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.

Bizarre Promotions has been a distributor for the Norwood Line for many years now. I am very excited about Norwood announcing they now have over 635 items included in their “Need It Now” line of Free 24 Hour Rush Service Items.

There are a few guidelines you must meet to quality for this amazing FREE Rush service, but in most cases you can submit an order today and the order will ship out the very next business day.

Check Out The Viral Catalog Here

To Your Success!

Tim Somers
Bizarre Promotions, Inc.

Free 24-Hour Rush Service Guidelines•”Need it Now – FREE 24-Hour Rush Service” must be clearly marked on your order.
•To qualify for the FREE 24-Hour Rush Service, your complete order and production-ready artwork must be received by 4PM EST to ship out the next business day.
•Artwork must be production ready. The file must be received at the same time as the order in Adobe Illustrator format.
•Electronic art must be accompanied by a hard copy for layout verification.
•1-color imprint in 1-location only, except for magnets that are 4-Color Process Digital Printing.
•No proof or production sample approval available.
•Catalog quantities only – less than minimums are not available – subject to inventory availability.
•Orders must ship via UPS, but can be sent any method of UPS offers: Ground, 3-Day Select, 2nd Day Air, Next Day Air, etc.
•Case lot quantities only – no drop shipments.
•Customer account must be in good standing.
•Any order clarification will disqualify the order from 24-Hour Rush Service.
•The use of licensed artwork requires a written release. Artwork when submitted is assumed to be in full compliance with laws governing copyrights, trademarks, etc. We are not responsible for typographical errors incorporated in submitted artwork. Factory reserves the right to make slight alterations in copy and logos to adapt to imprinting processes.

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.

I have been using Send Out Cards for just over two years now.  I often wonder what if I would have had this amazing business tool throughout my entire 20 years in business.  Were would  Bizarre Promotions be today if I had only send out a few greeting cards to clients and prospects alike on a regular basis.  That could very well be the million dollar question.

It’s Said That Customers Leave Because They Don’t Feel Appreciated.

Studies show the #1 reason customers stop doing business with a company is “perceived indifference,” meaning they feel taken for granted and neglected.  The numbers are staggering 68% of customers that leave did so because they didn’t feel the love.

Like most, I always had good intentions of sending thank you cards to my clients, but would get busy with then next project and simply not take the time to do this much needed task.  I even had greeting cards printed or even post cards printed with the same generate “Thank You” all with the same generic picture.  All I had to do is address it, stamp it and drop it in the mail box and I didn’t do it 75% of the time.

In regards to prospecting, statistics show most sales take at the very least 5 contacts or exposures – in fact 80% of sales are made on the fifth contact.  Most sales people never make it to number 5, most stop trying after the second failed attempt.  And in regards to trade show follow up nearly 65% of all leads are NEVER contacted, not even once.  I know I am guilty of this.

So why is this such a big problem?  We as sales people and or business owners know what it takes to grow a business, follow up, persistence and thanking those that make you and your business exist are all vital ingredients.  My “Why” is lack of a system, an automated system that does the heavy work for me? 

Since becoming a Send Out Cards distributor (not just a customer) I am able to follow up will all my trade show leads, thank my customers, send birthday cards, holiday cards and simple thinking of you cards. This system is the automation that I needed to fill the void I had struggled with for all these years.

One of the main features that sold me was the ability to set it and forget it by creating campaigns that will automatically send out cards when ever you want them to go out.  One of my favorite campaigns is my “Thank You” campaign.  The campaign consists of 3 greeting cards and 2 post cards.  First it sends out a thank you card, thanking the recipient for their business.  Then 30 days later post card featuring a promotional product tip hits their mail box.  Then 45 days later a motivational greeting cards arrives, 6 months out and 1 year out a reminder to reorder and or visit our website to check out the latest specials.  My customers are well worth the incredible low $4.36 it costs me to send these five exposures out (that’s $4.36 total).

Remember if you are not thanking your customers somebody else is ready and willing to thank them.

If you’d like to send out a few greeting cards on me using Send Out Cards contact me here and I will walk you through the process in about 15 minutes.

To Your Success!

Tim Somers
Bizarre Promotions, Inc.

As I mentioned in my Surviving 2010 and Beyond post, I will be highlighting some back to basics non traditional marketing tip and strategies to help your business stand out from the crowd.

Risky Business – consumers love scandals and controversy, so when brainstorming your next marketing campaign consider walking the fine line of etiquette.  Be careful though launching an edgy campaign can be risky business, your campaign could blow up in your face having a negative effect on your company.

Here is an example of a very successful edgy campaign.

A few years back a marketing campaign was launched to gain New York City residents attention and support.  The jaw dropping campaign was a huge success, in its effort to get NYC residents much needed support in the fight against the public restroom shortage. 

The campaign: Cardboard people were placed all around the city, to highlight the areas that needed a public restroom. 

Ok so you might think what is the big deal? – well the Cardboard people were very life like and depicted an act that should be only seen behind the closed doors of a restroom. Toilet Seat trash can covers were also made and put on various trash cans also highlighting the website url.  As you can see in the pictures this campaign was very effective in its jaw dropping goal.

Tim Somers
Bizarre Promotions, Inc.

2009 was a challenging year for most small businesses to say the least.  Many did not fare well and had to close their doors, while others are still holding on knowing that 2010 will be a make or break it year for their business.

You Can Survive and Be More Successful In 2010 – PERIOD!

