Contest entry details below.

Become a Powertex Group Fan on Facebook, or a Follower on Twitter, and become eligible to win $500 in custom goods and apparel.

Follow Powertex Group on Facebook or Twitter and get two chances to win $500 in customized promotional products for you or your organization! Powertex Group stepped into the world of social media in 2009, and we have seen serious growth in our ability to communicate with our client base, and in our ability to let our customers know about new developments. To celebrate our social media success, we have decided to give away $1000 in total prizes to our social media followers. If you are already a follower, do not fret. Current followers are automatically eligible for this contest.

Entry is simple. Everyone has two chances to win! We will be giving away one $500 prize to our Twitter audience, and one $500 prize to our Facebook fans. Simply become a follower of us on Twitter, or become a fan of our Facebook fan page, and you’ve entered for the contest. Enter on both to double your odds!

How to enter:

Register on Twitter here.

Twitter – Visit http://twitter.com/powertexgroup. Make sure you are logged in with your Twitter account. Once logged in, click on the “Follow” button to complete your entry.

Register on Facebook here.

Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/pages/Powertex-Group/101986105635. Make sure you are logged in with your Facebook account. Once logged in, click on the “Become a Fan” button to complete your entry.

Share with Your Friends - If you are reading the contest details on http://blog.powertexgroup.com, then sharing is easy. Simply scroll down right side of the page, and roll over the “+ more ways to share” button. Once the menu appears, you can share this special offer via email, Twitter, Facebook, or any of 50 other platforms. There is a simple user interface that will guide you through each.

Winners will be announced on October 31^st, 2009. Winners will be required to complete a short verification process to ensure their identity. The contest rules and regulations are as follows:

Contest Rules, Terms and Conditions:

• You must be 18 years of age or older to enter. An individual may register on BOTH Twitter and Facebook, but the contest rules only allow for two entries per person (once on Twitter, and once on Facebook). Companies and organizations may register multiple persons.
• A total of two winners (one from Facebook, and one from Twitter) will be chosen randomly from the list of registered subscribers on Oct 31^st, 2009. Winner chosen randomly from all followers (previously subscribed individuals automatically eligible for contest).
• Two winners will select customized promotional products up to $500 in value from the entirety of Powertex Group’s catalog. $500 Prize level includes all art time, production time, shipping and customization charges for merchandise. In the event that the winner’s order should exceed $500, due to cost of customizations or item minimum quantities, the client will be responsible for the balance beyond $500.
• Prize must be collected by Jan 1^st, 2010 or will be considered void.
• Odds of winning depend on the number of entries collected throughout the contest.
• The winners will be announced on Twitter and Facebook, and will be contacted individually as each platform allows. The contest winners will have to contact Powertex Group either via email or telephone to claim their prize (instructions will be provided at contest close). To prevent contest fraud, there will be a simple verification process each winner will have to follow to confirm their identities as the true account holders. Please provide a working phone number or email in order to be contacted (please do not post this information directly on Facebook and/or Twitter, as this information is public) when claiming your prize. Entrant named on winning entry will be considered winner. Acceptance of prize constitutes permission to use winner’s name and supplied photo/image on marketing materials.
• Prizes are non-transferable, must (where applicable) be used on the dates specified and may not be redeemed for cash
• Winners are responsible for any applicable state, local, and federal taxes.
• Contest valid only within the United States (Including Hawaii and Alaska) and Canada.
• All contestants release from, and indemnify Powertex Group against, all liability, cost, loss or expense arising out of acceptance of any prize/s or participation in this contest including (but not limited to) personal injury and damage to property, and whether direct of consequential, foreseeable, due to some negligent act or omission or otherwise.
• We reserve the right to cancel, modify or suspend this contest at any time without notice.
• In an effort to keep the contest fair, we reserve the right to immediately disqualify any individuals suspected of employing methods to tamper with, or otherwise manipulate the contest results.
• Contest value not applicable to previous, already completed or in-process orders.
• Employees of promotional product distributors, promotional product consultants, or suppliers of ASI products and all ASI Affiliates are not eligible to participate in this contest.
• Only one prize per individual. Individuals not eligible to win twice.
• Void where prohibited by law.

Three steps that will help you to market and grow your licensed promotional marketing program.

Your sourcing, production, merchandising, warehousing, distribution, warehousing, and customer support are all set up and ready to go. You’ve completed your e-commerce online store and launched it. So now what? Well you should already have been working on building a marketing campaign to build your brand and grow your audience. It’s better to plan out your marketing plan from the very beginning stages of any project. However, if you haven’t started already, rest assured it’s never too late to start.

Successfully building a campaign starts with three key phases: 1. Take advantage of your existing strengths 2. Grow your audience and extend your reach 3. Nurture existing customers. These three rules can be applied to just about any situation or program model, and are pretty much universal. Unfortunately, many programs concentrate on one or even two of these phases while missing out on a major slice of the promotional pie.

Existing Newsletters are a great place to start advertising

1. Take advantage of your existing strengths:
This is almost always the best place to start marketing, as it is usually the path of least resistance. Do you have something that is already successful such as a newsletter or a high traffic home page? Don’t be afraid to piggy back your new program advertising onto existing publications or web pages. Look at existing partnerships and cross-promotion opportunities. If you have a partner brand or supporting organization, approach them with a cross-promotion marketing program. If you are a successful company, you must be doing something right already, so why not make it work for you in getting the word out about your new program?

