Custom printed golf balls are one of the most popular summer Promotional products next to Custom Koozies. Golf season brings you many different opportunities to get your brand in front of clients and prospects. A simple sleeve of custom golf balls will go a long way when presented at your next business meeting.

Today’s imprinting technology has made it possible to print multi colored logos on golf balls very cost effectively, on just about every brand in the market place. You will not find a more appreciated gift to a devoted golfer. Personalized golf balls not only make great business conversation starters, but they are obvious giveaways for tournaments, fund raisers, family reunions and have become very popular wedding favors.

You can hand them out to friends, family, clients and prospects. I even heard of one guy leaving a sleeve on random tee boxes with a message written on the sleeve – “enjoy your round” then his name.

Hand them out to friends or even strangers you may get matched up with on the first tee. You never know who your next major customer can be. You might just be handing out a logo golf ball as a business card to your next client.

You can also imprint your company name or on tees, markers, divot repair tools, towels, golf bags, gold hats, custom golf shirts and even golf shoes to really get your name out on the links.

How many golfers are there in the U.S.?

There are 26.2 million golfers in the United States. 36.7 million Americans are golf participants, defined as anyone ages 5 and above whom either played a round of golf or visited a golf practice facility.

More than 45 percent of golfers (11.9 million) are between the ages of 18 and 39.

Seniors (ages 50 and over) comprise another 33 percent or 8.6 million.

There are 5.76 million female golfers, which is 22 percent of all golfers.

There are 6.1 million junior golfers ages 5-17 who have either played a round of golf or visited a golf practice facility.

Some 16,057 golf facilities are scattered throughout the United States, 11,690 of which were open to the public. A facility is a complex containing at least one golf course.

The states with the most golf facilities are as follows:
Florida (1,073)
California (925)
Texas (857)
Michigan (852)
New York (822)

We have many specials going on Custom Printed Golf Balls – request a quote here.

To Your Success!

Tim Somers
Bizarre Promotions, Inc.

Email Marketing By Zip Code is a powerful way to get your message to the massed cost effectively.  With our database of over 125 million opt-in subscribers you are reach any market in the USA by Zip Code.  Below is our latest eBlast to Wyandotte Michigan (48192) – please take a moment to click through each of our advertisers ads.

You can visit our web site for more details about our Email Marketing By Zip Code program. 

To your success!
Tim Somers
Bizarre Promotions, Inc.

Traffic Voodoo Launch Update…

Jeff Johnson just posted a special Sneak Peek Video on his blog.  If you don’t know who Jeff is…Just trust me on this.  If you want to get more traffic, especially free traffic… then Jeff is the man you want to listen to.

His blog is jam-packed with killer traffic-getting tutorials, and the best part is…They are free.

Watch the videos, download his Traffic-Getting Cheat Sheets and Checklists and learn the secrets to grabbing free traffic from the search engines and also the hottest social media sites like facebook and yotube.

Check out his newest video here (no email is required to watch the video)

Tim Somers
Bizarre Promotions, Inc.

The Southern Wayne Country Regional Chamber (SWCRC) has launched a Viral Awareness Challenge, and Bizarre Promotions, Inc. is one of the Sponsors.  The challenge was set up to grow the SWCRC’s Facebook Fans as well as the Facebook Fans for three other sponsors.

By becoming Facebook Fans of the SWCRC, Arrow Uniform, Bizarre Promotions, Inc. and Market Insights, LLC you will be entered for a chance to win 3 Prizes Valued at $450.

First Prize: 4 tickets to Jerry Seinfeld at the Fox Theater, April 17 at 7pm Suite 14, plus parking tickets at the Fox Parking Structure. Value $385.00 (Arrow Uniform)

Second Prize: Honey Baked Ham. Value $45.00 (Market Insights, LLC)

Third Prize: $25 American Express Gift Card (Bizarre Promotions, Inc.)

The challenge started on March 10, 2010 and will end March 31, 2010.

4 Simple Steps To Enter

Join the SWCRC Facebook Group Page 
Become a Facebook Fan of Arrow Uniform
Become a Facebook Fan of Bizarre Promotions, Inc
Become a Facebook Fan of Market Insights, LLC

To quality you MUST have completed these 4 steps on or before the Drawing date on March 31, 2010.

SWCRC Viral Awareness Challenge.
Join, Learn, And Create Awareness, Win Prizes.
Network in a new way! SWCRC Click & Win

SWCRC Viral Awareness Challenge Official Rules and Regulations
Good Luck!

Tim Somers
Bizarre Promotions, Inc.

Professional Networking Groups – How to Find, Recruit and Retain Quality Members For Referral Groups by Beth Bridges 

Are you the organizer of a professional networking group? New members are important, especially if you want to keep the energy up and the business leads coming. Here are some tested strategies for making sure that you are finding people, recruiting them and getting them to stay involved in your leads club.

