do and now you've got some time to do them.
Don't try to cut costs by not advertising during slow times. If you "go away" in the minds of consumers, someone else is going to fill that space.

Here are some low cost or no cost marketing activities for the Time Rich and Cash Poor:

Newsletter Sponsorship: Homeowners Association, Neighborhood Watch Groups, Chambers of Commerce and other organizations often put out monthly or quarterly newsletters. Most would be happy to put an ad in for you if you offer to pay for all or part of the printing cost. Depending on the type of newsletter and the size and type of distribution, you can often get advertising for as little as $25. What it lacks in quantity it makes up for in quality. You can create great goodwill by showing your support for even a small organization that someone belongs to.

Get Social: If you haven't been to your networking group in a while, this is a good time to get reacquainted. If you don't belong to any, ask your colleagues to recommend one. Even if they don't result in a slew of new referrals, it's a great place to meet like minded business people and bounce ideas off one another. You can also make more time for social events in general. Get out in the community. Catch up with friends. You don't have to give them the pitch. They know what you do. But the old addage is true "out of sight, out of mind" Get back in sight.

Self Distribution: You could use the excercise anyway right? Instead of paying the ever-rising rates of postage, get yourself some door hangers or flyers and take a walk. Contrary to your reservations, most people are friendly and will give you a pleasant smile if they see you out there working the neighborhood. Those that don't.. well give them a smile anyway and just go on to the next house. If you're not up to it yourself, there are plenty of young entreprenuers who would be glad to have the work at 10 cents/house or so. Just remember, Trust But Verify. Do a driveby afterwards to make sure, and let your helper(s) know in advance that you'll be checking.

Co-op: Partnering with other businesses on things like calendars, memo boards and other handy promotional items not only reduces costs by enabling volume buying, but it greatly increases the distribution. You're not just putting your ad in front of your customers and prosects, but you're getting in front of the other participants customers and prospects as well.

Car Magnets: Make all those trips around town work harder for you. A pair of full color 12 x 18 car magnets can be had for around $89. Compare that to the cost of other advertising media. When you consider the visibility and the duration, the cost is next to nothing per month. What? You don't want to put an ad on your car? Your business paid for that car. The least you can do is let it use the outside of the door. Besides, your already providing free advertising for the car manufacturer and probably the dealer that sold it to you. Don't you deserve as much?

Happy Customers: The best form of marketing still is, and always will be, happy customers. Your marketing efforts will be greatly enhanced by delivering on your promises. They'll be greatly diminished if you don't. Take good care of the customer in front of you first.