However you choose to promote your program, always remember that your existing audience is your most valuable audience. It’s sometimes hard to keep sight of the fact that, in most industries, your existing customers are almost always your highest opportunity targets. You know they are interested in what you have to offer, and you know they are interested in hearing what you have to say. Brand loyalty never comes from first-time customers, so don’t miss out on the opportunity you already have.

Promotional emails are one way to entice new customers

2. Grow your audience and extend your reach:
The next thing you need to do is to grow you audience. There are a plethora of marketing methods available to help you extend your reach, and how you go about it will really depend on your organization and what your product or service is. Whatever you do, be sure to take advantage of the most cost-effective marketing avenues. Email marketing, social media (such as Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook), industry press releases, blogs and RSS feeds, search engine optimization, cross branding and working with fan-sites are all very simple to implement, and can be invaluable to extending your reach. With social media sites like Facebook, you are exponentially expanding your reach with each person that signs on as a fan or follows you. Plus, RSS comment feeds from places like Twitter allow your content to be picked up and republished just about anywhere, thus expanding your reach.

When investing in marketing directed towards audience growth, one of the most important rules of thumb to live by is that you should always be able to track your return on investment. At the very least, you should be able to get a good idea of how much of a response you are getting. Marketing of this type can be a double edged sword in that it has potential to grow your audience rapidly, or it can possibly end up as a gigantic waste of marketing dollars. You need to know which avenues are most successful at generating qualified leads in order to wisely invest your marketing dollars. If you can’t track it, it usually best to skip it.

Use coupons and gift certificates as a great way to encourage repeat business

3. Nurture existing customers:
This is very much related to step number one, but it is slightly different in that it speaks more specifically towards developing program-specific marketing methods to increase conversion rates and encourage repeat sales. Your program will eventually need to step out on it’s own in this regard. You cannot grow a program simply by piggybacking it onto your existing assets forever, and initiatives aimed specifically at growing the program are important. Tools that can aid in growing this part of your programs are things such as: online store recommended product suggestions, customer product reviews, new or seasonal products, a program-specific promotional newsletter or email, proper product key-wording for easier online store searchability, social media, and custom coupons and customer discounts.

The point is that nurturing existing customers is more than just communicating regularly with them, it is also about using all available tools in order to provide them with a reason to make a purchase. Whether it be an informative article about a certain product, a 10% off coupon code, or a newly added product, these things are all reasons to make a purchase. As you grow your email subscriber database, social media networks, and overall program visibility, be sure not only to make it easy for your customers to keep updated on your brand, but that they have a reason to come back and make multiple purchases. Be creative, and put yourself in your customers’ shoes. What would make you want to come back and make a second, third or fourth purchase?

Promotional licensing programs require a real commitment in all phases to function well, but one of the most critical phases is the marketing phase. You can create the best promotional licensed program, but if no one is purchasing your products, it is all for naught. That is why you want to be planning for how to market your program from the very beginning. To learn more about how to promote your promotional licensing program, give us a call today at (800) 588-7111. Email us at customerservice@powertexgroup.com or visit us at: http://www.powertexgroup.com.

Taking a look at what sorts of marketing strategies are right for you:

Powertex Blog

A lot has been written lately about the so-called modern day marketing methods. Blogs, social media, forums, email marketing, search engine marketing, etc. are all changing the face of promotional marketing so fast that it can make your head spin. There are promotional marketing firms that acclaim these new methods as the be-all-end-all solution to the marketing question. However, when you look at it, there is something to be said for the tried and true methods that have just plain worked for decades.

Each business has it’s own unique set of needs from a marketing perspective. What works well for one business can be the kiss of death for another. One thing, however, remains true throughout every industry: there is no substitute for a personal touch and positive word-of-mouth. In fact, in many industries, a majority of client contacts result from direct personal contact or referrals.

What does this mean? Primarily it means that, while electronic marketing solutions can and most certainly SHOULD be used, all alone they are still no substitute for the value of tried and true old-school methods. The value of sending a mass email, for example, can’t possibly compare to sending your client a personalized gift.

There is an important reason that Trade Shows still exist, and are important factors in the promotional marketing world today. There is little substitute for the face-to-face contact that these events offer. When you attend a trade show, and present a prospective client with a unique promotional item that will help to emblazon your name into their memory, it shows the power of building personal relationships between businesses.

Sample Promotional Items

Does this mean you should ignore high-tech marketing solutions? Absolutely not. They are an important method of promotional marketing. Often times they are a great way to cost-effectively communicate with your current or prospective client base. Having a well-tuned website, for example, is absolutely essential in introducing yourself to prospective clients. Many companies use modern marketing methods to near perfection, and see great benefits to doing so.

To be truly successful in the modern promotional marketing sphere, you need to embrace the old and the new. Often times, the best marketing programs combine the old with the new. The low-cost high speed modern methods have their place in making and keeping “touches” with your prospective clients, but at the end of the day, it’s the “personal touch” of tried-and-true marketing methods that cement relationships and grow businesses.

To learn more about what marketing methods are right for your company, contact Powertex. We can help you develop programs that will help you meet your marketing needs and grow your business. Give us a call today at (800) 588-7111, or email us at customerservice@powertexgroup.com. Visit us at: http://www.powertexgroup.com.