Find Them at Networking Events

People who are “good” networkers understand that it takes time to build relationships to the point where business can be done. Look for people at events who seem to be more interested in the other person. Their focus will be how they can help the other person and not how they can immediately qualify them as a prospect or sell them on the spot. These people will already have a philosophy that will contribute to their success in the referral group. It takes time, patience and a giving attitude to be successful in a leads club.

Find them by Referral

Your existing members who are enjoying their result are your best source of referrals for new members. They are probably either well connected or excellent at asking questions (that’s how they bring in many of their leads). They’ll be eager to show off their success with the group. Dedicate a part of each meeting to training your existing members how to find potential new members. Use good referral group language: “A good lead for this group is…” You may have specific categories that you want to fill. Or you might tell you members that a good lead for the group is someone who is a patient and giving networker who is looking to take their business to the next level. Make it a countable lead to bring appropriate (meaning their category is open) guests to the group. Recognize and reward your top referring members and encourage everyone in the group to refer.

Recruiting

You may have been part of the group for several years so you’re familiar with how much business gets done behind the scenes, but a first time guest will have no way of knowing. This may be one of the few times the meeting runs late, the leadership is sloppy, or members had a bad week with hardly any leads. But this will be the first and perhaps only impression your guests will have of your group. It is hard to tell someone that “It’s rarely like this” when 100% of their experience is like that. A well-run, consistent meeting with good strong leads passed is one of your best recruiting tools.

If your group is new or small with few leads being passed, emphasize education in the meeting. Show a new guest that you are working on helping each other learn and that you are all actively seeking to improve your lead-giving. It can be good to be on the ground floor as long as the group is actively working on building their foundation.

Explain every role, every agenda item and every step…every time. Your potential new member will understand the purpose, format and activities much better than if they were given a written sheet to read and follow. Plus it’s good for your existing members to be reminded and refreshed on the rules and agenda.

Make sure that someone is responsible for talking with the potential new member after the meeting. If they feel it is a good fit, don’t let them leave without a strong “close.” Ask them if they liked what they experienced. Would they like to be part of it? Then tell them what it takes to become a member.

Retention

Members will stay as long as they are getting “enough” business. Everyone is going to have a different amount of business which will be satisfactory to them.This can be tricky if people have unrealistic expectations. At the bare minimum, they need to be making back their monetary investment for dues, travel and meals. They also should make enough to pay for their time. If they could spend that same amount of time doing something else that makes them more money, then they should be doing that.

Of course, if everything we did in business was logically and thoughtfully based on the highest return on investment of the time, then no one would ever watch YouTube at work. Logic doesn’t always rule; emotion and feelings do. If your members FEEL connected to the group and if they get some of their emotional or social needs met by the group, they will be more likely to stay, even if they’re not making a great deal of money.

It’s up to you as the leader of the referral group to not only encourage and train members to find and refer business to each other, but also to make sure that members are engaged with the group.

Are you making one of these five networking mistakes that even experienced sales and business people make? Visit Beth’s business networking site to find out (without cost or obligation) if you are.

Looking for more networking tips, tricks, strategies & advice? Visit Beth’s Networking Motivator Blog

Beth is The Networking Motivator ™. She has helped thousands of people network more, network better, and improve their business relationships. As Membership Director of the Clovis Chamber of Commerce, she has attended over 20 networking events a month for the last 7 years. She has networked with thousands of people, encouraging and motivating themselves to get out there and network.

Copyrighted 2010, Beth Bridges   Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Beth_Bridges

Tim Somers
Bizarre Promotions, Inc.

Personalized Golf Balls are an advertising tool that many smaller companies are finding to be an affordable way to expose their brand to corporate executives.  As technology has grown over the years, smaller quantity orders are now being produced, giving smaller businesses the opportunity to use Custom Golf Balls in their marketing mix.

What many of us colder region golfers and marketers do not realize is that Golf is really a year round sport. This gives year round opportunities to use Golf Balls as promotional give-a-ways.  One of the more popular ways to distribute your custom branded golf balls is to focus on Golf Outings, giving a sleeve of three balls to each participant is one of the best ways. Or simply offering a dozen golf balls as a door prize to every event you possible can.

Titleist has discontinued the DT Roll and the DT Carry, replacing them both with the Titleist DT Solo Golf Ball.  The NXT Extreme as been beefed up and replaced with the Titleist NXT.  The popular NXT Tour and Titleist Pro V Golf Balls remain the same and two of the more popular balls available to date.

Click Here To Review Our Full Line Of Custom Personalized Golf Balls.

Tim Somers
Bizarre Promotions, Inc.