Survival is going to take some effort; sitting back waiting for things to get better is not the answer.  Yes, I am going there…you are going to have to “think outside the box”.  There you go I said it…two statements I am sick and tired of hearing is “In This Economy” and “Think Outside The Box”.  As much as I hate to admit it these two statements are really one statement in regards to surviving in 2010.

“In This Economy” you are going to have to “Think Outside The Box” to survive.

In these “interesting” times your company will need to do some none traditional marketing that makes you stand out from the crowd.  The same old same old is just not going to stack up in this day and age.

The Paper Airplane Video hits it right on the head – by doing something different you will get better results than those practicing the same approach they have year after year.

Over the next few weeks I will be posting some non traditional marketing tips that you can put in place to make 2010 a record breaking year for you and your business.

Tim Somers
Bizarre Promotions, Inc.

Claims have been made that consumers get exposed to thousands of advertisements through various different mediums each and every day.  I personally think it is only in the hundreds but have no data to back this up.

Either way consumers get bombarded with all kinds of marketing messages everyday.  To get noticed your message needs to be focused with a holy cow I need that now impact.  As mentioned in my Marketing Misconceptions Are Dangerous post you have to make it all about your targeted audience.

Consumers block out most of the daily marketing messages they hear because it’s the same hype over and over again, day in and day out.  We all know them…Free Estimates, Money Back Guarantee and the list goes on and on.

George Carlin was a brilliant but edgy successful comedian and until I came across his Advertising Lullaby and had no idea what a successful business man and advertising guru he really was.

Below you will Mr. Carlin’s Advertising Lullaby lyrics that highlight pretty much every gimmick and phase that you as a marketer should stay away from.

You can also jump over to YouTube and search George Carlin Advertising Lullaby to see George give you this lesson live. (BE WARNED THIS IS GEORGE CARLIN AT HIS BEST AND THE LANGUAGE AT THE END IS RATED “F”)

ADVERTISING LULLABY LYRICS (never use these in your advertisements).

Quality, value, style, service, selection, convenience, economy, savings, performance, experience, hospitality, low rates, friendly service, name brands, easy terms, affordable prices, money-back guarantee.

Free installation, free admission, free appraisal, free alterations, free delivery, free estimates, free home trial, and free parking.

No cash? No problem! No kidding! No fuss, No muss,
No risk, no obligation, no red tape, no down payment,
No entry fee, no hidden charges, no purchase necessary,
No one will call on you, no payments or interest till September.

Limited time only, though, so act now, order today, send no money,
Offer good while supplies last, two to a customer, each item sold separately,
Batteries not included, mileage may vary, all sales are final,
Allow six weeks for delivery, some items not available,
Some assembly required, some restrictions may apply.

So come on in for a free demonstration and a free consultation with our friendly, professional staff. Our experienced and knowledgeable sales representatives will help you make a selection that’s just right for you and just right for your budget.

And say, don’t forget to pick up your free gift: a classic deluxe custom designer luxury prestige high-quality premium select gourmet pocket pencil sharpener. Yours for the asking, no purchase necessary. It’s our way of saying thank you.

And if you act now, we’ll include an extra added free complimentary bonus gift at no cost to you: a classic deluxe custom designer luxury prestige high-quality premium select gourmet combination key ring, magnifying glass, and garden hose, in a genuine imitation leather-style carrying case with authentic vinyl trim. Yours for the asking, no purchase necessary. It’s our way of saying thank you.

Actually, it’s our way of saying…the rest is not PG Rated and you will have to check out on your own.

Your marketing message must matter, be different and answer the consumers question; “What’s In It For Me”?

Tim Somers
Bizarre Promotions, Inc.

The Advertising Specialty Institute® announced the results of a study showing that the end-buyer recognizes promotional products as the most effective medium among all advertising next to the Internet.

When it comes to their Return of Investment (ROI) the study shows that 48% of those that participated in the study indicated that promotional products will deliver a positive ROI and plan to spend more this year than they had in years past.

Larry Basinait, executive director of research services at the Advertising Specialty Institute said “First, buyers clearly see the value of promotional products. Second, distributors who train their salespeople to be creative partners to their clients are in hot demand right now. Most buyers are looking for smart ideas, rather than simply the lowest-priced items.”

The study concludes that educated buyers will increase their sales if they know how to use promotional products as an advertising vehicle verses just a freebie to give a way at a tradeshow.

Tim Somers
Bizarre Promotions, Inc.

The fourth quarter is here and yes many businesses are struggling, and the last thing on their mind is spending money.  While the promotional products industry has taken a hit like most industries the importance of keeping your name in front of your clients and prospects is more important now than ever.

Keeping your current clients is crucial to surviving the economic storm we have been hit with.  Corporate Gifts are an excellent way of maintaining a good relationship with your customers.  Yes you need to provide quality products and outstanding service with sharp prices, but it’s not enough.  You need to show your customers that they are a vital necessity to your company’s survival and that you have taken the time to get them a gift and spend money on them as well.

Your company can easily stand the test of this bad economy if you successfully maintain good relationships with your client base.  Corporate Gifts with your company logo never fail to achieve this task.  There are over 750,000 items that can be imprinted with your company logo with an item for every budget.

Two for One

A Corporate Gift with your logo services two purposes, 1. You are showing your customers you care and appreciate their business. 2. Your logo or brand will get exposure over and over again.

Statics show that 68% of customers that leave and or never do business with a company again, left because they did not feel appreciated.  So DO NOT lose your customers this year because you didn’t give them a gift of appreciation.

Tim Somers
Bizarre Promotions, Inc.
Marketing and Advertising Solutions To Help Your Business Grow.