A study has been released stating that Facebook has beat out Google as the top source of traffic for major portals like Yahoo, MSN and AOL.  15% of traffic to these sites came from Facebook and MySpace, of which 13% came from Facebook alone.  This brings up a question; does your business really need a website or simply a Facebook Fan Page?

Although I believe you still need both, the future may steer many smaller to mid-sized businesses away from building expensive flashy websites.  If this trend continues the writing may be on the wall, Facebook makes it very easy and cost effective (Free) to get your business online in a matter of minutes.

Facebook recently released some staggering statistics that should make you take notice and get your Facebook Business Fan Page up and running as soon as possible.

- More than 400 million active users
- 50% of our active users log on to Facebook in any given day
- More than 35 million users update their status each day
- More than 60 million status updates posted each day
- More than 3 billion photos uploaded to the site each month
- More than 5 billion pieces of content
  (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photo albums, etc.) shared each week
- More than 3.5 million events created each month
- More than 3 million active Pages on Facebook
- More than 1.5 million local businesses have active Pages on Facebook
- More than 20 million people become fans of Pages each day
- Pages have created more than 5.3 billion fans
- Average user has 130 friends on the site
- Average user sends 8 friend requests per month
- Average user spends more than 55 minutes per day on Facebook
- Average user clicks the Like button on 9 pieces of content each month
- Average user writes 25 comments on Facebook content each month
- Average user becomes a fan of 4 Pages each month
- Average user is invited to 3 events per month
- Average user is a member of 13 groups
- More than 70 translations available on the site
- About 70% of Facebook users are outside the United States
- More than 500,000 active applications currently on Facebook Platform
- More than 250 applications have more than one million monthly active users
- More than 80,000 websites have implemented Facebook Connect since December 2008
- More than 60 million Facebook users engage with Facebook Connect on external websites every month
- There are more than 65 million active users currently accessing Facebook through their mobile devices
- People that use Facebook on their mobile devices are 50% more active on Facebook than non-mobile users
- There are more than 180 mobile operators in 60 countries working to deploy and promote Facebook mobile products
 
There is a bit more to simply throwing up a Facebook Business Fan Page, to get noticed you must promote the page using prominent links on your website and including the Facebook Fan Box on your website and blog.  You should also include a link in your email signature, on your business cards, in your newsletter and pretty much on any offline advertising you do.

Another key factor in building fans is to offer up killer content, helpful tips, techniques and useful information this will lead to a huge following.  Self promotional sales tactics will turn your fans off and your following will dissolve quickly.

Tim Somers
Bizarre Promotions, Inc.

I was blown away earlier this week when I received my very first full page Testimonial in letter format.  This October (2010) I will be celebrating 21 years at the helm of this Bizarre promotional products ship and it just hit me that I have never had a client go to this extreme.

Yes, I have received countless thank you cards and notes, hundreds of emails that were brief and to the point thanking me for doing a great job.  Phone calls, high fives, kudos’ on bulletin boards, and several recommendations have been posted on LinkedIn.  I am grateful and appreciate all of those clients that have taken the time to do so and by no means want to discredit any of them, the words thank you are very gratifying.

Bizarre Promotions has thrived on countless word of mouth referrals, those types of testimonials are without question very powerful and maybe even more powerful then a written one.  But seeing a testimonial first hand in writing with my own eyes really gives me a sense of pride and accomplishment.

Here is the letter –

Tim Somers
Bizarre Promotions, Inc.

For years Tinyurl had been the preferred choice when it came to shortening long URL’s. Over the last couple of years Tinyurl has been pushed a side by Ow.ly and Bit.ly two of the most popular URL link shorteners to date. They will now have to make room for the newly introduced YouTube Video URL shortener.  Google has launched this link shortener exclusively for shortening YouTube Video URL’s.

Many people are concerned about were a shortened URL will lead them, new YouTube URL shortener offers a less suspicious alternative to sending people to your YouTube videos.

A normal YouTube URL looks like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lL6QA23VLyc and can now be shortened by replacing the ‘http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=’ with ‘http://youtu.be/’ which looks like this: http://youtu.be/lL6QA23VLyc  the shorter URL redirects to that particular video.

Tim Somers
Bizarre Promotions, Inc

Promo Items get a boost from PPAI

The Promotional Products Association International (PPAI) Suppliers Committee worked very hard to develop a campaign that conveys a simple but strong message relating to the power and benefits that promotional products offer to end buyers.

The committee has asked industry professionals like Bizarre Promotions, Inc. to help spread this message by speaking with once voice in a unified format.  They have requested that we display the logo below when ever possible.  Repeated exposure will help educate end buyers on how powerful promotional products really are.

End buyers will learn that promotional products allow them to stand out and be noticed with affordable, long-lasting and measurable results that are second to no other advertising medium.

Tim Somers
Bizarre Promotions, Inc.